Please join us for a talk on Zoom by multidisciplinary artist Laia Abril. Laia will discuss key chapters of her long-term project A History of Misogyny.
A History of Misogyny is visual research undertaken through historical and contemporary comparisons.
In her first chapter On Abortion, Abril documents and conceptualises the dangers and damages caused by women’s lack of legal, safe and free access to abortion. Chapter 2, On Rape, aims to call out institutional rape culture prevalent in societies around the world. In Menstruation Myths, Abril questions what it means to be a woman within a society that ignores the menstrual calendar. Feminicides is an investigation of five killings that occurred in Réunion Island during 2019, produced in collaboration with journalist Lorraine de Foucher for Le Monde.
A chapter in-progress, Mass Hysteria, tries to visualize the language of the pain of female repression across history.
Abril’s earlier works have explored issues including eating disorders and sexuality.
The event forms part of NEPN’s SHIFTS programme, funded by Arts Council England.
Biography
Laia Abril is a multidisciplinary artist working with photography, text, video and sound in research-based projects. She is the author of Thinspiration (2012), The Epilogue (Dewi Lewis, 2014), Tediousphilia (Musée de l’Elysée, 2014), Lobismuller (RM, 2016) and On Abortion (Dewi Lewis, 2018) and collaborated as a creative editor in many publications as well as the staff of COLORS Magazine for 5 years. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in private collections and museums, such as the Centre Pompidou, Musée de l’Elysée, Fotomuseum Winterthur, FRAC, MNAC and FotoColectania. Her new long-term project A History of Misogyny has been granted with the 2016 Arles-Prix de la photo Madame Figaro, 2018 Visionary Award, the 2019 Magnum Foundation, 2019 Royal Photographic Society’s Hood Medal and 2020 FOAM Paul-Huf Award. Her book On Abortion won the 2018 Aperture-Paris Photo best book of the year and was a nominee of the Deutsche Börse Award. Abril is based in Barcelona and represented by the gallery Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris.