About

The Feminist Duration Reading Group (FDRG) focuses on under-represented feminist texts, movements and struggles from outside the Anglo-American canon. The group has developed a practice of reading out loud, together, one paragraph at a time, with the aim of creating a sense of connection and intimacy during meetings.

The group was established in March 2015 by Helena Reckitt, at Goldsmiths, University of London, to explore texts from the Italian feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Later in 2015 it relocated to SPACE in Hackney, East London where it was hosted by Persilia Caton until April 2019. From June 2019 to February 2020 the group was in residence at the South London Gallery, where it focused on intersectional feminisms in the UK context (a planned year-long programme that was moved online due to COVID-19).

In 2023 we were one of several groups selected for the eighteen month Residents programme at Goldsmiths CCA, London.

From 2023-2024 FDRG partnered with Cell Project Space developing CEED (Central East European and Diaspora) Feminisms, funded by the British Art Network, with Cell Project Space.

FDRG sessions have been organised with Emilia-Amalia at Art Metropole in Toronto; Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof and HFBK Hamburg, Germany; in London with the Advocacy Academy, Artangel, Barbican Art Gallery, Cell Project Space, Chelsea Space, Chisenhale Gallery, the Drawing Room, Flat Time House, Goldsmiths CCA, Mimosa House, Mosaic Rooms, The Showroom, South Kiosk, Studio Voltaire, Tate Modern, in collaboration with AntiUniversity and the Department of Feminist Conversations, and as part of The Table at the Swiss Church. Elsewhere in the UK we have been hosted by Grand Union and Eastside Projects, Birmingham, esea, Manchester, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, and Hypatia Trust, Penzance.  A sister group, NW FDRG, was set up in Liverpool by Kezia Davies in 2019.        

Six members of the FDRG - Giulia Casalini, Diana Georgiou, Laura Guy, Helena Reckitt, Irene Revell, and Amy Tobin - organised the two-week long events programme, ‘Now Can Go,’ focused on legacies of Italian feminism, across the ICA, The Showroom, SPACE, and Raven Row, in December 2015.  

The group usually meets once a month, in art spaces and community venues as well as non-institutional venues such as private homes or gardens.

The FDRG aims to create an inclusive trans-positive space. We welcome feminists of all genders and generations to explore the legacy and resonance of art, thinking and collective practice from earlier periods of feminism, in dialogue with contemporary practices and movements.

Working Group

FDRG sessions are initiated by a Working Group. Current members are Beth Bramich, Sabrina Fuller, Taey Iohe, Helena Reckitt, and Dot Zhihan.

Support Group

FDRG activities are supported by a Support Group comprising former Working Group members Lina Džuverović, Mariana Lemos, Katrin Lock, and Ehryn Torrell.

Other former Working Group members are Giulia Antonioli, Angelica Bollettinari, Lily Evans-Hill, Félicie Kertudo, Ceren Özpinar, Sara Paiola, Justin Seng, and Fiona Townend.

Working with the FDRG: A Note for Institutions

The FDRG is run by members of the voluntary Working and Support Groups. We regularly partner with community and arts organizations to offer free events to the public.

The reading group is our collective practice that we enjoy and like sharing with others. Facilitating sessions does of course involve considerable time and effort. We also have running costs for web hosting and communication, invited speaker fees etc.

We understand financial constraints within the cultural sector, but appreciate any contributions that support our efforts.

The FDRG operates an ‘Honesty Box,’ and asks funded organisations to pay what they can.

For organisations who can access funding, we suggest a fee of £300 - £600 per session, depending on the scope of work entailed.  This roughly follows the a-n artist payment guidelines for 1-1.5 days for an artist with seven years professional experience (the FDRG was set up in 2015).

Collaborators and Partners

FDRG sessions have been led by Adomas Narkevicius, Ximena Alarcón-Díaz, Giulia Antonioli, Diana Baker Smith, Fari Bradley, Beth Bramich, Giulia Casalini, Laura Castagnini, Catherine Cho, Leah Clements, Morgane Conti, Lauren Craig, Cinzia Cremona, Galit Criden, Giulia Damiani, Oana Damir, Kezia Davies, Department of Feminist Conversations, Flora Dunster, Lina Džuverović, Lily Evans-Hall, Lucia Farinati, Lynne Friedli, Sabrina Fuller, Diana Georgiou, Rose Gibbs, Valeria Graziano, Laura Guy, Haley Ha, Nora Heidorn, Minna Henriksson, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn, Yurika Imaseki, Taey Iohe, Félicie Kertudo, Alexandra Kokoli, Jessie Krish, Mariana Lemos, Mai Ling, Jet Moon, Gabby Moser, Roisin O’Sullivan, Ceren Özpinar, Frances Painter Fleming, Grace Eunhye Park, Sara Paiola, Raju Rage, Helena Reckitt, Irene Revell, Lidia Salvatori, Elif Sarican, Justin Seng, Something Other, Cecilia Sosa, Amy Tobin, Ehryn Torrell, and Dot Zhihan.

