For decades, Berlin has symbolized the promise of an independent life marked by artistic ambition.

Since the late 1970s, there has been a large number of independent feminist artists in both West and East Berlin who have successfully pursued their work and established themselves – some in the midst of the art scene, others on its fringes. Some were able to successfully establish themselves internationally, while others distinguished themselves by permanently locating themselves in the subculture.

In 2021, Berlin – or the idea of Berlin – seems to remain one of the few spaces of possibility for artists from places where creative and critical expression is hardly possible, or only possible to a limited extent, or where there are hardly any perspectives for alternative lifestyles.

Galerie Auslage explores these two, temporally separate movements with its program. In a series of exhibitions, screenings, talks and workshops, artists who have recently arrived in Berlin meet artists who began their artistic careers here in the 1970s/1980s. The (re)visualization of this special side of Berlin’s (sub)culture is intended to be a stimulus and inspiration – and by no means only to radiate from then to now. In the encounter of the generations, ruptures and continuities will be explored and different artistic lifestyles will be presented and examined.

In addition to windows with works by female artists from the 1980s, Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, Pınar Öğrenci and Maria Kassab will develop new works according to the theme that will be presented in the display window of Galerie Auslage. The choice of the shop window as an exhibition space also opens up opportunities for viewing and encounter in any continued Covid19 measures.

The Burdensome Richness –
Independent female and queer artists in Berlin in the 1980s and today

Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu — Hanna Frenzel — Anne Jud — Maria Kassab — Käthe Kruse — Erin Honeycutt — Pınar Öğrenci — Elisa R. Linn — Ulrike Ottinger — Gabriele Stötzer

Curated by Alexandra Weltz-Rombach

Duration of Exhibition: 09. April 2021 – 26. September 2021

Galerie Auslage, Pücklerstraße 17, 10997 Berlin
https://www.instagram.com/galerie_auslage/

To the artists (in chronological order)

We showed a selection of Hanna Frenzel‘s work at Galerie Auslage in September 2020. Frenzel had made a furor especially in the 1980s and 1990s with her performances and films and photographs representing them. Veiling, withdrawing and yet stepping onto the stage are central themes of her performances. We take this as the starting point of our series.

Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu concentrates on investigating the physical and emotional limits and boundaries of the human body through performance art. Taking this corporal research as a core, Darıcıoğlu deals with hegemonic political and societal concepts and norms through her* artistic practice which radiates from performance art to, more widely, time and space based disciplines like video, installation and public interventions. For her* installation and live performance “I plant my seeds in here“ Darıcıoğlu collaborates with Queer icon Jilet Sebahat (Razor Sebahat) to create a critical appreciation of Ulrike Ottinger‘s films “Madame X: An Absolute Ruler” and “Ticket of No Return” while investigating an inclusive feminist solidarity that is rooted in the Kanto musical tradition. In cooperation with Performistanbul.

In her current works, Käthe Kruse refers to the object-like productions of the group “Die Tödliche Doris” – to their costumes and instruments – which she transforms for the new millennium. Beyond 1980s nostalgia, artifacts emerge that shed all reliquary and present themselves as artworks of their own originality. In 2013, she transformed her drum kit into a leather-covered object; in a performance, Kruse, turned into a hanging, walk-in leather dress, again awakened the drum kit – only now the sound had been transformed.

Berlin based artist Pınar Öğrenci has a background in architecture, which informs her poetic and experiential video-based work and installations that accumulate traces of ‘material culture’ related to forced displacement across geographies. Her works are decolonial and feminist readings from the intersections of social, political and anthropological research, everyday practices, and human stories that follow agents of migration such as war, state violence, collective movements, as well as industrial and urban development projects. She is the founder and director of “MARSistanbul” an art initiative launched in 2010. She used to work as guest lecturer at Luneburg University (2017-2018) and University of the Arts Bremen (HFK, 2019) and currently teaches at MA Raumstrategien, Kunsthochschule Weißensee Berlin. Öğrenci directed her first documentary film “Gurbet is a home now” in Berlin in 2020 that puts under critical review the urban planning principles in 1980s Berlin and centers around the personal experiences and solidarity amongst the women migrants and guest workers living in Kreuzberg. In her film poet and actor Aras Ören’s lines play an important role in the reappraisal of a slice of Kreuzberg history that has remained in the shadows. For her new work at Galerie Auslage in Kreuzberg she will continue working on the similar concepts, researching representation of the architecture of Berlin and migration themas on literature.

Anne Jud‘s performances populated the West Berlin urban space of the 1980s. At Galerie Auslage we will present her work “Sommerpause” (1980), where she spent 24 hours on a sofa in a wasteland near Potsdamer Platz, letting friends visit and take care of her, and documenting events during this period.

Maria Kassab‘s artistic focus is on video and photography. She often uses the image itself as source material, which she charges with a new political narrative through craft/technical manipulation. For her photographic work at Galerie Auslage, she will draw on stagings and self-portraits by Tabea Blumenschein and Claudia Skoda.

With Gabriele Stötzer an artist is part of our program whose work mainly took place in Erfurt. After a forced exmatriculation followed by 12 months of political imprisonment, she started to run the (private) Gallery “Im Flur”, worked with film, performance and fashion and became a member of the Erfurt artist group “Exterra XX”. In addition to temporary residencies in Berlin, she also published in underground publications of the Prenzlauer Berg art/music scene. Her feminist and explicitly political performances and video works kept her under constant surveillance of the state security. At Galerie Auslage we will show an early video work alongside photographs by Cornelia Schleime documenting one of her performances.

Maria Kassab’s artistic focus is on video and photography. She often uses the image itself as source material, which she charges with a new political narrative through craft/technical manipulation. For her photographic work at Galerie Auslage, she will draw on stagings and self-portraits by Tabea Blumenschein and Claudia Skoda.

In September, a series of events will extend the exhibition series. The scheduled events include presentations by Erin Honeycutt and Elisa R. Linn, and a screening of Ulrike Ottinger‘s film “Madame X: An Absolute Ruler” (1977).

The exhibition series is supported by funds from the project funding of the district of Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.

Please respect the general Covid rules. Distance, hygiene, mask.

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