A pioneer of conceptual art, Ewa Partum’s work is inseparable from feminism challenging the social inequalities, the patriarchal system, and women’s representation in art. Since the early 1970s, she has challenged the societal systems that dictate how women should behave, appear, and occupy public space. In her practice, the personal is political—not as a slogan, but as a lived, enduring artistic investigation.
This first solo exhibition in Asia brings together Partum’s works across photography, film, mixed media, and works on paper, offering viewers an opportunity to see the breadth and depth of her contribution to the intersection of conceptualism and feminist discourse.
Partum emerged as one of the first women in Eastern Europe to use conceptual strategies explicitly to question gender roles. At a time when political and social freedoms were limited, she developed a radical language rooted in her own body and identity, turning her art into a site for both confrontation and liberation.
Among the works on view is Change - My Problem Is a Problem of a Woman (1979), one of Partum’s most iconic performances. In this piece, she uses her own naked body not as an object for the male gaze but as a political statement, confronting viewers with the realities of living as a woman in a patriarchal society. The work collapses the divide between private experience and public commentary, exposing how women is constructed and sustained in the society.
Another important series included is Self-Identification (1980), in which Partum inserts her naked figure into everyday urban environments—streets, markets, and public squares. Here, her body becomes both an intrusion and a mirror, reflecting the tensions between social norms and individual presence. These works are less about provocation than about posing the question: what does it mean to simply exist as a woman in spaces historically designed to uphold male authority.
The exhibition also features Conceptual Exercises (1972), in which Partum plays with visual and verbal language to question the structures of meaning-making. In this series, she draws a connection to the Buddhist parable of the “Three Wise Monkeys”: “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” By reinterpreting this motif, Partum points to the social expectations placed upon women to be silent, compliant, and unseeing in the face of injustice. Through a feminist lens, the parable is transformed from an ethical maxim into a critique of imposed passivity.
Taken together, these works reveal an artist whose practice is deeply consistent yet continually evolving. Partum’s feminism is not an add-on to her conceptualism; it constitutes its very foundation. She uses the very tools of performance—the body and language—to dismantle cultural myths, opening space for new forms of female subjectivity.
In presenting Ewa Partum’s work in this representative solo exhibition, we are reminded that the struggles she addresses are not confined to the past. They remain urgent and unresolved, making her art as necessary today as when it was first made.
Ewa Partum’s works have been exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou, 14th Biennale de Lyon, La Triennale 2012 Paris, 18th Biennale of Sydney and Manifesta 7, among others. They can be found in numerous international collections such as Tate Modern, MoMA New York, Museo Reina Sofia Madrid, Generali Foundation, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin.
Written by Eszter Csillag
