In a world where gender is constantly up for debate, the Tropenmuseum’s exhibition titled ‘What A Genderful World’ seeks to provide an intensive crash course on the meaning of the term on a global scale. Marketing itself as a ‘festival like setting,’ the premise of this exhibit revolves around using interactive multimedia to immerse spectators in views of gender outside of anything they may have experienced before.
Entering the exhibit, I was immediately confronted by large pink orbs, onto which is projected a video explaining the basic definitions, or lack , of gender. Whilst this spectacle grabs attention, it instantly provokes the thought that this is just another marketing fad looking to ‘jump on the gender bandwagon’; however, I quickly abandoned this thought.
Moving under the arc of orbs, you are guided through a series of aesthetically engaging rooms, each one focused on different topics and a multitude of cultures. How do you become a gender? Who holds power? What does gender look like? These are all questions that the exhibition manages to address without coming across as accusational or patronising.
Whilst some of its elements, like the ballpit of boobs, seemed to attract more attention for their comical nature rather than their political statement, this played to the exhibition’s advantage overall. The interspersion of such interaction worked well to break up the facts and figures, as where these playful features could not be found, there was a risk of becoming overwhelmed by the vast amount of information on offer.
Likewise, any prior scepticism I held that its claim to a ‘worldwide’ perspective would merely be western culture injected with some token foreign folklore was promptly amended. Ranging from the Native American tradition of the ‘two spirit’, to the Dahomey Amazons that inspired the female army of Black Panther, the exhibition’s promise of international recognition did not go amiss.
For a display that could easily have fallen into the clutches of fad culture, ‘What a Genderful World’ manages to deliver on its goals. It explores worldwide gender norms in a way that is both entertaining and informative, whilst guiding - not pushing - the spectator to find out what gender means not only to them, but to the wider world.
‘What a Genderful World’ can be seen up until and including 23rd August 2020 at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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