Hackney Flashers, from London to Strasbourg

Curator: Camille Richert
With the artists : Claude Dugit-Gros, Julie Luzoir et Pascaline Morincôme

The exhibition Hackney Flashers, from London to Strasbourg is held in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the formation of the London feminist collective Hackney Flashers. Founded in 1975, the group of nine women from Hackney and the surrounding area set out to highlight the gender pay gap, the lack of public childcare facilities in England and the sexist stereotypes perpetuated by the media and advertising, which reinforced the marginalised, passive and essentialised position of women.

Through a series of posters and slides, the Hackney Flashers aimed to denounce inequalities and clichés. To this end, they employed a variety of techniques borrowed from agitprop, such as photography, collages, photocollages, photomontages, drawing and slogans, to produce works in their spare time on a voluntary basis. Their projects employed strategies that were ethical and political, but also critical of modern art: single-sex practice, unsigned works, refusal to accept the status of artwork, displays confined to public spaces and venues dedicated to defending social rights.

The exhibition at the CEAAC draws on the collective’s guiding principles to examine the situation of women and mothers in Strasbourg today. For this purpose, three artist-researchers – Claude Dugit-Gros, Julie Luzoir and Pascaline Morincôme – were invited to continue the Hackney Flashers’ visual investigation and create new work that focuses on the current situation of women’s employment in Strasbourg, public policies in favour of parents, and visual and discursive representations of women. The aim is to demonstrate the continued relevance of the Hackney Flashers’ work, whose subjects of criticism and revolt remain topical in 2025.