Archive

ARTS & CARE ASSEMBLY II

19.09.2025, Wiesbaden Biennale 2025

The ARTS & CARE ASSEMBLY II is a cooperation between art+care, Bühnenmütter* e.V., CARING CULTURE LAB and the red table_Care as part of the Wiesbaden Biennale 2025. It is a follow-up event of the first ARTS & CARE ASSEMBLY by Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets at GEDOK Galerie Stuttgart in November 2024.

"As part of the Wiesbaden Biennale, the second Arts & Care Assembly will take place on September 19, 2025. Once again, art + care initiatives from Germany and Switzerland will come together to celebrate new visions. Just like at the legendary kick off meeting in Stuttgart in 2024, everyone is welcome – anyone interested in and committed to creating care-friendly structures in the visual and performing arts.

Come join us – let’s connect and become visible together! Around the fire, we’ll make space for exchange - open for children, adults and ideas for a more solidaristic art world.

17:00-19:00: Participatory outdoor workshop

From 19:00-23:55 lectures, readings, concerts, silent disco

Buy your Ticket here (10 €)."

Source: Wiesbaden Biennale 2025

The Boys Are Alright

1.08. – 12.08.2025, Galerie Michaela Helfrich, Berlin

Artists:
Kim Dotty Hachmann, Neo Elijah Tom & Vito Unai Hachmann

Curator:
Natasha Marzliak

“Over two decades, Kim Dotty Hachmann has woven motherhood into her artistic practice—not as a subject observed from a distance, but as a lived condition, a method, and a medium. In The Boys Are Alright, Hachmann brings together video installation and photography created in collaboration with her two sons. Rather than hiding the chaos, interruptions, and emotional labor of caregiving, she stages them as central elements of artistic expression.

Now that her children have grown, The Boys Are Alright marks a moment of reflection. This solo exhibition revisits works in which they are the main characters, tracing the shifts in intimacy, power, and rhythm that time imposes on family life. It invites us to reconsider care—not as background noise to artmaking, but as a form of knowledge, insurgency, and creative force.

With humor and vulnerability, Hachmann challenges the myth of the isolated (often male) genius, replacing it with a practice grounded in observation and relationality. As the boys evolve into deeper self-awareness, her artistic identity enters a new phase—one shaped by new possibilities for life and creation.”

Source: Kim Dotty Hachmann

Symposium Parenting in the Arts

3.07.2025, Kunstverein Munich – Archivraum & Foyer

Experts:
Hettie Judah, Dr. Sascia Bailer, Mirthe Berentsen, Maurin Dietrich (Kunstverein München ), MATERNAL FANTASIES, Gabi Blum and Anna Schölß (K&K – Bündnis Kunst und Kind München), fair share! Sichtbarkeit für Künstlerinnen*, Pia Linden (Haus der Kunst), Dr. Christian Steinau and you.

“During the Symposium Parenting in the Arts artists, institutions, policy makers, cultural workers and local professionals are brought together to ask hard questions and find answers that can help to build the tools we need for a more inclusive, supportive and equitable art world. Through keynote speeches by Hettie Judah and Dr. Sascia Bailer, a panel discussion and hands-on workshops, we will explore ways to reimagine the structures that so often exclude artist parents.”

Source: The Artist and The Others

The Other|Mother

11.03. – 20.03.2025, WHA Galerie, Linz

“The Other|Mother is the final exhibition of the artistic dissertation of the same name by artist Linda Luv. In her research, Linda Luv explores the potential of the performative to critically reflect on and reshape everyday life. An artist, M:Other and queer woman herself, she takes a queer-feminist perspective on gender- and role-forming everyday actions. The series of works Scores of M:Othering presented in the exhibition shows a selection of instructions for action that, in addition to the auto-theoretical text, depict desiderata from four years of research. These scores are activated by the artist and the audience. They provoke a physical confrontation with the realities of women's lives and invite people to transfer and activate them in their own everyday lives.

The defence of the artistic promotion The Other|Mother. Alltägliche Fürsorge als performative Praktik der VerUnordnung will take place on 13 March 2025 at 1 pm as part of the exhibition and is open to the public.”

Source: WHA Galerie

Bodies of Ambivalence

14.2.25 – 9.3.25, 146 Contemporary, Hamburg

Artists:
Clara Alisch, Marcia Breuer, Elena Bulycheva, Yara Jakobs, Katya Kanke, Aya Onodera, Manda Steinhauser, Katia Lina Sternel

Curated by Sascia Bailer

“Care relationships are complex and full of contradictions. They merge feelings of warmth and security with more unsettling realizations: those of encroachment, self-loss, and boundary-crossing. Motherhood is one such care relationship that shapes us as children and reveals new dimensions as adults—especially when we become mothers or parents ourselves. Bodies of Ambivalence explores this tension by bringing together works from eight women artists who are themselves mothers and daughters.”

Source: 146 Contemporary, Hamburg

Networks of Care: How Art & Care Initiatives Make the Art Sector More Parent-Friendly

16.11.2024, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart

Words of Welcome:
Magdalen Pirzer, Leiterin der Abteilung Kulturförderung, Kulturamt Stuttgart

Panelists:
Marcia Breuer, Mehr Mütter für die Kunst., Hamburg
Gabi Blum, K&K – Bündnis Kind und Kunst, München
Teresa Monfared, Bühnenmütter e.V. und Fair Share! Sichtbarkeit für Künstlerinnen, Berlin
Anna Gohmert, Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets, Stuttgart
Karin Lustenberger, art + care Schweiz, Basel

Moderation:
Dr. Sascia Bailer, Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets, Stuttgart & CARING CULTURE LAB, Freiburg

“Despite its progressive self-image, the cultural sector remains deeply unequal in terms of gender: the gender pay gap is 30 % in this field, compared to 18 % nationwide. Parents, especially mothers*, face particular discrimination due to their caregiving responsibilities. This panel brings together initiators of care networks and experts to explore how the art sector can become more parent-friendly and equitable.”

