If museums are institutions that preserve cultural history, they are also spaces for selecting what kind of objects, therefore which aspects of history, are chosen for preservation. This decision is made, for the most part, by men. At the same time, museums around the world are full of portraits of women. This imbalance calls for a reaction. Here, the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig collection is seen through the eyes of girls aged from 7 to 19.
Girls | Museum is not just a cinematographic proposal. It is a free ride, an open class, and above all, a great inspiration. Under the gaze of a group of girls aged between 7 and 14, we stroll through the corridors of the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts and indulge in their interpretations of different works. These perspectives are exciting, unexpected, creative, and therefore insightful in their honest approach. The dialogue that emerges from here raises a scalpel that cuts open central questions, not only about art and its past, but art and its representation in the present. These young women read through small gestures on oil-painted bodies, and raise issues related to gender identity, sexuality, desire, and class conflicts. But above all, they question the museum space as an institution that has been sculpting a fractional view of art history and its consequent role as an agent for greater representation. Girls | Museum is a necessary experience, a proposal to other ways of looking at art whenever we enter a museum or cultural space. (Inês Lima Torres)