Gender in Art

Body, sexuality, identity, resistance

Situated in the heart of Lisbon the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), established in the 20^th century, normally has a lot to offer with its concentrate of Portuguese artists but its latest exhibition Gender in Art was anything but satisfying.

Focusing on today’s gender role problems, the exhibition tries to embrace and involve the fact that gender isn’t something that everyone possesses but more something that society builds up over time. The exhibition tries to break that line that separates us by showing a diversity of artists who aren’t afraid to be gender fluid. By doing this the terms we today use become transparent before the art pieces.      

“Gender is a sociocultural construction of identity imposed by social norms with the aim of transforming people into women or men while having real consequences in their lives, namely in the access to wealth, prestige and power. But this construction of distinct gender roles is simultaneously a personal choice that results in a broad and fluid range of gender identities, such as heterosexuality, lesbianism, homosexuality, transsexuality, intersexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism, among others, thus becoming an act of freedom, diversity and individual expression.”

This text is what was given as a brief explanation of the exhibition, even though it explains perfectly what the overall idea behind it was, it left me a little confused as to what the actual pieces inside the exhibition were, I was then told that the exhibition consisted of four smaller exhibitions inside but there was no pamphlet to help guide you through the exhibition which in turn made everything a little more difficult than necessary.

As I took my first steps through the perculiar door which guides you into the exhibition space, I was already confused, not only were we stepping into a piece of the exhibition (I think), but there was no clear indication that we were in fact already in the exhibition; it just looked like some words had been painted on a wall, I personally didn’t see where the art was in that piece, it just looked like an ordinary wall.

As soon as you walked away from the weird wall there were three rooms, one was pitch black with some sort of film playing that held my interest for a mere two minutes, the room opposite to that the most interesting room of the entire exhibition. At first glance you see a big photo of two very naked men in bondage covering the full wall and next to that scattered on some circus like podiums was what looked like torturing equipment. I quite like this piece it put men in the position which was more natural for women to be in. Reversed the roles.

The next couple of pieces from different artists felt like they didn’t belong, like someone had found some paintings that were in some way related to sex and put them there because it kind of fitted into the idea behind the exhibition. The whole choice of what art pieces went into the show overall felt rushed and kind of put together last minute. The remainder of the exhibition consisted of mostly paintings and photography, paintings of women with beards, men who were porn stars, and statues shaped like genitals.   

The overall layout was complicated, I didn’t know where one artists exhibition began and the other ended, I honestly felt rather lost. The actual art pieces weren’t awful but weren’t great either, it was honestly just too perplexing. The art pieces seemed scattered and misplaced throughout the museum and there was no smooth transition or connection between the pieces.

As I stood there, imagination captured by some of the bizarre pieces I concluded that this exhibition had so much potential, yet it failed before my eyes. And that truly annoys me, an exhibition like this which is clearly trying to put out a message and teach whoever sees it, about gender fluidity fails to make a point. If it had better and more art pieces that were more interesting and even more bizarre and better organised, more organisation and better guidance throughout the show, it could have succeeded in a much better manner. Some publicity wouldn’t have hurt either, I hadn’t heard about the exhibition anywhere.