Source: Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets

ARTS & CARE ASSEMBLY I

15. 11. – 17. 11. 2024, GEDOK Galerie Stuttgart

Konzept & Organisation:
Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets und CARING CULTURE LAB

Moderation Netzwerktreffen:
Teresa Monfared, Bühnenmütter e. V., Berlin

Teilnehmende Initiativen:
Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets, Stuttgart
Mehr Mütter für die Kunst, Hamburg
Bühnenmütter e.V., Berlin
K&K – Bündnis Kunst & Kind, München
fair share! Visibility for women artists, Berlin
art + care Schweiz
Other Writers
MATERNAL FANTASIES
MotherhoodArtNetwork
MARS – Maternal Artistic Research Studio, Freiburg
based on gathering, Stuttgart
elsa art space, Bielefeld
and many more...

"Who takes care of the artists who take care of others? In the art world, caregiving responsibilities are still not automatically considered. Over the past five years, our community focused on art, care, and motherhood* has continuously grown, advocating for a more equitable art sector. New networks have emerged, and more exhibitions, projects, and publications addressing these issues have been developed.

At this first assembly, we are bringing together Arts + Care initiatives from Germany and Switzerland to learn about ongoing work, consolidate efforts, and launch new collaborative projects. A key aim of the meeting is to further develop the CARING CULTURE LAB as a competence center for more equity in the arts.
Free childcare was be provided."

Source: Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets

ON THE HORIZON: CARE

15. – 23.11.2024, GEDOK Galerie Stuttgart
A project from Mothers*, Warriors and Poets

Artists:
Hannah Cooke, Ines Doleschal, Maternal Fantasies, Anna Gohmert, Hannah Kindler, Renate Liebel, Marie Lienhard, Milena Naef, Jana Rot und Lerato Shadi

Curators:
Sascia Bailer & Didem Yazici

“To become a mother* or to be an artist, has for long been considered an either-or-question. In a society, where equal rights are inscribed into constitutions, the art field remains one of manifold exclusions and strong-headed stereotypes that attribute geniality primarily to male artists, who, in the public imaginary, produces his art in the quiet absence of children. The biases here are real: among the top ten most successful artists of 2023, only two are women, and none have children. In contrast, nine of the top ten male artists collectively have 32 children. This disparity suggests that, even today, motherhood* is perceived as incompatible with artistic success, unlike fatherhood*.

The frustrations with this system have spurred action, leading caregivers, artists, and activists to collectivize for change. Through various regional networks, they seek recognition both as mothers* and as cultural workers. They advocate for inclusive structures that enable participation in the cultural sector under fair and sustainable conditions.

On the Horizon: Care is a discursive exhibition that gathers works from artists who challenge these biases. These artists, whether working in collective constellations or as individuals, interrogate the present-day inequities, invisibilities, and exhaustion in caregiving, while striving towards a future where care is fully realized. The exhibition accompanies the first nationwide networking meeting “Arts & Care Assembly” in GEDOK Stuttgart e.V. and challenges gendered caregiving norms. The show opens up space for the internal tensions and contradictions around care, motherhood*, and maintenance labor – thereby queering motherhood*, challenging mechanisms of structural exclusions, confronting data gaps, and expressing the fragility of care, the weight of exhaustion and the anger of the invisibility of this labor. These works offer more than critique—they invite us to challenge the status quo and to imagine a different future. 

Yet for now, these feminist visions of care remain a project. Scholar and activist Sara Ahmed reminds us that feminism, and the relationships among women, is a project because “we are not there yet.” This notion of not-there-yet is also found in the writings of queer cultural theorist José Esteban Muñoz, who articulates that “queerness is always on the horizon” as a way to inspire imaginations towards queer futurity. A society — and a cultural field — that genuinely embodies care only remains visible on the horizon, but we have not yet arrived. The glimpses of its vision are the driving motor of the quest for a culture where care isn’t just a trending theme, but a lived, enacted reality.”

Source: Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets

MOTHER

26.09.2024 – 28.03.2025, Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn

Artists:
Anouk Lamm Anouk, Yasmina Assbane, Günter Brus, Louisa Clement, Georg Herold, Sanja Iveković, Sabrina Jung, Mel E. Logan & Sidney Logan, Anna Oppermann, Margot Pilz, Ulrike Rosenbach, Judith Samen, Michael Sardelic, Mariuccia Secol, Annegret Soltau, Gabriele Stötzer, Ivonne Thein, Maria Tobola, Paloma Varga Weisz

Curators:
Gisela Clement und Miriam Schmedeke

“Starting with the positions of the 1970s such as Sanja Iveković, Ulrike Rosenbach and Annegret Soltau and Viennese Actionism with Günter Brus, through the immersive exploration of Georg Herold to the latest self-portraits by Louisa Clement and the latest installation by Anouk Lamm Anouk – MOTHER brings together perspectives from artists of different generations.

The result is a tableau of fragile beauty that thematises motherhood as a radical physical and emotional experience as well as questioning the social and political demands of motherhood and parenthood and presenting new forms of family relationships. Hardly any other social task is scrutinised, commented on and judged as critically as the relationship between parents and their children, and for women in particular there seems to be no room between raven mother and tradwife.”

