New Exhibition at Kunsthaus Dresden
with artistic contributions by Lisa Maria Baier, Ksenia Kuleshova, Irma Markulin, Irène Mélix, Liz Rosenfeld, Angelina Seibert, Liliana Zeic
„I′m a bitch, I’m a lover, I′m a child, I’m a mother, I′m a sinner, I’m a saint – and I do not feel ashamed.“ In 1997, rock singer Meredith Brooks confronts six different ways of being, to counter the myth that there is such a thing as ‚the woman.‘ Today, after a variety of feminist waves, there are so many different positions that it is easy to lose track of what might be feminist, inclusive, politically correct or ‚woke‘. To say ’nothing wrong‘ on the playing field of identities may resemble a path through a minefield that many may not dare to tread anymore.
Gender-sensitive concerns, including the (in)visibility of care and domestic work or linguistic reforms, are fiercely disputed, yet the issues addressed in the exhibition not only affect a queer/feminist community, but also allow for fundamental reflection on the wider community, visions of life, and also love. There is a persisting struggle about the nature of gender, roles and positions, and the individual right to define love, affection, closeness and eroticism. Can a common path still be found here? A closeness to one another? Or do we at times have the feeling of moving away from each other, when political, feminist or LGBTQIA+ oriented achievements are questioned over and over again?
Eine Frage der Nähe / A Question of Closeness, the first exhibition of the Kunsthaus in 2023, is dedicated to contemporary questions of gender, queerness, identity, and desire, asking – among other things – how the unexpectedly complex design of the stereotypes in the 20th century still affect current body regimes – and also how these may be disrupted.
The exhibition brings together artistic works of diverse media and materials from prints and wood inlays, to expansive sculpture and site-specific installation, to photography, video and sound installations.
The exhibition is curated by Kerstin Flasche.