Ingrīdas Pičukānes zīmējumi: feministiskās mākslas manifests Latvijā

In the past decade, feminist perspectives have gained increasing prominence within Latvian visual art. This article examines Ingrīda Pičukāne’s drawing series from the group exhibition A Visionary Drawing Riddle, held in Valmiera in 2023. We focus on three of Pičukāne’s drawings that, in our view, may be regarded as a manifesto of feminist art. Our argument begins with a brief overview of the manifesto tradition in the context of avant-garde culture, followed by an exploration of feminist art manifestos as a related yet distinct phenomenon. The second part of the article emphasizes the manifesting nature of Pičukāne’s drawings through feminist intervention, artistic activism, articulated political programs, and utopian tendencies. Finally, we address potential objections concerning the “belatedness” of such a manifesto and the binary structures it implies, proposing instead the concept of hopeful pessimism as the affective framework of these works.