Source: Galerie Gisela Clement

Who Cares?!
Current perspectives on care work

2.06. – 21.07.2024, Kunsthalle Vebikus Schaffhausen

Artists:
Anna Appadoo & Veronika Fischer, Azad Colemêrg, Brigitte Dätwyler & Lena Maria Thüring, Kira van Eijsden, Alain Jenzer, Marvin Jumo, tina omayemi reden und töchter with Naya de Souza, Philip Ortelli, RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & CO), Ana Vujió

F+F School of Art and Design Zurich, Art HF programme, practical project ‘Politics of Care - Cultural Work as Care Work’ Anastasiia Brek, Jolanda Gerber, Ulyana Hukasova, Stella Inderbitzin, Anthony Moskalenko, Martina Portmann, Nazgol Golmuradi, Helene von Graffenried, Luis Schmidlin, Raphael Sigel, Ruben Silva Gomes, Noëmi Sommerhalder, Ronja Stiefel, Kerstin Wittenberg and other students
Project management and mentoring: Gökge Ergör, Sarah Merten

Curator:
Sarah Merten

“In a broad sense, care work refers to unpaid and paid activities of caring, nurturing and looking after. This includes, for example, childcare, care services or household tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Care work is not evenly shared in society. It is predominantly performed by women and people who are marginalised in many ways. Most of it is unpaid and carried out in private households. The paid sectors are characterised by low wages and precarious working conditions. This has long been pointed out from a feminist perspective. Since the coronavirus pandemic, there has also been an increased public debate about abuses in the care sector. However, many questions remain unanswered in the often resource-oriented discussion - for example, what is even recognised as care work? The exhibition Who Cares?! Current perspectives on care work shows aspects and forms of care that are less visible in public discourse. In their works, the participating artists address issues such as how care work relationships affect emotions. They formulate wishes, desires and criticism that lie behind care practices that are taken for granted. They are concerned with the visibility of activist concerns. They ask who takes care of whom, how, on what terms and who is interested at all. The exhibited works thus show that care manifests itself in many different facets and ultimately permeates all areas of life.”

Source: Kunsthalle Vebikus Schaffhausen

Burning Down the House, Rethinking Family

1.06. – 8.09.2024, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen

Artists:
Jonathas de Andrade, Louise Ashcroft, Shuvinai Ashoona, Bobby Baker, Nina Beier, BOLOHO, Louise Bourgeois, Kathe Burkhart, Vaginal Davis, Adolf Dietrich, Rhea Dillon, Laurence Durieu, Marie-Louise Ekman, Buck Ellison, Christina Forrer, Maria Guta/Lauren Huret, Nadira Husain, Juliana Huxtable, Kyoko Idetsu, Mary Kelly, Lebohang Kganye, Ghislaine Leung, Tala Madani, Katja Mater, Alexandra Noel, Phung-Tien Phan, Josiane M. H. Pozi, Niki de Saint Phalle, Ben Sakoguchi, Ju Sekyun, Sable Elyse Smith, Lily van der Stokker, Madeleine Kemény-Szemere, PINK de Thierry, Terre Thaemlitz, Ryan Trecartin, Amalia Ulman, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Gillian Wearing, Ambera Wellmann

Curator:
Melanie Bühler, Senior Curator, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen

“From 1 June to 8 September 2024, the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen is showing a comprehensive group of artists who critically examine the family as a tradition, idea and way of life.

The family is rarely the subject of contemporary art. While feminist artists have shed light on their roles as wives, mothers and carers, the family remains strangely silent. Although it is an established genre in photography and the family portrait has a long tradition in painting, there has hardly been any critical treatment that goes beyond mere visual representation. It almost seems as if the family has become so deeply embedded in our reality as an irrevocable authority that such an examination is not permitted. We live in a time in which institutions and values are being radically questioned, except, it seems, the family. This exhibition aims to change this.

The following questions are at the centre of the exhibition: What does family life mean beyond the family world that we so often encounter on television and in advertising? What are the difficulties, the peculiarities and the specific quality of living together in a family? How is the family anchored in the system of our coexistence? Is the family a problem? How can we imagine a life beyond the traditional concept of family?

A catalogue will be published by Hatje Cantz to accompany the exhibition.

At the same time, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute is writing a study on the future of the family, which will be published at gdi.ch/family to coincide with the vernissage.”

Source: Kunstmuseum St. Gallen

Motherhood II / Shifting Realities

26.01. – 4.02.2024, HilbertRaum and Retramp Gallery, Reuterstaße, Berlin Neukölln

Artists:
Stella Bach, Julia Bugram, Die 4 Grazien, Katya Dimova, Ines Doleschal, Sibylle Gieselmann, Rachel Kohn, Susanne Kompast, Claudia Kragulj, Sarah Iris Mang, Barbara Philipp, Anna Rafetseder, Katharina Reich, Agnes Rossa, Christiane Spatt, Martina Tritthart, Linde Waber, Sula Zimmerberger, Dorothée Zombronner

Curator:
Hannah van Ginkel

Motherhood Team:
Stella Bach, Hannah van Ginkel, Barbara Philipp, Agnes Rossa, Verity

The project is organized and curated by IntAkt – International Action Community of Women Artists, Vienna – in collaboration with HilbertRaum and the Retramp Gallery.

“The exhibition Motherhood II / Shifting Realities is the second installment in a series of exhibitions focusing on motherhood and womanhood. The goal of the series is to question and deconstruct myths surrounding male and female roles and attributions.

