Women in the Visual Arts

Women's Views Biennial 2018 arises with hope, strength, and renewed spirits to show the creative potential of women and the marks it leaves on our state's art system and internationally.

From March to December 2018, the Women's Views Biennial will bring together initiatives that make women and gender issues a source for reflection, debate and creation.

The association Mujeres en las Artes Visuales (MAV, Women in the Visual Arts) was established on 9 May 2009. Over the years it has launched many initiatives, including three editions of the Miradas de Mujeres or Women’s Views Festival from 2012 to 2014.

Honouring our commitment to continually review and improve the association’s procedures and aims, at a general meeting in June 2014 MAV members voted to adopt a new model: a biennial festival, with alternate years devoted to reflection and debate.

To this end, MAV has already organised two editions of its FORUM, FMM2015 in Barcelona and Madrid, and FMM2017 in Madrid and Seville. This event is an opportunity to share ideas and projects with other feminist art associations from Spain and across the globe.

The first biennial, BMM2016, took place from March to December 2016 and featured 168 initiatives and activities that embraced women and gender as catalysts of reflection, debate and creativity, highlighting female talent from Latin America to Saudi Arabia and different regions across Spain.

With a working method based on best practices throughout the entire production process, in the broadest sense of the term, and a horizontal working structure, the inaugural BMM-2016 offered a programme of events in diverse formats united by the common thread of feminism.

MAV sponsored the production of five projects: two from Latin America, one from Saudi Arabia and two from Madrid. The authors, chosen from among the 159 candidates who responded to our open international call for proposals, were also given a chance to present their work at different venues in Madrid.

Additionally, the biennial welcomed over 160 guest projects organised by institutions, galleries, schools, foundations, museums, etc. The sum of these creative proposals resulted in a diverse, high-quality programme, which proved that networking and rallying round common interests drives creative activity, and the women who engage in it, to go above and beyond, promoting other modes of cooperation and participation.