Exhibition

Penelope Haralambidou

30 Jan 2020 – 8 Feb 2020

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
Closed
Thursday
12:00 – 18:00
Friday
12:00 – 18:00
Saturday
12:00 – 18:00
Sunday
Closed

Save Event: Penelope Haralambidou6

I've seen this

People who have saved this event:

close

domobaal

London
England, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • Holborn / Chancery Lane
Directions via Google Maps Directions via Citymapper
Event map

Penelope Haralambidou's project 'City of Ladies' studies 'The Book of the City of Ladies', 1405, by Italian/French medieval author Christine de Pizan (1364 – c.1430).

About

Penelope Haralambidou's project 'City of Ladies' studies 'The Book of the City of Ladies', 1405, by Italian/French medieval author Christine de Pizan (1364 – c.1430). The text is part of a compilation assembled for Queen Isabeau of Bavaria between 1410 – 1414 (Harley MS 4431) the largest surviving collected manuscript of her works and one of the foundation manuscripts at the British Library. In the book, de Pizan describes her visitation by three female Virtues, Reason, Rectitude and Justice, who commission her with the construction of an imaginary city inhabited solely by women. Conflating the act of writing a book and the construction of an imaginary city with building a thesis against misogyny, her work has been seen as a proto–feminist manifesto.

'City of Ladies' focuses on the under–researched significance of the architectural and urban allegory portrayed in Pizan's text, as well as in the accompanying illuminations – miniature illustrations – which display different stages of the construction of the city. Alongside historical research, Haralambidou explores de Pizan's allegorical spatial scheme through an embodied act of design that combines medieval illumination drawing techniques on vellum with digital craft and film. This exhibition of drawings, models, objects and films aims to reframe de Pizan's message in an architectural context, but also to project her allegorical 'City of Ladies' into the future. Although her work was popular and influential at her time, it remained overlooked until being rediscovered in modern times, referenced and revered by Simone de Beauvoir, Judy Chicago and Tai Shani, amongst others.

Research assistant: John Cruwys. The research is kindly supported by The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, Architecture Research Fund.

"The female sex has been left for a long time now, like an orchard without a wall, and bereft of a champion to take up arms in order to protect it."

"… For this reason, we three ladies whom you see before you have been moved by pity to tell you that you are to construct a building in the shape of a walled city, sturdy and impregnable."

"… You alone of all women have been granted the honour of building the City of Ladies. In order to lay the foundations, you shall draw fresh water from us three as from a clear spring. We will bring you building materials which will be stronger and more durable, than solid, uncemented marble. Your city will be unparalleled in splendor and will last for all eternity."

from: Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, 1404, trans. Rosalind Brown-Grant. London: Penguin, 1999.

What to expect? Toggle

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Penelope Haralambidou

Taking part

The Bartlett School of Architecture

London, United Kingdom

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.