In parallel with the exhibition, the Motherhood Team will collaborate with Procreate Project (London) to present works by international women artists in public spaces on billboard displays.
These will be shown in Pannierstraße (Pannierstr. 37, 12047 Berlin) in the Neukölln district, near the HilbertRaum and Retramp Gallery. Procreate Project is a growing archive of international women artists who are mothers/parents: https://archive.procreateproject.com/archive/

On Saturday, February 10, 2024, at 12 p.m., the first international online conference of IntAkt will take place in cooperation with other networks on the topic of motherhood.
Participants include Dyana Gravina of “Procreate Project” (London), Marcia Breuer, founder of Mehr Mütter für die Kunst. (Hamburg), Ruchika Wason Singh of A.M.M.A.A. (the first platform to focus on mother artists in Asia) (India), Len-Len and Illyang Montenegro of the O Home (Philippines), as well as Ines Doleschal and Rachel Kohn, founders of Fair Share! Visibility for Women Artists (Berlin).
The aim is to foster future collaboration, increase the visibility of women artists, and promote the exchange of information on the topic of motherhood in contemporary art. In the spring, the second Motherhood online conference will invite curators, collectives, and platforms.”

Source: Hilbertraum

The Bad Mother

25.11.2023 – 11.02.2024, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

Artists:
Louise Bourgeois, Candice Breitz, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Antje Engelmann, Daniel Hopp, Niina Lehtonen Braun, Carina Linge, Eva Vuillemin, Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld, Katarina Janečková Walshe

Curator:
Katharina Schilling, künstlerische Leiterin HaL

“Following on from the title-giving work The Bad Mother by Louise Bourgeois, the group exhibition takes an artistic look at the expectations placed on mothers. With mothers who are too selfish, too sexy, too self-sacrificing, too motherly. With mothers who do not fulfil their own expectations and whose reality of life is a continuum between self-abandonment and self-assertion. The exhibition brings together works that go beyond the clichéd depiction of family happiness and the eternally mildly smiling mother, as is still prevalent not only in depictions of the supermother Mary, but also in social media images.”

Source: HaL Berlin

Apfelflug vom Stamm

31.10. – 26.11.2023, Galerie der Künstler*innen, BBK München und Oberbayern

Artists:
Ergül Cengiz, Shirin Damerji, Alex Gerbaulet, Jakob Gilg, Monika Kapfer, K&K - Bündnis Kunst und Kind, Eva Kotátková & Dominik Lang, Joanna Lombard, Heidi Mühlschlegel, Judith Peters & Filib Schürmann, Cora Piantoni, Corinna Schnitt, John Smith, Stefan Wischnewski, Anna Witt, Esther Zahel

Curator:
Cora Piantoni

“Mural paintings, video installations and workshops centre on the question of how we live and understand the family community today. The exhibition project brings together and explores existing models and discusses utopias and ideas of family from 1968 to the present day.”

Source: BBK Munich and Upper Bavaria

Cooking Cleaning Caring.
Care work in art since 1960

22.10.2023 – 3.03.2024, Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop

Artists:
Chantal Akerman, Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Helen Chadwick, Cine Mujer, Anna Daučíková, Renate Eisenegger, Sandra Eleta, VALIE EXPORT, Milli Gandini, Eulàlia Grau, Lourdes Grobet, Krystyna Gryczełowska, Hackney Flashers, Mako Idemitsu, Natalia Iguiñiz, Ana Victoria Jiménez, Jinran Ha, Birgit Jürgenssen, Anna Kutera, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Lea Lublin, Ingeborg Lüscher, Karin Mack, Carmen Maura, Gunvor Nelson & Dorothy Wiley, Letícia Parente, Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Polvo de Gallina Negra, Margaret Raspé, Ulrike Rosenbach, Martha Rosler, Betye Saar, Anna Schölß, Marcia Schvartz, Mariuccia Secol, See Red Women's Workshop, Mary Sibande, Annegret Soltau, Gabriele Stötzer, Rosemarie Trockel, Zsuzsi Ujj, Gabriele Voss & Christa Donner.

“The Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop, in cooperation with academics from the Institute of Art History at the Ruhr University Bochum, presented a group exhibition that explored historical and current issues in artistic discourses on care work.

The works presented in Cooking Cleaning Caring. Care Work in Art since 1960 brings together videos, photographs, installations and paintings by international artists who explore the social, economic and political meanings and visibility of work that is mostly performed by women. For the first time, an overview of artistic engagement with care work in a global context has been created, which also includes the specific local perspective of the Ruhr area as a ‘region of labour’.”

Catalogue with texts by Tonia Andresen, Maria Bremer, Karen Cordero Reiman, Monja Droßmann, Jinran Ha, Ane Lekuona-Mariscal, zethu Matebeni, Friederike Sigler, Änne Söll, Wiktoria Szczupacka, Kanako Tajima und Linda Walther

Source: Josef Albers Museum

Ingenious women. Women artists and their companions

14.10.2023 — 28.01.2024, Brucerius Kunstforum Hamburg

“With the exhibition Ingenious women. Women Artists and their Companions the Bucerius Kunst Forum is showing the careers of outstanding women artists from the 16th to 18th centuries. For the first time, the family context in which the women artists developed their careers is thematised and made visible through juxtaposition with works by their fathers, brothers, husbands and fellow painters. Often forgotten today, the women artists of their time were extraordinarily successful in all family constellations: they became court painters, teachers, entrepreneurs, but also publishers and were also honoured with the highest awards.

