DARK ENERGY. Feminist Organizing, Working Collectively

Like the universe, the realm of cultural production consists mostly of dark energy and matter. ¹ These invisible masses and movements form from spontaneous, amateurish, autonomous, activist, self-organized, collective practices that play an important part for feminist cultural work. This is also a matter of the unpaid or underpaid labor of those who deliberately shun visibility or have no choice but to remain invisible. It is the invisible dark matter that keeps the cultural sector going!

DARK ENERGY. Feminist Organizing, Working Collectively explores feminist forms of organization and knowledge production in the cultural sector. It gives center stage to the visual, material and performative characteristics of feminist collaborative practices. It asks how these forms of organization and production are influenced by their general economic setup and what begins to sway politically in this context. Which forms of creative dark matter and knowledge can be practiced, produced, and disseminated when, where, and how?

The exhibition brings together a diverse range of efforts that tackle these questions in different contexts and times. Through the work of the participating artists, archivists, designers, and activists the exhibition provides insights from feminist, queer, decolonizing perspectives into the forces that collide with(in) art institutions and organizations.

¹ Gregory Sholette, Dark Matter. Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture, London: Pluto Press 2011.