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Guerrilla Girls in "Bodies of Knowledge" - Season 11 | Art21

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    -["Frida" VO] There's nothing worse than the word
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    "art appreciation."
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    It implies that you're
    just there awestruck,
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    and whatever you're
    being fed, you appreciate.
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    Art really is about
    discourse and about discussion.
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    -["Frida"] Do you have any
    ideas what museums could be?
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    -Decolonizing museums.
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    Like, not having stolen things.
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    -If your art is for the public,
    then the public should have a
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    right to express
    their opinions and views.
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    -As a young artist, like,
    sometimes I see things and,
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    like, get so frustrated and
    feel like nothing has changed.
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    ♪♪♪
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    -["Frida" VO]
    From the very beginning,
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    we have been
    fighting against sexism,
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    racism, and the death
    hold that wealthy people
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    and wealthy institutions
    have on art and culture.
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    -40 million dollars, 1-5-0-6.
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    -The Guerrilla Girls will
    complain about anything that
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    pisses them off, and they always
    do it in an unexpected way.
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    -[Coco VO] What the artist has
    to say about things other than
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    his or her art has not always
    been considered that important
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    by the arbiters
    of the art world.
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    And the Guerrilla Girls were
    at the forefront of doing that
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    starting in the 1980s.
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    -[Frances] The power of the Guerrilla
    Girls' work was that whenever I
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    looked at their
    material, I felt implicated.
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    It wasn't somebody else's
    problem, it was my problem.
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    ♪♪♪
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    -["Frida"] I'm one of
    the founding members of the
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    Guerrilla Girls, and I've
    been involved in just about
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    everything the Guerrilla
    Girls have done since 1985.
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    I'm kind of a lifer.
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    But I am, in my
    real life, an artist.
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    -["Käthe"] And I'm also a
    founder of the Guerrilla Girls
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    and also a lifelong
    political artist.
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    ♪elegant orchestral music♪
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    In fall of 1984, the Museum of
    Modern Art did this exhibition
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    – an international survey
    of painting and sculpture.
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    There were 169
    artists in the show,
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    and only 17 women, and
    very few artists of color.
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    And women artists in New
    York were really pissed off.
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    ♪aggressive rock music♪
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    -["Frida"] We were educated
    to sort of respect all
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    the institutions and the people
    that were making decisions and
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    the people who were
    writing art history,
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    but it dawned on us that it was
    filled with its own biases and
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    limitations.
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    -["Käthe"] We're marching
    in a picket line in front of
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    the Museum of Modern Art, and
    we realize not one person going
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    into the museum cares.
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    [music slows to a stop]
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    And that was the "aha" moment.
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    It was so clear that
    there had to be a better way
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    to convince people and
    make them understand how much
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    discrimination there really was
    – both racism and sexism –
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    in the art world.
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    ♪moody synth music♪
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    -Most of the women who are doing
    all the bitching are completely talentless.
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    For example, like,
    the top women artists,
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    you don't hear them making these
    embarrassing feminist pleas.
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    -["Frida"] The more we
    looked at the numbers,
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    we realized that there was a
    systematic elimination of women
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    and artists of color from the
    so-called mainstream of the art world.
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    -[Guerrilla Girl] What does it
    mean that museums are getting
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    subsidies and have no
    obligations to be ethnically diverse?
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    -["Frida"] We thought it
    would be really important to
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    just state the facts
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    and see what people
    did with the facts.
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    We met at my loft, and we were
    just a hodgepodge of artists.
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    We called ourselves "the
    Guerrilla Girls" because we had
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    to become anonymous to
    say what was obvious.
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    ♪♪♪
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    Kathë and I came up
    with the two first posters.
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    The very first poster was this
    list of male artists who allowed
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    their work to be shown in
    galleries that showed fewer than
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    10 percent women or none at all.
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    -[Kathë VO] When one
    worked, we would do another.
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    When another worked,
    we would do another.
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    The facts are a hugely
    important part of it.
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    But also, we had this
    kind of outrageous,
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    in-your-face design and crazy
    headlines that you couldn't
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    totally ignore.
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    We passed the hat
    around to pay for printing.
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    We were sneaking around New
    York in the middle of the night
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    putting these things up.
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    And people saw them
    and all hell broke loose.
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    ♪energizing
    electronic music♪
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    We mostly did them in
    SoHo and the East Village,
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    which were the big art
    neighborhoods of that time.
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    So we put these posters up on
    the gallery windows right below
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    the name of the gallery.
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    ♪♪♪
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    -["Frida" VO] It was so
    exciting to go out the next day
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    and to see a
    dialogue being ignited.
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    ♪♪♪
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    I remember a gallery director
    came by with her son,
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    and he singsong-edly sang,
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    "Mommy, why is
    your name up there?"
