During my first visit to Madrid, I saw all the major sites and primary museums. For my second trip to the city, I was able to be more selective about what I wanted to see. My favorite museum in Madrid, Museo Reina Sofía, happened to be showing an intriguing show on feminist video art. Plus, a friend who works at the museum offered to give us a guided tour. Here were the highlights:

About the Museum

Museo Reina Sofía is Spain's national museum for 20th-century art. It’s a rather new institution, having opened in the 90s, but it has become one of the most popular museums in Spain, and one of the most important modern art museums in the world.

The museum is located near Buen Retiro Park (one of the largest green spaces in Madrid), in the Lavapiés neighborhood. This area is diverse, with a foundation of immigrants, and is experiencing rapid gentrification. The neighborhood is filled with street art and Indian restaurants, as well as traditional Spanish terraces.

Museo Reina Sofía offers free admission during certain hours; from 7:00pm-9:00pm Monday & Wednesday-Saturday, and 1:30pm-7:00pm on Sundays. It is also free at anytime for youth under 18 years old, students, as well as art and/or education professionals. Just bring proof.

About the Exhibition

The mentioned show that initially peaked my interest was Defiant Muses: Delphine Seyrig and the Feminist Video Collectives in France in the 1970s and 1980s. The show explores the work of the collective “Les Insoumuses” a French play on words combining the expressions for “rebellious” and “source of inspiration.” The exhibition also explores other feminist movements and collectives of the era, across the globe. The show primarily examines how feminist politics and identity intersected with film and video art while providing supplementary visual and historical context.

The main figure of the exhibition is Delphine Seyrig, a French film star who came to prominence in the 1960s. As her acting career developed, she became increasingly interested in women’s rights, and began to use her platform for feminist causes. In 1975, she helped create “Les Insoumuses,” a group of women who focused on advocacy, collaboration, and representation by and for women in the film industry.

They created work that emphasized female solidarity and empowerment, sometimes through satirical films, other times through political protests. The videos are quite long and it is not possible to watch them all in one visit, so it was extremely helpful to have our friend explain the concepts and purposes for many of the videos. One highlight was Maso et Miso vont en bateau, a film that exposes and ridicules patriarchal structures and the blatant sexism within modern institutions.

The exhibition encapsulated many themes and explored a number of different subjects surrounding feminism in the 70s and 80s, but I found it an overall harmonious and valuable experience.

The show will be on view until March 23, 2020.