Gender Check is an exhibition of gender representations in the art of Eastern Europe. It’s currently (until Febuary 14th) in the MUMOK (Museum of Modern Art) in Vienna.

The exhibition covers a lot of ground, which means that it’s absolutely HUGE (six floors, people, six fucking floors). Which means that you see the first two floors with all your mental capacity (if you’re museum trained) and everything else becomes a blur. deadra and me spent about three hours inside (I think), seeing two floors in detail, one so-so and the rest we basically ran through. After that I felt like my brain had been fried.

That’s definitely a pity because most of the stuff was really interesting. But especially because the whole thing felt so… unfocused. Showing half the exhibits with a more specific theme would probably be more productive. Since there was so much to see, I felt like I didn’t take in much at all and hardly anything stayed with me.

Anyway, a few things did and you can see them after the jump.

Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe is a Russian artist who became quite obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. The exhibition featured some of his photographs of himself dressed as Marilyn Monroe.

Another thing I really liked was this video by Damir Niksic (Bosnia), even though it’s a perfect example for the lack of focus within the exhibition.

But my personal highlight was a bit of cross stitch porn. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the artist’s name nor find a picture [if you know, drop me a line] . But imagine this: a naked woman in a pool, a naked man sitting on its edge and she gives him a blowjob. IN CROSS STITCH!

People, this is going to be my next big project when I’m done with my blanket knitting. It’s going to be EPIC.

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PS: I also jotted down Margit Anna‘s name, but for the life of me, I can’t remember anymore what it is that I saw… Same goes for Erna Rosenstein.

PPS: Googling images from the exhibition, I keep stumbling over Ralph Ueltzhoeffer who was not featured, but whose textportraits look really cool.