About The Feminist Reading Group at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

The first meeting was held at Christina Prip's place in January of this year (1997). Kirstine Roepstorff had taken the initiative. Over twenty women-most from the Academy, but also theorists, gallery owners, and practicing artists-were there.

This first meeting gave a sense of the great interest that this topic would generate. During the following meetings a certain confusion presented itself. What should we go into? We didn't feel like hearing about each other's bad experiences. Some wanted to take action directly rather than read. Practical things like making copies of texts were also expensive, etc.

Gradually a certain continuity settled in. Maria Finn told about Simone De Beauvoir's authorship. I reported on Nina Björk's book Under det Rosa Täcket. Sanne Kofod went through texts by Lacan. It turned out that all of us, each in her own area, was fairly well-read and had something to inform the others about.

But it wasn't until Laura Cottingham's two-week seminar, arranged by Airconditon at the Art Academy, that the group accquired a broad collection and thorough knowlege.

Through Cottingham's presentation of American feminist artists and Kirsten Justesen's presentation of Danish ones, we quickly acquired an extremely good historical orientation.

The reading group has continued to meet after Cottingham's seminar, but we have become more focused on our own situation. It has therefore been natural for us to discuss our own artistic or art-related work in order to find points of common interest and starting points for further dialog.

What is perhaps most important of all is that everyone in the group has spoken to others, so that the interest and awareness has spread.

It is not possible at this early stage to say whether this has meant, or will mean, any kind of change, but it is not entirely impossible that the appointment of the Academy's second female professor in 250 year, Ursula Reuter-Christiansen (the first was Vibeke Mencke-Nielsen in the department of graphics), happened as a result of increased awareness of this revealing fact.

Interest in the feminist question has also generated other projects more or less connected to the reading group.

The Academy's student council awarded Christina Prip and myself 20,000 crowns for a book on gender and art (which is being written now).

A group of women was invited to stage a happening on the theme "Women in Bars" at the bar The Moose last April. We chose to interpret the invitation literally, invited as many women as we could, served food and beer, Malin Waak was the DJ, and the performance artist Jannike Grut performed.

We have once again been invited to participate as a group in an arrangement held by the Danish Women's Society on Culture Night. This time we have chosen to present our own works rather than a collective project.

The reading group has helped to strengthen the network between women in the art world, which has obviously been needed. We have defined ourselves. The interesting thing now is how we will go forward with the tools we have acquired.

Åsa Sonjasdotter