An Australian state court overturned a controversial ban on a women’s space at an art gallery.
In Australia, the Tasmanian State Court reversed on Friday a ban on a women-only art exhibition at a gallery in Hobart.
A state court found that the women’s facility did not discriminate against men.
In May, a local court banned the establishment of a space called the Ladies Lounge in the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) gallery.
The decision caused an uproar.
Controversy has especially been caused by whether the women’s space established in the gallery is a work of art in itself and whether the museum can only have spaces intended for one gender.
On Friday, the acting Supreme Court of the state. judge Shane Marshall stated that the Ladies Lounge is a work of art that sought to promote equality and highlight the inequality of opportunity experienced by women.
Curator of Ladies Lounge space Kirsha Kaechele considered the court’s decision a great victory.
– It took 30 seconds to make the decision. It took 30 seconds to crush the patriarchy, Kaechele beamed.
When the ban went into effect in May, Mona announced that she would move some of the Ladies Lounge artwork to the women’s restroom.
The works of art were said to include, among others Pablo Picasso paintings.
Later it turned out that the paintings in the toilet were copies.
Source: Reuters