Shifted Identities: Female Self-Constructions from Socialism to Consumerism and In-Between

 The life and working situation of artists in the eastern and western parts of Europe were quite different during the period of the Cold War division, as was the social situation of women, and the construction of the “female”. However, women artists in both worlds had something in common: they were, albeit in different ways, seen as the “other” – different, out of the “normal”. As a consequence, they developed a variety of strategies in order to respond to the pressures of society and the art world. Using the examples of projects I curated together with colleagues from post-socialist countries, such as Slovenia, Serbia, Poland or Bulgaria, I will try to work out the different approaches and strategies of artists grown up in the different “Europes”.

Eva Ursprung is a freelance artist and curator who lives and works in Graz, Austria. She studied psychology and linguistics. Her work concentrates on video, conceptual photography and sound. She worked as a co-curator, together with Kathy Rae Huffman, for the exhibition [prologue] new feminism/new europe (Manchester Cornerhouse, 2005).