“This giant exaggerated female arm is a kind of spell that I’m trying to cast over the institution in terms of the possibility of the female body in the institutional space.”
“What does it mean for women to be under the reach of feminism, what does it mean to occupy an institution?”
As the contract between the artist and Kunsthal Gent reads: “Syllabus is simultaneously the space created by the curtain, the materials thereof, and all of the relational and temporal qualities of the artwork.” One of the conditions in the contract is that “… Kunsthal Gent shall host an activist reading group once every month for the duration of the loan. The syllabus for the reading group shall be set by Silvia Federici and Jesse Jones, and shall consist of selections from Federici’s works and others. Kunsthal Gent shall offer these texts for sale in the gallery in a single book bookshop.”
‘Other women’s flowers’, the Ghent-based book club that highlights women’s voices, will be the first activist reading group to be hosted in the monumental artwork. Also Engagement, an artist-led movement tackling sexual harassment, sexism and power abuse in the Belgian arts field will gather there. We gladly welcome new initiatives.
The work will remain visible as long as the conditions of the contract are respected. The contract is on view in the gallery, copies are available upon request.
The single book bookshop can be found at the desk of Kunsthal Gent. The first book on the list is a recent book by Silvia Federici: ‘Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women’ (2018).