Mai-Thu Perret, artist, and Ida Soulard, art historian and curator, have been engaged in a regular dialogue – an exchange that is currently being deepened and culminated in a text to be published in Perret’s upcoming book project. We are given an insight into this process as we discuss common interests, feminist concerns and the role of arts and crafts in the avant-garde movements of the 20th century. In particular, Soulard’s art historical research on Anni Albers and textile practices in the art of the 1920s-1960s provides plenty of links to Perret’s work, including that currently on view at Cabaret Voltaire referring to Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s legacy.

In collaboration with Cabaret Voltaire. Moderated by Yasmin Afschar

Video-Documentation

Literature, art and cultural history, as well as spiritual traditions and feminist theory form the intellectual foundation from which the Geneva-based artist Mai-Thu Perret draws. She engages with the artistic avant-gardes in the early 20th century, especially with the history of abstraction, questioning the capitalist and patriarchal conventions of art and creates counter-narratives to them. Perret has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2022); Le Portique – centre régional d’art contemporain du Havre, France (2020); MAMCO Geneva (Musée d’art moderne et contemporain), Geneva (2019); Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany (2019); Spike Island, Bristol, England (2019); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2016); Le Magasin, Grenoble, France (2012); Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2011); University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (2010); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008); and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2006)

Ida Soulard is an independent curator, PhD candidate in art history at l’ENS / PSL University (Paris) and artistic director of Fieldwork Marfa, an international research and residency project run by les beaux-arts de Nantes and HEAD-Genève. Her PhD dissertation is entitled: ‘A textile history of modernity: Anni Albers and the weaving workshop, from the Bauhaus to the Black Mountain College (1922-1965)’. In 2011 she co-founded a series of seminars and workshops entitled The Matter of Contradiction (2011-2013) and in 2012 co-initiated Glass Bead, a research platform and a journal launched in 2014.