The idea of the exhibition as coven stems from our need to initiate a conversation within the personal and political experiences of the present, raising the question of the relationship between intersectional feminism and curatorial practice. For this, as curators, we wish to create the setting for the coexistence of multiple voices and identities, and to highlight the collective relationships in the conformation of our present quests.

Witchcraft is approached in a twofold way: on the one hand, it operates as an archetype of empowerment and point of reference for the feminist struggles, since it underlines the historical evolution of capitalism, colonization and patriarchy (Silvia Federici). On the other hand, it acts out as a metaphor for the gender and class aspects that characterize artistic production, in a way that it plays a key role in the decisions regarding the exhibition’s realization and the question of its autonomy. 

At the center of the artists’ interest are emotions and embodied experiences coming from systems of oppression. Their framework is transnational, whilst memories and imaginaries of collective action emerge, as well as possibilities of healing in micro-worlds open to change.

Coven was born in January 2020 through discussions about how to come close, exchange healing and supportive practices and make space for each other in new ways of conviviality within an art exhibition context.We decided to turn Coven into a journey from the online to the offline world and create a community of care beyond the limits of physical space through a series of workshops, conversations and reading groups that will eventually lead – covid permitting – to the exhibit’s realization at the Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research.

Thus, with the embracing of a feminist perspective outside the competitive environment of the dominant profit and non-profit cultural institutions, Coven as a concept wishes to embody the politics it dreams of.

Vassilia Kaga & Caterina Stamou