Catalan photographer Laia Abril will deliver this year’s edition of The Willem Poelstra Lecture, the annual event celebrating the life and work of Forhanna founder Willem Poelstra. Abril’s long-term project A History of Misogyny presents historical and contemporary comparisons of gender violence and access to justice, law and policy makers. She has published two parts of the history to date, ‘On Abortion’ in 2018, and recently ‘On Rape’. Earlier works include projects on Sexuality and Eating Disorders. Tonight Laia Abril will present her project A History of Misogyny and other projects. She will go into the process of how she identified her story and message and how she creates across platforms such as installations, books, web docs, and films.
About The Willem Poelstra Lecture
Forhanna believes the future of photography lies in its potential to tell stories. We therefore research photographic storytelling, support the production of photographic stories and collect works that have relevant stories to tell in our Forhanna Collection. Forhanna was founded by documentary photographer Willem Poelstra (1956-2018). The annual The Willem Poelstra Lecture is dedicated to the loving memory of its founding father.
About Laia Abril
Laia Abril (1986) is a research-based artist working with photography, text, video, and sound. Her work has been shown widely and published internationally and is held in private collections and museums worldwide. The book On Abortion, and the repercussions of lack of access (Dewi Lewis, 2018) was the winner of the Aperture Best Book Award in 2018 as well as a finalist for the prestigious Deutsche Börse in 2019. Abril recently launched the publication of the second chapter: On Rape and Institutional Failure (Dewi Lewis, 2022). At present, she is working on the third chapter: On Mass Hysteria, due 2023.