Artists, Writers & Collectives

Sessions have been dedicated to texts and artworks including those by Naadje Al-Aali, Joan Anim-Addo, Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis, Gloria Anzaldua, Jenn Ashworth, Margot Badran, Khairani Barokka, Chiai Bonfiglioli, Anne Boyer, Brixton Black Women’s Group, adrienne maree brown, Wilmette Brown, Octavia Butler, Sakine Cansiz, Hazel V Carby, Adriana Cavarero, Teresa Hak Kyung Cha, Anne Anlin Cheng, Catherine Cho, Barbara Christian, Lia Cigarini, Eli Clare, Leah Clements, Lauren Craig, Galit Criden, Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James, Maria Puig De La Bellacasa, Leah Clements, Silvia Federici, Leta Hong Fincher, Shulamith Firestone, Lauren Fournier, Ruth Frankenberg, Olivia Guaraldo, Johanna Hedva, bell hooks, Sanja Iveković, Juliet Jacques, Marie Elizabeth Johnson, Jane Jin Kaisen, Jasleen Kaur, AE Kings, Larissa Lai, Teresa de Lauretis, Clarice Lispector, Carla Lonzi, Fereil Ben Mahoud, Alex Martinis Roe, Lea Melandri, Fatema Mernissi, Milan Women’s Bookshop Collective, Trinh T Minh-ha, Adriana Monti, Jet Moon, Antonella Nappi, Astrida Neimanis, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyen, Abdullah Ocalan, Lola Olufemi, Sue O’Sullivan, Tanja Ostojić, Cecilia Palmeiro, Queer Beograd, Darija Radaković, Raju Rage, Claudia Rankine, Tabita Rezaire, Rivolta Femminile, Lucia Egana Rojas, Sasha Roseneil, Gail Rubin, Suzanne Santoro, Selma Selman, Christina Sharpe, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Rhea Storr, Latif Tas, Miriam Ticktin, Tiqqun, Iris Uurto, Nafu Wang, Kyla Wazana Tompkins, Katri Vala, Vron Ware, Wages Due Lesbians, Wages for Housework, Linda Zerilli.

Contact us

If you would like to join the reading group mailing list or propose a focus for a session, or invite us to lead a meeting, please contact: feministduration@gmail.com 

Website Design by Angelica Bollettinari

CEED Feminisms, Bibliography Launch

CEED Feminisms, Bibliography Launch

Feminist Duration
2024

Join us to raise a glass in celebration of the CEED Feminisms Bibliography, at a launch event hosted by Biblioteka, a London-based reference library originally in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Free copies of the printed bibliography, stemming from the CEED Feminisms research network, will be distributed. Together we will read from Ukrainian curator and scholar Asia Tsisar's 2022 essay 'The Role You Made Me Play: About Unobvious Difficulties of Studying Eastern European Art.’ We will also explore the potential future of the CEED Feminisms Network.

The CEED Feminisms Bibliography distils conversations and references offered by the CEED Feminisms research network. Over 40 practitioners based in and beyond the UK, who participated in a British Art Network-supported programme between May 2023 - April 2024 after joining the project through an open call. Mapping CEED Feminisms for English readers, the bibliography highlights CEE feminist artists and writers who are under-acknowledged in Anglo-American feminist discourses, expanding upon the concerns of the CEED Feminisms public programme and adjacent conversations.

Embracing wom*n-led practices and organising before and under state socialisms, as well as academic and non-academic feminisms from the ‘region’ emerging after independence, the bibliography sketches a constellation of urgent and ongoing feminist and decolonial conversations that decentre Western feminism.

Read more about CEED Feminisms here. 

Reading

Together we will read out loud from Ukrainian curator and scholar Asia Tsisar's 2022 essay 'The Role You Made Me Play: About Unobvious Difficulties of Studying Eastern European Art.’ An entry in the CEED Feminisms Bibliography, Tsisar's essay opens a conversation about the stakes of representing 'Central Eastern European' art and feminist practice.

There is no expectation to read Tsisar’s essay in advance, we will read it one person and one paragraph at a time during the event. Access to the text will be granted 24 hours beforehand, upon RSVP, with copies provided on the day.

ACCESS

The event takes place at Biblioteka, located on the ground floor of the Architectural Association. Please note that access to Biblioteka is via four steps. If you require assistance to access the building, have any additional access questions, or wish to request support via our access and mobility budget to cover childcare and travel for a limited number of participants who live outside of London, please contact Annabelle Mödlinger; annabelle[at] cellprojects.org

BIBLIOGRAPHY ORDER

Find out more about the CEED Feminisms Bibliography and how to pre-order a physical copy here.

Copies of the Bibliography will also be distributed to libraries across the UK. 

BIBLIOTEKA

Biblioteka is a reference library with a variety of rare and special collections of books, zines and other printed materials within the fields of art, architecture and design.

CEED FEMINISMS

CEED Feminisms is a Research Group of the British Art Network (BAN). BAN is a Subject Specialist Network supported by Tate and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, with additional public funding provided by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. CEED Feminisms is additionally supported by Cockayne Foundation.

CEED Feminisms Working Group

Bogana Ababii, Holly Antrum, Laura Bivolaru, Diana Damian, Lina Džuverović, Sabrina Fuller, Vanessa Giorgio, Markéta Hašková, Jessie Krish, Marta Marsicka, Adomas Narkevičius, Maja Ngom, Helena Reckitt, Marta Zboralska, and others who wish to remain uncredited.

CEED Feminisms Bibliography

Designer Alessia Arcuri; printed on Munken 80gsm, 420mm x 594mm; Publisher & copyright Cell Project Space, May 2024, www.cellprojects.org; ISBN: 978-1-9162154-3-6

Mai Ling: Becoming Stickiness

Mai Ling: Becoming Stickiness
Beating Around the Butch: a conversation on uncertain transmasculinities

Beating Around the Butch: a conversation on uncertain transmasculinities