EXHIBITION : ELLES@CENTREPOMPIDOU

The new hang of the permanent collection at the Pompidou Centre is devoted entirely to women artists, bringing together the work of over 500 women artists and giving them the run of 8000 m2 of the museum. A section of the show deals with the institution of the museum and women's relationship to it. Performance artist, Andrea Fraser appears in her iconic 1989 film Museum Highlights, where she poses as a museum tour guide and Karen Knorr's photographs, from the series Gentleman, explore the role of institutions through representations of conservative London club interiors. The result of the under-representation of women in the arts and in museums is that the female version of 20th-century art seems to be centered around the struggle for equality and the struggle for a vision - and a femininity - defined by women. Orlan, Jana Sterbak and Sigalit Landau deal with the representation of the female form, while Vallie Export and Elke Krystufek try to reconfigure and reclaim the representation of female genitalia in art. As a sick foil to this part of the show, the sections ‘Domestic' and 'Family' seem somewhat mocking. Despite these contradictions elles@centrepompidou achieves its aim - to bring the position and work of women artists in to the spotlight. CR