The Showroom
Exhibition

Alex Martinis Roe: To Become Two

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26 April – 10 June 2017
Preview: Tuesday 25 April, 6.30–8.30pm

The 6 films run continuously on loop. Please allow 2 hours to see all 6 films, including Our Future Network which is 54 minutes long.

The Showroom presents To Become Two, a new film installation by Berlin-based artist Alex Martinis Roe that stems from her ongoing engagement with international feminist communities and their political practices.

Across six films To Become Two traces the stories of six different, yet connected, feminist groups from the 1970s to the present who have built communities in Europe and Australia. These include The Milan Women's Bookstore co-operative; Psychanalyse et Politique, Paris; Women's Studies at the University of Utrecht; a network in Sydney including people involved in the Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative, Feminist Film Workers, and the Department of General Philosophy at Sydney University; and Duoda - Centro de investigación de Mujeres and Ca La Dona in Barcelona.

By using various methods such as participant observation, oral history interviewing, and archival research, Martinis Roe offers proposals for how to grapple with contemporary society through feminist methodologies. For the final film, Our Future Network (2016), Martinis Roe established a new network to explore these histories and what can be transferred into methods for collective working now, which resulted in the development of twenty propositions for feminist collective political practices.

At The Showroom, the project will further evolve with a programme of events and workshops led by Martinis Roe. In the workshops, contributors will undertake a series of exercises that expand on proposals shared in the Our Future Network film to culminate in a final public event where participants will enact new propositions for feminist practices with an emphasis on practices of alliance, which bridge different positions and political projects that nevertheless have compatible objectives.

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Programme:

Thursday 18 May, 7–9pm: An introduction to To Become Two
Alex Martinis Roe presents the project in conversation with Helena Reckitt, Senior Lecturer in Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London, and participant in Our Future Network.

Friday 19 / Saturday 20 / Tuesday 23 May, 6–9pm: Three-part workshop
Registration for this workshop has now closed.
Over three sessions, participants will undertake a series of exercises that expand on proposals generated in the Our Future Network film project to develop further propositions for new feminist political practices. These workshops will culminate in a public event on Saturday 27 May where participants will enact their collective proposals.

Monday 22 May, 6–9pm: Open session
Registration for this workshop has now closed.
A one-off workshop for those interested in learning more about the project. Participants will explore some of the political practices narrated in the film installation through discussion-based exercises and collective experiments.

Saturday 27 May, 2–6pm: Public salon
Free, no booking required
A public salon where the propositions for new feminist practices developed during workshops at The Showroom will be presented. These propositions will depart from the historical practices explored in the To Become Two film series, extended and adapted by the workshop contributors according to their needs and contexts.

Alex Martinis Roe To Become Two is co-commissioned by ar/ge kunst (Bolzano); Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, (Utrecht); If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution (Amsterdam) and The Showroom (London). The accompanying workshops and performances are co-commissioned by the Keir Foundation. The project was produced with the support of the Graduiertenschule der Universität der Künste Berlin and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, and its arts funding and advisory body. At The Showroom the exhibition is supported by Creative Victoria. The project was also presented at Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe) 8 September – 26 November 2017.

Exhibition design in collaboration with Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga. Poster series in collaboration with Chiara Figone. To Become Two has been produced with the support of curator Susan Gibb.

With thanks to Ismail Ali: Project ALCHEMY, Mercedes Vilardell, Paddington Development Trust, St Paul's Church and Community Centre, Chisenhale Gallery, Gasworks, Lisson Gallery and Matt’s Gallery for exhibition support at The Showroom.

  1. 1_alex_martinis_roe_for_newsletter
    Event To Become Two: Public salon

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    Event Cinenova: Now Showing

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    Audio To Become Two: Alex Martinis Roe in conversation with Helena Reckitt