Issue 01 – FEB/MAR 23 – In Love with Switzerland
The classical ideal of ‘Man’, formulated first by Protagoras as ‘the measure of all things’. Then Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man renewed and presented the ideal body, which in keeping with the classical dictum mens sana in corpore sano, doubles up as a set of mental, discursive and spiritual values. This model sets standards not only for individuals, but also for the social cultures. This vison assumes that men is not merely central position in the world, but rather a universal characteristic of the human mind that can be lend its quality to any suitable object. However, de Beauvoir’s emancipatory feminism builds on the Humanist principle that ‘Woman is the measure of all things female’. The Vitruvian woman created a tie of solidarity between the one and the many, which the second feminist wave of the 1960s would develop into the notion of political sisterhood. Taking being-women-in-the-world as the starting point for all critical thought and jointly articulated political practice, this offers a shared footing among women. Inspired by Virtruvian Woman, this project explores the notion of embodied and embedded in feminism, and is a visual reflection on the radical criticism of masculinist universalism.
