Feminist Duration: A Reading Group on Feminisms, Consciousness-Raising and Leave-Taking

Feminist Duration 
A Reading Group on Feminisms, Consciousness-Raising and Leave-Taking 

Tue 11 August,  7pm 
at SPACE

This monthly reading group considers the resonance of earlier moments of feminist thinking, art and activism in contemporary life. Juxtaposing texts from the 1970s and 1980s with current positions, the group highlights feminist concepts of intimacy, communication and collectivity. The relevance of the practice of consciousness-raising, or autocoscienza within Italian feminism, is explored. Might a return to such tactics help us to combat the exhaustion, fragmentation and anxiety that we experience under networked capitalism today? What are the potentials, and pitfalls, of such collective processes of talking, listening, and analysing? 

Texts from outside the Anglo-American feminist tradition will be sought out. These include the works of Italian feminists Luisa Muraro and Carla Lonzi. Lonzi’s accounts of her exit from the women’s movement, the art world, and her intimate relationship with the artist Pietro Consagra, are key reference points, opening up questions about leave-taking and affective withdrawal as feminist tactics. 

Please email for details and readings to: h.reckitt@gold.ac.uk and for directions: persilia@spacestudios.org.uk

The Feminist Duration Reading Group builds on the research symposium Feminist Duration in Art and Curating that took part in Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, in March 2015.  

The Reading Group is part of a series of events – some public, others more intimate and unprofessionalised – that will culminate in a weekend of public activities in London in December 2015.