Centrala presents a group exhibition 100 Years, So What? by Polish multimedia artists: Małgorzata Dawidek, Iwona Demko, Dorota Hadrian, Zofia Krawiec, Katarzyna Perlak, Alicja Rogalska and SIKSA.
2018 marks the centenary of women gaining voting rights in many countries around the world including Poland and the UK. Artists show their works that enter into a dialogue on what this centenary means for women now, through the new mediums of avant-garde art.
‘’...today’s world needs transgression from the growing level of inequality and injustice. The centenary of women’s emancipatory work in Poland, since obtaining the rights for voting, is the centenary that mirrors the ability of humanity to get rid of one of these injustices, the gender inequality, perhaps get rid of gender in general.’’
(Urszula (Ulla) Chowaniec)
Alicja Kaczmarek said “Through the artists’ works we will create reflection of what these 100 years of women’s emancipation really mean. Is feminism in contemporary Europe more than a trend? Have we really achieved what the successive generations of women were fighting for? Have things really changed so much over the past century?”
The title of the exhibition includes a sceptical “so what?” However, despite all these doubts and concerns the message is far from being pessimistic – provoking perhaps, a bit angry, most of all it reflects on achievements, failures and neglects over a hundred years of women’s civil independence. The exhibition examines the contemporary innovative and experimental women’s art as a channel towards radical redefinition of the position of women in politics, society, family, or history.
A natural development of the exhibition is the Instagram account @100yearssowhat led by Polish feminist artist and writer Zofia Krawiec. We encourage girls and women from around the world to tell us what women’s rights means for them today using the hashtag #100yearsSOWHAT