About

Women and work in industry in Gipuzkoa

This exhibition is part of a transformative research programme called RE-WIRING, funded by the European Union. In addition to the University of Deusto, it is organised in collaboration with other eminent institutions, including the University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom), the Centre for Inclusive Leadership (GB), the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and the University of Gdańsk (Poland). Each of these countries hosts an exhibition on power hierarchies with a gender perspective to prevent and reverse inequalities, catalyse processes of change and actively involve people and groups. We work to “re-connect” institutions, problems and people, creating changes that prevent and reverse inequalities. The exhibition is intended to reach all audiences.

The title is a tribute to the productive role of women. With the words – ezhoiko (extraordinary in Basque) / (ez)οικο (domestic economy in Greek) – we connect with antiquity. In the Greek oikos – not only a family unit but also an economic one – women were responsible for managing domestic affairs, including textile production, and ensuring the well-being of the family. Women had influence within the home, especially if their husbands were absent, but not outside it. In the Roman domus, women also managed domestic affairs, supervising tasks related to care, education, food preparation and, sometimes, family finances. However, they were still restricted to the private sphere and had limited legal rights. The Roman presence in Gipuzkoa (province in the Basque Country) was focused on the important port and mining centre of the Bidasoa estuary, with additional settlements and remains along the coast and the southern routes, although the region was not systematically colonised. Since then, and especially during the industrial revolution, women had a place in the extraordinary economic development of this rich region of Europe, which has been systematically made invisible.

From this point of view, the exhibition addresses the place occupied by women in the economy of Gipuzkoa – in sectors such as fishing, the textile industry, porcelain, glass, and food – through pieces and photographs that, due to their artisanal and artistic value, have been brought together by institutions such as GORDAILUA Gipuzkoa Centre for Heritage Collections for preserving movable heritage, San Telmo Museoa (STM) and Kutxa Fundazioa. We show them to the public in a collection organised around an alphabet, which brings the reality, the past and the diversity of working women closer to the public.

The exhibition expands the concept of work also to the space occupied by care. This space is not represented with any object, precisely to underline the difficulties in identifying it as work. It belongs to the reproductive sphere and is attributed, by nature, to women. The exhibition is also a dichotomous space between paid-productive work (a space of inequality where women’s contributions has not been recognised) and unpaid-reproductive work (a feminised space which, although necessary for the development of productive work, remains a major unresolved problem in our society). This conflict is addressed by the audiovisual work “A favor, please” by Irati Cano Alkain, which has been created specifically for this project.

It is not EXTRAORDINARY that women worked, but it is EXTRAORDINARY to give them visibility and recognise their place in industrial and economic history, in the pieces of artistic and cultural value that have been rescued and preserved in order to promote a society where productive and reproductive work is made visible, valued and assumed equally by men and women.









Note

The font used in this project is a font derived from the typefaces that women of the second wave of feminism (suffragism) used in many of the pamphlets, fanzines, manuals, and banners in the various protests they conducted. We wanted to pay tribute to those who began the battle to dignify the work and space of women in the workplace. Type by Vocal Type https://www.vocaltype.co/history-of/carrie

Mary Lowndes (1857-1929) and Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) were, in this sense, two precursors who began and promoted the suffragette movement and who gave their name to the typeface of this project.

For them and for all the women who work every day and make life go on.

Exhibitions’s dates and other details

This exhibition is part of a series of expositions in five countries, including Poland, South Africa, the Netherlands and Belgium. Here are the titles, locations and dates when you can enjoy them.

“(Ez)οἶκο Emakumeak / Extraordinary Women” organised by University of Deusto, Spain

“Re-form the norm”, organised by University of Gdańsk, Poland

“Good Mom/Bad Mom,” organised by University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

“Women on The Move”, organised by KU Leuven, Belgium

“And I, a newly evolved fish,” organised by University of The Western Cape, South Africa

Five exhibitions, one concept

The five exhibitions in the RE-WIRING project develop several common themes that challenge dominant gender representations and explore intersecting inequalities through art and material culture. RE-WIRING is an EU-funded project aiming to identify and address the root causes of gender inequalities in institutions, catalyze change, and engage diverse stakeholders to create more equitable systems. These exhibitions offer tangible ways to engage with complex social issues by emphasizing materiality and revealing how gender, labor, mobility, and intersecting identities are shaped through interactions with physical objects, environments, and technologies.

A central theme across the exhibitions is the exploration of material embodiments and gendered experiences. The exhibitions collectively highlight how material objects and environments shape gendered experiences and how women are frequently excluded, disadvantaged and even endangered, given the centering and normativity of masculinity.. For instance, oceanic imagery represents fluid conceptions of gender, challenging binary notions. The Utrecht exhibition materializes the complexities of motherhood and reproductive rights, while Antwerp’s mural uses physical street art to represent migration experiences, gender inequalities, and social (non)belonging. In Gdansk, the focus on women’s work clothing demonstrates how ill-fitting garments created physical vulnerabilities, and the San Sebastian expo examines women’s relationships with industrial tools and gear, including uniforms too, showing material manifestations of gender inequalities.

Another significant theme is the connection between resource extraction and gender dynamics. The exhibitions link resources to gendered and intersecting power structures. Water as a planetary resource is connected to representations of femininity, while reproductive rights involve access to healthcare resources. Migration patterns are related to resource distribution, and industrial development relied on exploiting women’s labor and natural resources.

The exhibitions also explore human-non-human entanglements, revealing intricate relationships between humans and their material or natural environments. They also highlight how gender binaries on the basis of age, class, race, and human-nature. Oceanic imagery blurs boundaries between human bodies and watery environments, while reproductive technologies mediate human-technology interactions in motherhood, flagging relationalities and shared responsibilities. Street art creates a dialogue between human experiences and urban landscapes, work clothing shows how material objects shape bodily experiences and safety, and industrial tools highlight human-machine relationships in gendered labor contexts.

Lastly, the exhibitions address the tension between visibility and invisibility of gendered experiences. Fluid representations challenge fixed gender categories, reproductive rights debates bring private experiences into public view, and street art makes migration and gendered narratives visible in public spaces. The focus on ill-fitting work clothes made women’s bodies inappropriately visible while making their needs invisible, and the San Sebastian expo explicitly addresses women’s invisibility in industrial narratives.

By focusing on these themes, the Re-Wiring exhibitions offer an interconnected approach to engaging with complex social issues, emphasizing materiality and revealing how gender, labor, mobility, and intersecting identities are shaped through interactions with physical objects, environments, and technologies. The exhibitions serve to both raise consciousness about gender inequalities and women’s and girls’ exclusions, while also disrupting dominant representations and opening up alternative imaginaries of gender, social and planetary justice.

Expo Information