Shifting Vision proudly premiered What If Women Ruled the World? at the ICA Miami on December 1st, 2022. Presented by DMINTI and directed by Giulia Magno, the film chronicles the first historic collaboration between pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago and Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova.
A pioneering force in feminist art for more than four decades, Judy Chicago (b. Chicago, 1939) is one of the most influential artists of our time. Her work has been essential in creating a space for feminism within a male-dominated art world, and continues to empower women of all walks of life. Nadya Tolokonnikova (b. Norilsk, 1989), is a Russian musician, conceptual artist, political activist, and founding member of the feminist group Pussy Riot. She was notably sentenced in 2012 to two years’ imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance.
What If Women Ruled The World?, 2022. Directed by Giulia Magno. © Shifting Vision.
When Chicago read Tolokonnikova's autobiography, she realized that—through different decades, geographies, and cultural experiences—they had both devoted their lives to the same hopes and beliefs. The two artists decided to join forces to inspire people to imagine a different, more humane world. Shot on location at Judy Chicago's New Mexico studio, What If Women Ruled the World? recounts their first historic collaboration.
Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman's studio and home. Belen, New Mexico. Photo: AD
The two feminist icons took Chicago’s inspiring banner, What If Women Ruled the World?, which was created in collaboration with Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Dior Spring/Summer 2020 Haute Couture show, as the source for a revolutionary blockchain enabled call-and-response. Following the film premiere at the ICA Miami, Chicago and Tolokonnikova launched their inspiring participatory project with an invitation to the public to join the artists’ efforts and participate by contributing their own responses to the eleven questions of What if Women Ruled the World?.
© Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo © Donald Woodman/ARS, New York
Anyone who shares these feminist values is invited to come together and make their voices heard at this urgent time for women’s rights. Selections from the responses will become the material for the creation of the largest gender rights community in Web3.
What If Women Ruled The World?, 2022. Directed by Giulia Magno. © Shifting Vision.
Shifting Vision’s collaboration with Chicago, Tolokonnikova, and DMINTI align with our ongoing mission to explore actuality through art and participate in curatorial activism.
Join Judy Chicago and Nadya Tolokonnikova's participatory project here.
Related links
What If Women Ruled the World? – DMINTI
With special thanks to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art