“Women and dissenting bodies are still uncomfortable for the big collections”, D-Generades conversations with Júlia Lull

The art historian, educator and feminist activist, Júlia Lull was commissioned with starting the third edition of the D-Generades seminar with the speech “Bastard daughters: bodies and dissents against the myth of beauty”, at the Disseny Hub.

Lull is a specialist in the theory of image. For 10 years, her work has focussed on the research of new methodologies of approaching images and in the design of education projects through the arts. She is also the mediation projects coordinator and on the team of educators at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. We talk with her about the impact of mediation with a feminist view in cultural facilities.

From the Museum where you work, the MNAC, how can art history be changed from the perspective of gender?

Since I arrived at the MNAC eight years ago, we have been trying to change the way in which history is explained to us. We work with the team of educators to create specific visits on gender, but that are also critical of the world around us. It has been a complex and demanding task because we haven’t always had the support of the institution itself. However. now, thanks to the persistence of the team and the Department of Education, we have a programme of visits for schools with a clear feminist and LGTBIQ+ positioning.

In my opinion, it is fundamental that these activities are at the centre of the museum because they are the first exercises that enable us to critique how the collections have been assembled, under which priorities and desires. What was intended to be taught and what has been neglected or directly hidden. Women and dissenting bodies are still an uncomfortable element for the big collections.It has still not been bravely accepted that our collective imagination has been hijacked by patriarchy, and that museums have the job of helping to free us from this submission.

So how can the role of female artists and their works be made visible?

Firstly, museums must review more deeply how the curatorial discourse of the permanent exhibition is constructed. It is not about exhibiting one or two female artists, but to make the collections also show the processes women have submitted to and how art has helped perpetuate this, as well as other points of oppression such as race and class.

A collection can be explained in many ways. We have to move away from discourses of the genius artist, of the styles or periods as hermetic boxes to explain a more social history of art which enables us to think about the world and think about ourselves. We cannot relegate feminist positionings to specific activities or temporary exhibitions. A mediation team trained in co-education and gender perspective is fundamental to accompany these awareness processes. Without good mediation, the work will never be completely effective.

You can see here the video of his speech at the conference.