The Historic Building, seen from a gender perspective
News
|
Culture
|
Equality
(17/05/2024)
From Friday 17 May, the virtual exhibition “Una altra mirada al patrimoni cultural de la UB” (Another look at the cultural heritage of the UB), organised by the Vice-Rector’s Office for Culture, Memory and Heritage, will be open to visitors with the aim of assessing the cultural heritage of the University of Barcelona from a feminist perspective. The contents of this visit have been prepared by Laura Mercader and Silvia Canalda, lecturers in the Department of Art History at the UB.
News
|
Culture
|
Equality
17/05/2024
From Friday 17 May, the virtual exhibition “Una altra mirada al patrimoni cultural de la UB” (Another look at the cultural heritage of the UB), organised by the Vice-Rector’s Office for Culture, Memory and Heritage, will be open to visitors with the aim of assessing the cultural heritage of the University of Barcelona from a feminist perspective. The contents of this visit have been prepared by Laura Mercader and Silvia Canalda, lecturers in the Department of Art History at the UB.
The virtual tour is organised around fifteen emblematic spaces in the UB’s Historic Building, classified on the ground and first floors, each of which highlights one or more points designed to offer an alternative symbolic re-reading with a feminist character. For the moment, the visit can be made through the website, but in the coming days QR codes will be installed in each space to link to the virtual tour of the space you want to see.
The UB’s Historic Building has heritage elements of high historical, cultural, educational and economic value, including gardens, the Paranymph Hall, the Aula Magna, courtyards, cloisters and various classrooms, as well as artistic elements such as sculptures and paintings, some on loan from the Prado Museum. This heritage has been analysed from the perspective of feminist theory to reveal how it reinforces gender inequalities, makes women's contributions invisible and perpetuates the idea that male achievements are more significant.
The visit highlights how the university’s heritage excludes women from cultural representation. There is no reference to women in the sculptures in the hall or in the government spaces, such as the boardroom or the Paranymph Hall, where there are only three female figures among a hundred or so illustrious personages. This tour aims to depatriarchalise the cultural heritage of the Historic Building, to recover and give visibility to the women who have contributed to building knowledge throughout history, pointing out the unequal distribution of power and access to resources.
The virtual exhibition aims to reflect on the representation and contributions of women to history, art and culture in the university context. Questions such as “Why are there only three female figures in the Paranymph out of a hundred illustrious figures?” or “What would the cultural heritage of the University be like if we incorporated the knowledge of women?” are frequently asked by visitors, which shows the need for a gender perspective in the reading of the university’s heritage.
The UB’s Historic Building, which was built between 1863 and 1872 and completed its decorative programmes in 1885, highlights the sciences and humanities and makes women's knowledge invisible. Professors Mercader and Canalda propose a virtual tour that builds a genealogy of female knowledge and raises the main challenges and current issues.
International Museum Day, celebrated annually on 18 May since 1977, aims to raise awareness of the importance of museums for cultural exchange and the development of mutual understanding. Last year, 37,000 museums in 158 countries and territories participated in this global celebration.
The UB’s Historic Building has heritage elements of high historical, cultural, educational and economic value, including gardens, the Paranymph Hall, the Aula Magna, courtyards, cloisters and various classrooms, as well as artistic elements such as sculptures and paintings, some on loan from the Prado Museum. This heritage has been analysed from the perspective of feminist theory to reveal how it reinforces gender inequalities, makes women's contributions invisible and perpetuates the idea that male achievements are more significant.
The visit highlights how the university’s heritage excludes women from cultural representation. There is no reference to women in the sculptures in the hall or in the government spaces, such as the boardroom or the Paranymph Hall, where there are only three female figures among a hundred or so illustrious personages. This tour aims to depatriarchalise the cultural heritage of the Historic Building, to recover and give visibility to the women who have contributed to building knowledge throughout history, pointing out the unequal distribution of power and access to resources.
The virtual exhibition aims to reflect on the representation and contributions of women to history, art and culture in the university context. Questions such as “Why are there only three female figures in the Paranymph out of a hundred illustrious figures?” or “What would the cultural heritage of the University be like if we incorporated the knowledge of women?” are frequently asked by visitors, which shows the need for a gender perspective in the reading of the university’s heritage.
The UB’s Historic Building, which was built between 1863 and 1872 and completed its decorative programmes in 1885, highlights the sciences and humanities and makes women's knowledge invisible. Professors Mercader and Canalda propose a virtual tour that builds a genealogy of female knowledge and raises the main challenges and current issues.
International Museum Day, celebrated annually on 18 May since 1977, aims to raise awareness of the importance of museums for cultural exchange and the development of mutual understanding. Last year, 37,000 museums in 158 countries and territories participated in this global celebration.