The exhibition presents around 30 female artists and 150 works, including works by Sofonisba Anguissola, Judith Leyster, Marietta Robusti (Tintoretto's daughter) and Angelika Kauffmann. Masterful portraits, still lifes and histories in painting, drawing and printmaking from the Renaissance, through the Baroque period to the beginning of Classicism from all over Europe will be brought together in Hamburg. For the first time, works by female artists will be juxtaposed with those of their male colleagues in such a pointed way that both formal and stylistic similarities and differences will become clear.”

Source: Bucerius Kunstforum

WE CARE. DO YOU?
An exhibition on the subject of care and art production

7.10. – 12.11.2023, Projektraum Alte Feuerwache Berlin

Artists:
Ines Doleschal, Irena Jukić Pranjić, Magdalena Kallenberger, Rachel Kohn, Teresa Monfared & BeyondRe:Production*, Alice Münch, Christina Stark, Ellen Louise Weise

Concept and realisation: Ines Doleschal
Curatorial advice: Dr. Katharina Koch

“Since artistic work as the ingenious product of an autonomous artist is still normative today, artists must be flexible, mobile and as unattached as possible in order to be visible. Sociality - responsibility for commitment and care work - is not provided for in the job description. This means that artists with caring responsibilities are discriminated against in many respects. Not only the lack of family-friendly funding and residency programmes, but also the prejudices of the institutional and commercial art world against artists who become mothers are clear examples of the denial of participation. When time becomes the most precious resource and productivity and continuity are temporarily restricted, this is not a loss of quality - but this is what experts, committees and jurors want to recognise in view of the gaps in the curriculum vitae. They prefer to honour those who can present seamless - carefree - biographies and are visible in the art world. The fact that seven of the world's ten most successful female artists are childless is a striking example of the problem. For everyone else, having children and, above all, caring for them is (still) an enormous risk factor for a successful career as an artist.

In the exhibition We care. Do you?, eight positions by female artists working in the care sector open up a space for discourse and reflection. They visualise the difficult connection between caring responsibilities as a mother and the less family-friendly structures and requirements of the contemporary art world. From an analytical-critical view of the status quo - also in neighbouring disciplines such as the performing arts - to subversive gestures of solidarity and poetic statements and visions, the exhibition shows what is and what could be possible.

*BEYOND RE:Production - Mothering in the performing Arts is a performative research project by Nora Elberfeld, Angela Kecinski, Hannah Kowalski, Sylvi Kretzschmar, Sarah Lasaki, Teresa Monfared, Liz Rech, Regina Rossi, Annika Scharm, Felizitas Stilleke and Lotte Dohmen”

Source: Alte Feuerwache

Art & Parenthood - Between artistic practice and vision

10.6.23, Galerie b2_, Leipzig

Participants:
Anna Barth, artist (MOTHEK), Alexandra Ivanova, author, sociologist (Other Writers Need to Concentrate), Ela Fischer, author, musician, actress, Landouma Ipè, author, performer, Magdalena Kallenberger, visual artist, author (MATERNAL FANTASIES), Micka Meléon, musician, performer, Mono Welk, choreographer, performer, curator (FAMILIA*FUTURA)

Moderation:
Thị Thu Trang Nguyễn, trainer and educational consultant in the field of racism criticism and anti-discrimination, author and Karoline Schneider, visual artist (Galerie b2_)

“Based on the reality of art-creating parents, the b2_ gallery invites you to utopianise together: With the knowledge of capitalist, hierarchical and patriarchal structures as a starting point, we want to think beyond the present. How can the art world and parenthood be conceptualised in a visionary way? How are parenthood and art conceivable outside of restrictive systems and what of this can be realised at present?

The panel discussion is part of the event series Together We Care.”

Source: Galerie b2_, Leipzig

Mothers*, Warriors and Poets: Care as Resistance

21.05. – 9.07.2023, StadtPalais – Museum für Stuttgart

Artists:
Anna Gohmert, Renate Liebel, Marie Lienhard, Anna Schiefer and Julia Wirsching

Curators:
Sascia Bailer and Didem Yazıcı

“Women* – especially mothers* – continue to perform the majority of unpaid care work, whether in the private or public sphere. In the art world, these inequalities related to caring responsibilities are magnified; the gender pay gap in the arts is higher than the overall societal average and discrimination based on caring work is widespread: Sex, death, politics: art can show anything today. But children? They are not an issue. Especially for their mothers, they are considered career killers, says art critic Elke Buhr in the art magazine Monopol.

Our artistic-activist exhibition and event programming resists such stubborn, patriarchal narratives, as they seem to solidify how care is organised in our society – and thereby only continue to exclude people who provide care. By foregrounding feminist ethics of care – through artistic works and discursive formats – we aim to challenge these discriminatory narratives and explore counter-designs together:

The exhibition features five Stuttgart-based artists who are also mothers* with works that explore care, reproductive justice, societal role expectations, natural healing, vulnerability and interdependence. The exhibition opens with a public programming that seeks answers to the question: What structural changes in the art field are necessary to address the lived realities of cultural producers with caring responsibilities?

In lectures, performances and workshops, participants are invited to learn about the relationship between art and care and to collectively explore strategies and demands for addressing the needs of care workers in the arts.

Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets: Care as Resistance aims to connect artists who are parents in the region – and anyone who wants to advocate for these issues. Cultural practitioners with care responsibilities are to be empowered in their work and their working conditions; existing initiatives and energies of resistance are to be brought together to write a collective manifesto for a more just art sector in Stuttgart and the surrounding area.

Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets is an artistic-activist platform founded by Stuttgart-based artists Anna Gohmert, Renate Liebel and Marie Lienhard to question and renegotiate the relationship between artistic production and motherhood*. The platform’s name is inspired by Black feminist Audre Lorde’s self-description, black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet. For Lorde, describing herself in several terms at once was central, as it revealed the complexity of her identity as well as her struggles as a Black feminist, artist, and mother* – to be a mother* artist is to be a warrior, and to think radically and evocatively like a poet at the same time. For this edition of Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets, the three initiators of the platform invited the artists Anna Schiefer and Julia Wirsching, as well as Didem Yazıcı and Sascia Bailer as curators – all of whom can be identified as independent cultural workers with care responsibilities in Baden-Württemberg.

*We use the term mother with an* to open it up to all people with caring responsibilities, who identify with the term.”

Quelle: Mothers*, Warriors, and Poets

Myths of mothers and other monsters

6.05. – 2.07.2023, M.A.R.S. – Maternal Artistic Research Studio, Freiburg

Artists:
Hannah Kindler, Milena Naef, Sara-Lena Möllenkamp and Sylvia Gaßner

Curators:
Hanna Dölle and Sascia Bailer

“The exhibition Myths of Mothers and Other Monsters questions the mythical and romanticised image of the unconditionally loving mother*.

The Freiburg-based Maternal Artistic Research Studio - M.A.R.S. consists of Hannah Kindler, Milena Naef, Sara-Lena Möllenkamp and Sylvia Gaßner.

The collective emerged from the discourse surrounding the dual role of artist and mother, which poses a number of challenges for artists. The group explores the dimensions of motherhood* and aims to utilise it as an artistic field without reducing itself to the role of the mother*. The artistic research explores what an artistic practice with or despite children can look like. This makes it possible to enter into dialogue and collaborate regardless of discipline and material. The artistic research process is informed by everyday, private narratives and thus by situated knowledge.”

Source: M.A.R.S.

Motherhood I / Concepts of Motherhood

21.04. – 30.04.2023, HilbertRaum and Retramp Gallery, Reuterstaße, Berlin Neukölln
A project from IntAkt - International Action Group of Women Artists

Artists:
Stella Bach, Maria Bergstötter, Asta Cink, Isabel Czerwenka-Wekstetten, Die 4 Grazien, Dora Mai, Sarah Iris Mang, Karin Maria Pfeifer, Barbara Philipp, Ness Rubey, Johanna Tatzgern, Agnes Rossa, Dorothée Zombronner

“The exhibition Motherhood I / Concepts of Motherhood launches a series of exhibitions on motherhood and femininity. The exhibition project is organised by IntAkt Vienna, in cooperation with the HilbertRaum and the Retramp Gallery in Berlin. The works deal with motherhood, menstruation, birth, breastfeeding, everyday life with children during and beyond the pandemic, ageing with children, etc. in various ways. The artistic standpoints, produced by artist mothers and non-mothers, range from personal perspectives and experiences via humorous and experimental works to socio-critical and socio-political statements. An important aim is to show that motherhood is not a topic to be avoided or an obstacle, but can be a source of inspiration. We all have been born of a mother. Everyone is related to this theme, everyone is touched by it in one way or another.

In the commercial and museum arts sector, motherhood seems to be a taboo subject, even today. Female artists are still advised to choose between children and career. Clichés about artists who are mothers are still very strong: as if having a child meant losing their physical self-determination and the necessary energy to create good art. Although art historiography in the field of gender studies thinks about many facets of gender, both the visual arts and art history continue to propagate the myth of the male artistic genius who prefers to create genius masterpieces in a state of intoxication. The aim of this exhibition is to question and deconstruct the myths surrounding male and female attributions in the field of art. The exhibition also points to the social structures that make it difficult for female artists—mothers and non-mothers alike—to make a name for themselves on the art market.”

Text: Agnes Rossa

Source: Hilbertraum

Which Gender has Care?

20.04. – 2.07.2023, D21 Kunstraum, Leipzig

Artists:
Berenice Güttler, bones tan jones, hannsjana, Jonas Lund, Lauryn Youden, Lê Mariables, Nadja Buttendorf, OMSK Social Club, Sebastian Körbs, Sheila Seyfert Menzel, Suzanne Treister, Threads and Tits

Curator:
Yvonne Zindel

“The changing exhibition Which Gender Has Care? explores the practical potential of Frigga Haug's 4-in-1 perspective for the arts in a changing exhibition and two events.
Haug's approach is an attempt to develop a new, feminist perspective on labour. She identifies four human activities: in working life, in caring for oneself and others (care work), in one's own development (self-care) and in political work, which should be distributed among individuals in equal proportions. The 4-in-1 perspective intervenes in our ideas of work, gender relations, responsibility for ourselves - and finally in the shaping of society through political engagement.

Curator Yvonne Zindel researches and works in particular on the possibilities and challenges of digitality and sustainability. In exhibitions, salons and event series, she explores NFTs, blockchain and degrowth as well as the possibilities for decolonial, anti-racist, feminist and inclusive curating and mediation.

Which Gender Has Care? slowly shifts from a focus on wage labour in Act 1 to a focus on ‘self-care’ in Act 3. Unfortunately, these two poles are closely linked in our hyper-capitalist times, as can be seen in the work of Threads and Tits, for example. The designer duo from Berlin caused a stir at Berlin Fashion Week in January 2023. In their Adidas Reality Wear Show, maltreated models presented outfits that addressed the poor working conditions at adidas.

