“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” and there were those, who became a woman long before the famous quote of Simone de Beauvoir was said out loud in 1949 and who left their footprint, seen or hidden, praised or still unrecognized. Last couple of decades have seen a radical transformation in the ways of recreation, assimilation, dispersion and reception of woman, with scholars and societies trying to rediscover her role in the visual culture through times. Critical rethinking of the complementary roles and appearances of woman – female, who refused to remain solely the other sex and appeared in the context of visual culture throughout the past century as critical and provocative subject, challenging possibilities and limitations in the world of the first sex, is the main theme of the two day conference on “The Aspect of Woman”, organised by RI19+.

The conference is an integral part of an ongoing project “Artistic Creativity of Women from the 19th Century to the Present Time” and is the first in line of the periodically scheduled events in the course of the following years, all interweaved around woman in visual culture throughout the past and present times and intense aims to evaluate and analyse their contributions in wider European space.

For the conference, hosted by Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana (Zavod Bunker), the organizer RI19+ welcomes proposals that might include, yet are not limited solely to the following topics:
- current status of studies, questions and themes discussing women in visual culture;
- current researches concerning active roles of women in visual culture: artists, art critics, architects, designers, conservators, restorers, costume designers, theoreticians, patrons of art, curators, collectors, professors of visual culture;
- new appearances of women in visual culture;
- reflections of sexuality and gender in popular culture from women’s perspective;
- the reception of images done by women artists;
- women‘s power and its acceptance in visual culture.

Particularly welcomed are submissions seeking to analyse the role of women in Central and Southern European artistic space and accentuating transnational connections throughout history.

RI19+ welcomes proposals from artists as well as scholars from across the disciplines (art history, architecture, design, philosophy, history, etc.), and from outside the academy as well as within.

Proposals for papers, limited to 300 words, and short CV, limited to 100 words, should be sent to the organizer RI19+ at natasa.ivanovicri19plus.si by 20th March 2016.