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    [laughs]
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    -If you look at the art schools,
    at least half of them are women.
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    So what happens to these women?
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    Where do they go?
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    But that's not the art
    world discriminating,
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    that's their choices.
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    ♪ethereal synth music♪
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    -["Frida" VO] The advantages
    of being a woman artist:
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    Working without
    the pressure of success.
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    Not having to be
    in shows with men.
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    Having a relief from the art
    world with your four freelance jobs.
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    Being reassured
    that whatever work you make,
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    it will be labeled "feminine."
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    Knowing your career might
    pick up after you're 80.
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    Over the years, about 60 people
    were in and out of the group.
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    Collaboration was
    wonderful when it worked.
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    It was painful
    when it didn't work.
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    We didn't understand
    where it would go,
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    but we knew that
    what we were saying,
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    moment to moment,
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    was something
    that was irrefutable.
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    ♪♪♪
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    -I'm kind of new on the
    scene here but I love it.
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    -["Frida"] Well, do you ever
    think to count how many women,
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    how many artists of color?
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    -[woman] Oh, absolutely.
    -["Frida"] Yeah.
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    And does that change
    your attitude or your idea?
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    -[woman] It has a
    lot, and the idea,
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    I think that's
    why maybe my
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    mother and grandmother were
    never really that interested.
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    Because they didn't see anything
    that was done by people that
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    looked like them.
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    ♪sparse ethereal music♪
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    -["Frida" VO] I always
    felt distance from the
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    socioeconomics in the art world.
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    I grew up in Pittsburgh
    in a working-class family.
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    There was a lot of trauma in
    my family with parents dying
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    and getting sick, and I
    had a lot to take care of,
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    so I really never felt
    the freedom to rebel
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    in my adolescence.
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    -["Käthe" VO] I grew
    up in New York City.
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    I was an activist in my teens,
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    and I got kicked out of college
    for being in a demonstration,
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    and that kind of
    pushing the envelope
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    has always been my life, and
    it's always been the kind of art
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    I do.
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    ♪♪♪
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    -["Frida"] I was always
    uncomfortable with this idea
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    that there was a
    level playing field,
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    because it was not my experience
    in life or in the art world.
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    So the minute I felt
    the freedom to criticize it,
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    it was wonderful, it was great,
    it opened up a whole part of my brain.
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    ♪quirky upbeat music♪
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    -["Käthe"] I couldn't stop.
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    I can't explain why,
    but I couldn't stop.
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    And it became as important to
    me as anything else I did in my life.
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    ♪♪♪
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    -["Käthe"] Those of us who
    were unfairly left out of
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    the system, it was like
    a breath of fresh air.
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    It was so-- it seemed
    daring, it seemed exciting,
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    and the people on the
    posters were really pissed off.
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    -[Guerrilla Girl] They now feel
    they have to contend with us as
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    a power.
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    And it's very bizarre to be at a
    point where I get more respect
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    with a gorilla mask on
    than I get with it off.
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    ♪energetic percussion♪
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    -[Frances VO] In 2006, we
    had, at The Tate Modern,
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    a small room with a group of
    the Guerrilla Girls' posters.
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    But I was put on the back foot
    by journalists grilling me about
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    precisely what the Guerrilla
    Girls were charging us with –
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    lack of representation
    of women artists,
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    lack of diversity –
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    and I had no way
    of responding.
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    My inability to respond was
    published in The Guardian.
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    I felt profoundly
    exposed, profoundly embarrassed.
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    And in that moment, the
    Guerrilla Girls' wonderful pink
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    letter really resonated with me
    -- that idea that I had agency
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    in this and I had to
    take some responsibility.
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    -["Frida" VO]
    [echoing] Dearest art collector,
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    it has come to our
    attention that your collection,
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    like most, does not
    contain enough art by women.
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    We know that you feel
    terrible about this
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    and will rectify the
    situation immediately.
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    All our love, Guerrilla Girls.
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    -[Frances VO] About a year later, I took over
    the leadership of building the
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    international collection,
    and I presented a strategy to
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    massively broaden the
    diversity of the collection,
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    and to really address the
    representation of women.
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    That moment with the
    Guerrilla Girls was profoundly influential.
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    ♪♪♪
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    -["Frida" VO] There are
    wonderful individuals on the
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    inside trying to change things.
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    But there is a
    corporate, capitalist,
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    institutional structure that's
    connected to much larger forces.
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    -["Zubeida"] Right now, art
    institutions do not get enough
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    government funding, and so
    they're reliant on individuals
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    to donate to them to make
    art exhibitions happen.
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    A lot of the people are very
    wealthy individuals for whom art
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    is an investment asset, and so
    they will support exhibitions
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    that raise the value of
    their art collection.