In the web series Robotron - a tech opera, Nadja Buttendorf, inspired by her own family history, explores the political, material and social conditions at VEB Kombinat Robotron, the largest computer manufacturer in the GDR. The Future of Nothing by Jonas Lund comprises a series of short stories that speculate on the consequences of automation and AI for the art world and beyond. Sebastian Körbs also explores the future of contemporary art: his work Nabla Delta questions the boundaries between art, craftsmanship and design - and the sublime, the divine in times of AI and AI. OMSK Social Club is dedicated to the spiritual in the form of a game. The Living Virtual Theatre game board was designed with the architecture of the World Wide Web in mind. The game will be opened with a performance on 20 April. Suzanne Treister's watercolours HFT (the gardener) are taken from a series of drawings and computer works that she attributes to the fictional character Hillel Fischer Traumberg (HFT).”

Source: D21 Leipzig

Shhhhhh 🤫 – Exhibition about Art & Motherhood

15.04. – 14.05.2023, Kunstraum Aura Düsseldorf

Artists:
Theresa Büchner, Elâ Görgülü, Klara Kayser, Nadjana Mohr, Tanja Ritterbex, Jaśmina Wójcik

Curators:
Katharina Bruns in collaboration with the AURA art space team and the participating artists

“In this group exhibition, the artists explore various aspects of motherhood and the intersections of being an artist.

Themes such as closeness and distance, vulnerability and strength, and empowerment are explored in various media.”

Source: Kunstraum Aura

Muse or Maker? Women in the Italian art world 1400 – 1800

8.03. – 4.06.2023, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin

Curator:
Dagmar Korbacher, Director of the Kupferstichkabinett

“The special exhibition at Berlin's Kupferstichkabinett features around 90 works that shed light on the lives and work of women such as Rosalba Carriera, Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, Diana Scultori, Isabella d'Este, Christina of Sweden and others, whose works, fates and enormous influence on the art world of their time have been largely forgotten today.

During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, they outshone their fathers, brothers and husbands with their art, created and collected works that were sought after throughout Europe, and knew how to market themselves and build networks. The protagonists of the exhibition are female artists who created coveted works, but also wives who supported their husbands and served as models for them, patrons and clients who commissioned art and promoted artists, and preservers and collectors who preserved and passed on works.

The aim is not only to show their art, but also to tell something about the living conditions of these women, as far as is known. The exhibition explores the influence of being a woman on their role in the art world, whether they married and became mothers, and what strategies they pursued to assert themselves in the male-dominated world of art during the period under consideration, so that we can still find traces of their work in the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett today.

The diverse and active role of women in the Italian art world before 1800 is illustrated in drawings and prints from the inexhaustible collection of the Kupferstichkabinett as well as several special loans. The youth committee of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Achtet AlisMB, contributes the perspective of a younger generation on this current topic in several interventions in the exhibition and catalogue.

A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.”

Source: Kupferstichkabinett Berlin

THE F*WORD
Guerrilla Girls and feminist graphic design

17.2. – 17.09.2023, Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe Hamburg

“Another women's exhibition? Yes! Progress is visible in many areas with regard to the representation of women, including in the museum context. At the MK&G, the number of special exhibitions on women designers is increasing - but what is the situation in the heart of the MK&G, in the collection? The exhibition explores this question in three stages: In the central room, we show the humorous and provocative works of the activist group Guerrilla Girls, who have been exposing sexism and racism in the art world since 1985. In the second step, we take a critical and accusatory look at our collection of graphic art and posters. The result: only 1.5 per cent of the works are attributed to women. Based on this realisation, we look at the causes and show a wealth of courageous and inspiring works by female designers from the last 150 years. In the third step, we develop perspectives for the future. How do we want to develop the collection further? This exhibition does not provide an overview, but insights. We are right in the middle of it and are looking forward to the next steps.”

Source: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Motherhood – Not / Not yet / Not any more / Maybe / Motherhood

11.12.2022 – 26.2.2023, Syker Vorwerk

Artists:
Clara Alisch, Jagoda Bednarsky, BMX Ali (Bronco Wewer, Marlene Rüter, Sabine Wewer), Elinor Carucci, Hannah Cooke, Alex Giegold, Emese Kazár, Lebohang Kganye, Martha von Mechow, Elianna Renner, Felizitas Stilleke & Smruthi Gargi Eswar, Sophia Süßmilch, Frederik Vium

Curator:
Nicole Giese-Kroner

“Motherhood is a topic that affects everyone. Whether she:he herself takes on the role of mother or not. Biologically speaking, all people have or have had a mother. The concept of motherhood and its definition is complex. Hardly any other concept provokes more diverse associations, feelings and role clichés and has changed again and again over the millennia of human history. Today, this topic is more political than ever.

The exhibition Motherhood. Not / Not yet / Not anymore / Maybe / Motherhood shows how the image of motherhood and motherhood is reflected in contemporary art. The positions in the exhibition illuminate the different aspects of motherhood in a biological, psychological and social sense.

One theme of the exhibition, which is also considered, is non-maternity. This chapter is brought out in many different ways: stories about not wanting to, not being able to and loss.

Another aspect of the exhibition is the still ambivalent relationship between the art and culture industry and artists who choose motherhood.

Motherhood beyond heteronormative, cisgender relationships is also negotiated artistically.

The exhibition will be embedded in a broad accompanying programme of guided tours, a children's programme, readings, panel discussions with experts and a theatre performance.

There will also be free children's programmes on certain dates.”

