Crossing borders and other dividers in Western Europe and the British Isles

The task of charting artistic practices informed and motivated by feminism in a designated geographical area may be approached in two seemingly opposed but actually interconnected ways: as a flawed premise that would be in need of dismantling were it not already deconstructed; or as a provocation to entertain its (im)possibilities by attempting to trace rhizomes of shared questions, perspectives and practices. Taking the latter, more positive option surprisingly leads back to the former: the search for common ground reveals vital links and dialogues beyond the European border in a centrifugal spin. This chapter begins with an instance of the fundamental dialogue between European and North American feminisms, proceeds through a consideration of the decentering of gender in feminist art practices, and ends with a multi-lingual performance by a Greek artist on Turkish soil, in which both boundaries and their watery dissolution are put into play.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Wiley-Blackwell in "A Companion to Feminist Art" available in final form at https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/A+Companion+to+Feminist+Art-p-9781118929... . Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons. Permission granted September 2018 for the archiving of the accepted version of the text.