The Museum of Equality and Difference (MOED) is an online museum and research project that brings together artistic perspectives on equality and difference that strive for social change. MOED is a project by researchers of the Graduate Gender Program at Utrecht University. We aim to develop imaginaries of an inclusive society, centered around the questions: What does equality look like, for whom, and why? What does difference look like, for whom, and why?
The way we work
Innovative ways of looking, listening, and speaking are often developed within the domain of the arts. We believe that artistic practices as sites of critical creativity can contribute to different ways of seeing the world around us and guide us in processes of transformation. How can we utilize artistic techniques and the power of imagination in the struggle towards an inclusive society? How can imagination, affect, emotion, and reason, in their mutual connections, contribute to a better understanding of equality, difference, and inclusion?
With these ambitious research questions, MOED works with scholars, activists, organizations, (cultural) institutions and artists who are dedicated to making visible marginalized histories and knowledge perspectives in art, culture, and politics. MOED exposes lived realities and experiences that are commonly neglected, ignored or silenced in dominant narratives. Through our collaborations with a diverse ensemble of artists, scholars, activists and institutions, we develop a platform that places a new range of perspectives and stories in the spotlight. From an intersectional feminist perspective, that is to say a perspective that takes into account postcolonial, decolonial and posthuman approaches, MOED aims to create a bridge between the theoretical and lived experiences.
Our vision
The gendered and racialized histories of presence and absence in art, culture and politics have shaped our preferences and ways of thinking. What is visible and what is rendered invisible influences what we have grown accustomed to consider beautiful and significant. We believe that we must take the effort to realize what it means to live in a society that is based on a history of exclusion, stereotyping, and marginalization, in order to focus on the possibility of a society based on inclusion and equality. We must reimagine what a critical engagement with established canons and a contested past in terms of gender, ‘race’ and class can and should look like.
The website
In our Online Exhibitions we collaborate with our partners to create expositions that demonstrate different perspectives on the Western art history canon, aiming to dismantle the power structures that go behind canonization practices that define through which eyes one sees the world.
In In Conversation With we invite and give a platform to scholars, activists, artists and organizations that we find inspiring and contribute to the process of imagining a society based on inclusion and equality. In Conversation With is a combination of articles as well as other types of media, ranging from performances to sound-bites. We kindly invite readers to engage with and respond to the content, aiming to provoke critical thought and stimulate dialogue and debate. In our Public Program you find our offline activities, because we realize that an inclusive space can only arise from a merging of online and offline activities. The Library offers our selection of suggested material for further reading such as inspiring in-depth articles and initiatives, and texts suggested by our partners.
In this way, MOED aims to create a space where imaginaries can flourish.
Are you interested in contributing to MOED? Please contact us at contact@moed.online.