Source: Syker Vorwerk

TRANSFORMATIONEN 22 CARE – An artistic exploration
of the value and changing values of care

9.07. – 24.07.2022, Cohaus Kloster Schlehdorf

Artists:
Gabi Blum, Anna McCarthy, Manuela Gernedel, Hennicker/Schmidt, Sascha Huth, Kirsten Kleie, Daniel Man, Stephanie Müller and Klaus Erika Dietl with the Missionary Dominican Sisters Sr Josefa, Sr Nicol and Sr Suzànne, Rita De Muynck, K&K - Bündnis Kunst und Kind, Anna Schölß, Martin Schuster, Thomas Silberhorn, Dr Daniela Stöppel, Jorinde Voigt, Anna Witt

“Among other things, the transdisciplinary show addresses the controversial question of the importance of care, nursing and caring work in 21st century society and the extent to which the understanding and implementation of care work requires a transformation, i.e. a change in values, or whether this change is already taking place. The group exhibition will take place in unusual premises that seem tailor-made for the topic: the former infirmary of the Dominican Missionary Sisters, which will be converted in autumn 2022 and will become the setting for the works of over 50 artists in its current raw state. This time, international art stars, artist collectives, activists and regional players have answered the call to the Blue Land.
The exhibition will be framed by a highly exciting programme led by Anja Kleer on the topic of care with talks, performances and readings etc. The wonderful Ronja cafemobile, vegan catering by Cohaus JaCOba and the mobile creperie by crêpes jockey Carli will take care of your physical well-being. Rita De Muynck's art factory will also be opening its doors again and showing works on the theme and from the permanent collection.”

Source: Cohaus Kloster Schlehdorf

After the Revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?

29.05.2022, Künstler:innenhaus Lauenburg

Panelists:
Aleen Solari, visual artist
Marcia Breuer, visual artist and founder of the initiative More Mothers for Art.
Nadja Quante, artistic director at the Künstlerhaus Bremen
Maxwell Stephens, visual artist and author

Moderation:
Mascha Jacobs, freie Autorin und Publizistin

“A conversation exploring questions about parenthood in the arts and the differences in the traditionally assigned roles within it: Can they manage to reconcile both? How productive can they remain? Where does the coolness go when Tupperware containers, wet wipes, parenting issues, and minor and major worries about offspring come into play? Parenthood in the artistic world is still often perceived as a deviation from normality. We are still predominantly dealing with the dominant image of a generally male artist who has no responsibility other than to himself or his art.
But isn't it just as sexy to be responsible for others?
How do we use the insights from the inter-pandemic period to achieve this?
What are the new guidelines for adapting existing support programs, spaces, and venues for artists and those working in the arts with caregiving responsibilities – that is, a majority?”

Source: Künstler:innenhaus Lauenburg

MUTTER!

1.10.2021 – 6.02.2022, Kunsthalle Mannheim

Curators:
Marie Laurberg (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art), Kirsten Degel (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art), Johan Holten (Kunsthalle Mannheim)

“Whether loving or distant, near or far, alive or dead, mothers are the source and existential beginning of human life. There is hardly another term or concept that evokes more manifold associations of, reactions to, and clichés about roles. The international exhibition MOTHER! shows how art has conveyed changing perceptions of motherhood from Old Masters and early avant-garde artists to the present day. Showing works ranging from Louise Bourgeois, Rineke Dijkstra, and Paula Modersohn-Becker to Yoko Ono, Pablo Picasso, and Egon Schiele, the show concentrates on the period when the feminist revolution challenged the traditional role assigned to women. From the invention of the contraceptive pill and legalized abortion in the twentieth century to current ideas of roles including biotechnological possibilities and queer family structures, the image of the mother is investigated with regard to cultural expectations and norms. The exhibition brings together contemporary art, art historical works, films, literature, as well as artifacts from the worlds of science and popular culture, in order to convey the multifaceted topic of motherhood.”

An exhibition of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark in cooperation with Kunsthalle Mannheim.

Source: Kunsthalle Mannheim

More Mothers for Art – Discussion on the topic of artist parenthood in the art world

11.08.2021, Fabrik der Künste, Hamburg

Moderation: Katja Schroeder, Curator, Kunsthaus Hamburg

Reading by Jenny Schäfer, Artist

Talk:
Jana Schiedek, State Councilor, Hamburg Authority for Culture and Media
Heike Mutter, Artist, Professor, HFBK Hamburg
Wiebke Schwarzhans, Artist and Doctoral Student, HFBK Hamburg
Marcia Breuer, Artist and Initiator of "More Mothers for Art"

An abridged version of the conversation moderated by Katja Schroeder with Jana Schiedek, Heike Mutter, Wiebke Schwarzhans and Marcia Breuer, a text on artist*motherhood by Marcia Breuer and a literary text by Jenny Schäfer are included in the publication POSITION 2.0 of the BBK Hamburg (edited by Carsten Rabe).

Writing with CARE / RAGE – Conference on Care Work and Authorship

18. – 20.06.2021, online conference

Writing with CARE / RAGE is a collective of writing mothers who advocate for the compatibility of artistic work and care work / CARE and combine the demand for equal treatment of care workers in the literary world with the necessary anger / RAGE.

As part of the conference on care work and authorship organised by Writing with CARE / RAGE, which will take place from 18 to 20 June 2021, the collective offers other actors from the fields of literature, art, publishing and journalism the opportunity to contribute to the discourse and present their own perspectives, experiences and approaches.

“In the field of literature, writing mothers are still marginal figures. Their dilemma of reconciling paid work and care work is either commented on with pity, ridiculed or, at best, ignored. For us, writing and care are not opposites. They are intertwined and owe their density of being to each other. What we need are new narratives of motherhood and artistic creation. We demand structures that support our writing instead of hindering it. What is the relationship between care work and artistic production? What myths are circulating? We will come together for three days to discuss these issues and explore our production conditions as writers with children.”

Source: CARE / RAGE