An European CERV project on women’s resistance, with an IAWM symposium and an artist residency in Merano
IAWM is a partner in WONDER (Women Narratives During the European Resistance), a European project co-funded under the EU programme CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values). WONDER explores and honours the often-forgotten contribution of women to the resistance against National Socialism during the Second World War in Europe, and their role in the post-war democratic transition – as leaders, fighters, organisers, couriers and active supporters of the anti-fascist cause. For decades, these contributions remained largely invisible at the historiographical and institutional levels. WONDER sets out to give this silenced form of resistance a voice.
IAWM Conference 2025 in Merano, Italy
About WONDER
Over fifteen months, each partner carries out community-based research and supports an artist in developing new artistic work on this history, presented at its own venue. The project is coordinated by the European Centre for Cultural Organisation and Management (ECCOM, Italy) and brings together six partner organisations: ECCOM; the International Association of Women’s and Gender Museums (IAWM); Frauenmuseum Hittisau (Austria); Frauen in der Einen Welt – Zentrum für interkulturelle Frauenalltagsforschung und internationalen Austausch e.V. (Germany); Herengracht 401 (the Netherlands); and Fundacja Instytut Beatboxu (Poland). The project runs across Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland and concludes with a joint final event in Rome in December 2027.
IAWM as a part or WONDER
Within WONDER, the IAWM activities – the symposium described below and, later, an exhibition with the selected Italian artist – are hosted at the Women’s Museum Merano (Museo delle Donne / Frauenmuseum Meran), which is the seat of IAWM. A further strand of the project is carried out by our partner Frauenmuseum Hittisau in Austria, which hosts its own residency and exhibition on women’s resistance in Vorarlberg and Austria.
IAWM Symposium – Call for Contributions
Cartographies of Resistance as a Response to a Conflict-Ridden World
When: 11–13 February 2027
Where: Women’s Museum Merano, Italy
Abstract deadline: 10 December 2026, to info@iawm.international
IAWM invites its member museums and organisations to contribute to the transnational symposium “Cartographies of Resistance as a Response to a Conflict-Ridden World.” Bringing together IAWM member museums from Northern, Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, the symposium explores feminist museum strategies and memory practices as responses to contemporary conflicts and inequalities. Through personal testimonies, historical analysis and curatorial case studies, we aim to share the experiences and expertise of museums working with women’s narratives, histories of resistance and practices of remembrance.
The symposium is an opportunity to exchange perspectives, reflect on different approaches and explore how these experiences can inform museum work and responses to contemporary challenges – particularly in relation to gender justice, human rights, peace and cultural responsibility. It brings WONDER’s historical focus into the present: how can the experience of women’s resistance inform feminist museum strategies and memory practices today?
We welcome contributions from IAWM member museums and organisations working on these or related themes. Interested colleagues are invited to submit an abstract by 10 December 2026 to info@iawm.international. Each presentation will be 10 minutes long.
The programme begins on Thursday, 11 February, in the evening, with a welcome and an introduction to the symposium, and continues on Friday, 12 February, as the main programme day. Departure is on Saturday, 13 February. Detailed timings, as well as further details about the programme and practical arrangements, will be shared at a later date.
Open Call for Artists – Residency in Merano
Alongside the symposium, WONDER invites artists to take part in a research and production residency in Merano. IAWM, in cooperation with ECCOM, is looking for one artist to engage with the history of women’s* resistance against National Socialism and fascism in Italy. From this research, a new participatory artwork emerges, to be shown at the Women’s Museum Merano from April 2027.
The residency comprises four weeks in total between March and April 2027 and may take place in several blocks. The selected artist receives an artist fee of € 3,000 and a production cost contribution of up to € 1,000, together with travel, accommodation and subsistence, a working space and curatorial, logistical and networking support. A good command of Italian is required, as the research and artistic work take place in Italian; the application itself is in English. For the application we do not expect a fully developed work – what matters is an independent artistic approach to the theme, out of which a new work develops during the residency.
Call opens: 2 November 2026
Application deadline: 6 December 2026 (23:59 CET)
Full call & application form: [link to the Open Call page / PDF and the application form]
Become part of WONDER. Women* resisted, and their stories are waiting to be told. Explore with us what long remained invisible.
