Blitz, in collaboration with the French Embassy, will tomorrow hold an Art+Feminism ‘edit-a-thon’, a first for Malta. It will be hosted by Flora Katz, curator, art critic and organiser of three Art+Feminism edit-a-thons.
Art+Feminism is an international project aimed at improving content on women and the arts on Wikipedia and encouraging women’s participation. The project’s main event is an editing workshop – an edit-a-thon – that takes place over a number of days and brings people together to learn how to edit Wikipedia to create new articles and improve existing content on women and the arts. 2018 will mark the fifth year of the Art+Feminism project.
For tomorrow’s free public talk, Ms Katz will be presenting the 2017 Paris edition and discussing some of the issues at the core of the project. This edition took as its starting point the book by art historian and critic José Esteban Muñoz, Disidentifications: Queers of Colour and the Performance of Politics (1999).
In collaboration with artist Wu Tsang, the event focused on raising awareness and creating content on Wikipedia about queer of colour artists. It included an ephemeral library, performances and discussions around the theme, such as how art and Wikipedia can be a driving force to gather a community and act upon feminist issues, and what is at stake in the elaboration of an activist and co-creative project within artistic institutions.
Around 1,200 people attended the event, 38 articles were created and 152 edited. It was held at the Archives Nationales and produced by Lafayette Anticipations, Fondation d’Entreprise Galeries.
Flora Katz is an art critic, independent curator and PhD student at the ACTE Institute (CNRS/Université Paris 1 – La Sorbonne). She has worked at Centre Pompidou, at Bétonsalon – Centre d’Art et de Recherche, Paris, and Miguel Abreu Gallery in New York.
Currently collaborating with DOC! to co-run the Free University and Orange Rouge, Katz has curated projects at Lafayette Anticipations, Fondation Ricard, Instants Chavirés, Chez Treize. She writes for artists and sometimes for ArtPress and Mouvement. Most of her time is dedicated to research on Pierre Huyghe and philosophies related to the speculative realism umbrella.
Art+Feminism at Blitz is supported by French Embassy Malta, Wikimedia Community Malta, the University of Malta and Spazju Kreattiv.
Blitz is supported by the Arts Council Malta through a cultural partnership agreement.
The event is being held tomorrow from 7 to 9pm at Blitz, 68, Santa Luċija Street, Valletta.
Blitz will also be organising and hosting an Art+Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon from March 8 to 10 as part of a global event coinciding with International Women’s Day. The edit-a-thon will be led by an organising committee of experts and enthusiasts from across the cultural and educational sectors. The public is invited to participate. For more information, e-mail Nicole@thisisblitz.com, call 9991 3919 or 2122 4992 or visit http://thisisblitz.com .