When the Moon Waxes Red at Spazju Kreattiv showcases works from local and international artists. Audrey Rose Mizzi speaks with curator MAREN RICHTER to discuss this exhibition.
ARM: What inspired the title When the Moon Waxes Red and what’s your inspiration for this project?
MR: A red waxed moon in Chinese tradition announces big changes ahead. When the Moon Waxes Red, a book title for a collection of essays by Vietnamese filmmaker and theorist Trinh Minh-ha offering new challenges to Western regimes of knowledge, refers to this.
In the first essay, she connects the human paradoxical idea of ‘colonising the moon with the aim of coming closer to uniting the earth’ with re-reading the famous Asian mythological figure of the Chinese moon goddess Chang E in a feminist way.
An exhibit at 'When the Moon Waxes Red'.Trinh poetically argues for multicultural revision of knowledge so that a new politics can transform reality rather than merely ideologise it. Both the book and the meaning of the red waxed moon inspired me to think about an exhibition for Spazju Kreattiv related to climate change.
We undoubtedly live in times of substantial, probably irreversible crisis and unrest, in which the imbalance and collapse of nature is at the centre. Only recently the Mediterranean region has been declared one of the most vulnerable regions on earth with an expected rising temperature of 2.5 degrees Celsius until 2040. Today we are a little bit more aware that things are connected.
I wanted to propose an exhibition that reflects on the climate crisis by giving a voice specifically to the female perspective, dedicated to often unheard voices, and with the aim to also look at non-Western knowledge, narratives and stories.
Another of the exhibits.ARM: How would you describe ecofeminism, and why do you find it important to tackle it locally? Are there any other particular themes that you will be giving more significance to?
MR: Ecofeminism should be seen here as a point of departure to gather artworks seeking new tools and forms of knowledge to examine the (dis)connections between humans, non-humans and nature from the feminist/ queer perspective.
We undoubtedly live in times of substantial, probably irreversible crisis and unrest, in which the imbalance and collapse of nature is at the centre
Coined by French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974, ecofeminism aims to revalue non-patriarchal or nonlinear structures, and a view of the world that respects organic processes and holistic connections.
Ecofeminism sees climate change, gender inequality and social injustice more broadly as related issues. Its storytelling introduces non-human perspectives – the integration of other living beings’ ways of thinking.
The inspiration for the exhibition comes from a collection of essays by Vietnamese filmmaker and theorist Trinh Minh-ha
An exhibition that reflects on climate crisis.
Another installation view of the exhibition.
ARM: As curator, you have both international and local artists participating in this exhibition ‒ what did you look for and how did you go about diversifying the artworks?
MR: The exhibition will be an invitation to rethink our relationship with the oceans, nature, the more-than-human agencies and with all the other forms of life unfolding within it.
When the Moon Waxes Red combines works from around the world. The artists seek not only to awaken public consciousness to the realities of environmental exploitation and destruction, but also to question and to deconstruct traditional western patriarchal models, gender roles, and enduring colonial discourses.
The exhibition aims to invite its visitors to take part in a conversation about power, sovereignty, self-representation, and the reclaiming of a plurality of life choices and ways of living.
When the Moon Waxes Red is open for the public at Spazju Kreattiv until April 16. The exhibition catalogue is available from kreattivita.org.