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    I feel like in
    any other industry,
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    that would be considered
    insider trading or something,
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    but it's not.
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    -["Frida" VO] [echoing]
    Guerrilla Girls' Code of Ethics
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    for Art Museums:
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    Thou shalt not give more than
    three retrospectives to any
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    artist whose dealer is the
    brother of the chief curator.
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    Thou shalt provide lavish
    funerals for women and artists
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    of color, who thou planneth to
    exhibit only after their death.
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    -[Käthe VO] We did a whole
    series of these posters.
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    After many years, we thought it
    would be great to do an updated
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    version and build
    the actual monument
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    and drag it around to every
    museum we could possibly get to.
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    -["Frida" VO] [echoing] Thou
    shalt honor all thine employees,
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    never undermine
    their efforts to unionize,
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    and pay them a living wage.
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    Thou shalt banish board members
    who make the world a worse place.
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    If thou exhibiteth
    super-expensive art bought at
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    super-fancy galleries and
    donated by super-rich collectors
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    for super-big tax deductions,
    thou must renameth thyself
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    The Museum of
    Super-Rich People's Art.
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    -[Käthe] Everybody,
    this is a monument we think
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    needs to be outside
    every single museum.
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    So who wants to talk?
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    -The public has
    no say whatsoever;
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    they just go and
    look at the art.
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    What these museums are doing is
    they've basically turned it into
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    a business.
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    -[Käthe] You are now
    an honorary Guerrilla Girl.
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    -[man] Oh, really?
    -[Käthe] Yes.
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    -Thank you.
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    -Now, I think, in a lot
    of these institutions,
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    they've, like, clung onto the
    fact that it's trendy to be,
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    like, putting art out there that
    is promoting social justice,
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    but when you look at what
    they're actually doing in
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    practice, it doesn't
    support those ideals.
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    -["Frida"] Oh, I agree.
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    We think that trustees should
    be chosen who make the world a
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    better place.
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    What did you see in
    the museum today?
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    -Oh, we didn't go in.
    -We are yet to go in.
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    -We came to meet you first.
    -["Frida"] [gasps]
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    -Yeah.
    -["Frida"] Oh, that's so great!
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    -[woman] Yeah, we saw
    it on your Instagram!
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    -["Frida"]
    Thank you so much!
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    -I consider my
    art Guerrilla art.
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    Well, like, I, like, put a
    poster up in my city in India
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    and stuff like that
    about mental health.
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    -["Frida"] That's wonderful!
    -["Käthe"] Fantastic.
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    -This is great.
    Oh my gosh.
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    -[woman] Thank you,
    thank you so much!
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    -I took, like, 15.
    -Aw, thank you.
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    -["Käthe"] We've been so
    lucky that people all over the
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    world want our work.
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    ♪ambient
    oscillating synths♪
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    -["Zubeida" VO] The
    Guerrilla Girls' work has always
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    been statistics.
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    People don't believe you unless
    you show them the numbers.
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    ♪♪♪
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    Without the numbers, you really
    have a false sense of diversity.
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    -["Frida" VO] For the
    last 20, 25, 30 years,
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    we get people saying to us,
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    "I never knew this before."
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    Our stuff is easy to understand,
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    and then you take off with it on your own.
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    -I've been teaching
    now for almost 30 years.
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    I make sure that my students are
    aware of the Guerrilla Girls' contributions.
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    They get museum
    shows in Europe,
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    not so much in
    the United States.
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    I think that that's an
    indication of the resistance
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    still to the practice and to the
    message of the Guerrilla Girls,
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    despite the fact that
    there are probably, you know,
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    200 art history majors writing
    papers on them right now.
  • 15:11 - 15:14
    -["Zubeida" VO] One of the
    most exciting things for me has
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    been the shift where the younger
    generation are learning about
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    the Guerrilla Girls earlier
    and earlier -- in high school,
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    or they saw the
    work on social media.
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    It gives me a lot of hope.
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    It gives me a lot of hope.
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    -["Frida"] Bye-bye!
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    And I hope you find things
    that you love to look at!
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    Can't we think about
    art as not being about
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    winners, but about something
    that we all need in our lives?
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    Thank you so much, and good
    luck with your own work!
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    -[man] This is a big
    moment in my life!
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    Yay!
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    -["Frida"] There are so
    many cultural traditions where
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    art is collective, and
    it's done in a community,
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    and artists work together.
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    They might do individual work,
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    but they somehow present a
    kinder idea of what it means
  • 15:57 - 15:59
    to have a creative life.
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    ♪♪♪
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    ["Käthe"] Come over!
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    ♪ ethereal ambient music ♪
Title:
Guerrilla Girls in "Bodies of Knowledge" - Season 11 | Art21
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Art in the Twenty-First Century" broadcast series
Duration:
16:42

English subtitles

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