Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates the entanglements of female political aesthetics, reproductive rights and the political by exploring the 2022 exhibition “Who Will Write the History of Tears. Artists on Women’s Rights” at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.

Paper long abstract:

Tabooed, stigmatized or prohibited: For decades a debate has raged over abortion. Especially today, in times of rising populism, anti-genderism and religious fundamentalism, the battle for reproductive rights is being waged all over the world and the contested approach to abortion serves as a seismograph for transformations underway in contemporary societies. In 2022, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw hosted "Who Will Write the History of Tears", an exhibition articulating new and transformative relationships between female aesthetics, reproductive rights and repressive laws. The architecture of the exhibition and the presented works underlined the arduous process of women’s pursuit of their rights, especially from Argentina, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United States, countries that have become the site of mass protests and heated public debate. The exclusively female artists refer to real stories and affects such as anger, and include in their aesthetic expressions a broad spectrum of visual and poetic references, images and symbols, conveying the complexity of experiencing pregnancy and abortion. Drawing on theoretical approaches to politics of aesthetics, movement framing, and affects as practice, the paper explores the relationship between art (exhibition), reproduction and the political within the framework of a transnational feminist pro-choice movement. The paper situates the artistic contributions within the (trans)forming feminist legal discourse on reproduction by analyzing the female works as (1) articulations of new subjectivities within the prevailing legal orders and their authors as potential idea generators of new dissensual legal orders, (2) tools of affective woman-centred productive power, and (3) expressions of gendered solidarity for reproductive justice and their implications for feminist mobilizations in times of uncertainty and risk.