The international group exhibition The Laugh of the Medusa focuses on the socio-cultural conditions of women, more specifically, how women experience their body and sexuality in the patriarchal world. The Laugh of the Medusa aims to offer alternatives to the image of women pervasive in the media and evoke different visions of what is appealing for the female gaze.
The exhibition’s name is adapted from the legendary essay by feminist author Hélène Cixous, titled “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1975). In this essay, Cixous encourages women to tell their own stories, to write down and express their bodily experiences and sexuality. The essay calls women to emancipate through writing about themselves, both to each other and publicly.
The artworks featured in the international group exhibition The Laugh of the Medusa invite to critically think of how women have been (art) historically subjected in a male-centred visual culture and are still represented in a conventional one-dimensional manner. The artists participating in the exhibition display perspectives of marginalized groups based on the artists’ own personal context and offer interpretations for emancipation.
Curator: Maria Helen Känd
Artists: Mehraneh Atashi (IRN/NL), Pauline Curnier Jardin (GER/FRA), Kris Lemsalu (EST), Ly Lestberg (EST), Young Joon Kwak (USA), Terje Ojaver (EST), Anna-Stina Treumund (EST), Salla Tykkä (FIN)
Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM)
Exhibition open: 27.10.2023 — 17.12.2023
