Exhibition

Empowerment – Group Show

Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany
10 Sep 2022 - 08 Jan 2023

Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Will I still carry water when I am a dead woman?, 2013, 1‑Kanal-Video, 11:55 min © Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Courtesy die Künstlerin, Foto: Ema Edosio

Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Will I still carry water when I am a dead woman?, 2013, 1‑Kanal-Video, 11:55 min © Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Courtesy die Künstlerin, Foto: Ema Edosio

The exhibition Empowerment brings together diverse feminist approaches and understands these as progressive methods to analyze the societies of the world with the means of art and to show possible ways out of the global crises.

Despite worldwide movements, demonstrations, and petitions to establish equality, it is still not possible in the twenty-first century to speak of comprehensive gender equality with regard to women and LGBTQIA+ communities—neither in this country nor elsewhere. In many places, structural relationships of power and inequality prevent equal payment or the remuneration of domestic work and ensure oppression and exploitation up to physical violence or even murder: Countless artists worldwide react to these untenable conditions with their works in order to achieve equal and future-oriented life opportunities for themselves and other marginalized people. Now is exactly the right time to gain an overview of how artists imbue their art with political meaning and create such fascinating and evocative works of art.

With the exhibition Empowerment, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is for the first time offering such a comprehensive global overview of art and feminisms of the twenty-first century with roughly 100 artistic positions from some fifty countries from all continents. Within the framework of seven thematic fields that have emerged from the worldwide research (Protest & Empowerment, Gender & Identity, Herstories & Other Narratives, Desired & Violated Bodies, Labour of Care, Planetary Challenges, Feminist Futures), the artworks will explore the following questions, among others: How do artists act out of their respective situations in the postcolonial, digital present? What emancipatory understanding underlies their art? How do they broaden their view of a feminist-oriented future? Questions regarding social inequality, sexism, racism, migration, the relationship of bodies, technology, and ecological concerns will also be negotiated. These issues affect everyone.

Participating Artists
Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Stacey Gillian Abe, Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai, Heba Y. Amin, Maja Bajević, Natalie Ball, Yael Bartana, Mehtap Baydu, Alexandra Bircken, Benedikte Bjerre, Monica Bonvicini, Phoebe Boswell, Andrea Bowers, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Candice Breitz, Anetta Mona Chişa & Lucia Tkáčová, Christa Joo Hyun D’Angelo, Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Birgit Dieker, Display Distribute, Zehra Doğan, Anna Ehrenstein, Ndidi Emefiele, Nona Faustine, Renata Felinto, Nathê Ferreira, Keltie Ferris, Kasia Fudakowski, Regina José Galindo, Ellen Gallagher, Goldendean, Gabrielle Goliath, Jenna Gribbon, Nilbar Güreş, Shilpa Gupta, h.arta group, Mathilde ter Heijne, Hyphen-Labs, HOU I‑Ting, Chen Jialu, Patricia Kaersenhout , Gladys Kalichini, Šejla Kamerić, Mari Katayama, Kerolayne Kemblin, Yuki Kihara, Seo-Kyung Kim & Eun-Sung Kim, Jakob Lena Knebl, Yaka Huni Kuin, Laetitia Ky, LASTESIS, Kitso Lynn Lelliott, Pixy LIAO, Laís Lino, Ann Lislegaard, XIAO Lu, Maria Macedo, Mary Maggic, Senzeni Marasela, Teresa Margolles, Taianã Mello, Silvana Mendes, Mitti Mendonça, Aline Motta, Shana Moulton & Nick Hallett, Zanele Muholi, Kresiah Mukwazhi, Marina Naprushkina, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Zohra Opoku, Tanja Ostojić, Pacific Sisters, Rosana Paulino, Âmbar Pictórica, Irena Jukić Pranjić, #purplenoise, Pushpamala N, Pussy Riot, Xiaoshi Qin, Lisa Reihana, Elianna Renner, Tabita Rezaire, Pipilotti Rist, Tracey Rose, Boryana Rossa, Raeda Saadeh, Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, Mariela Scafati, Berni Searle, Selma Selman, Mithu Sen, Lerato Shadi, Tejal Shah, Nazaré Soares, Joulia Strauss, Melati Suryodarmo, Sandeep T K, Newsha Tavakolian, Elena Tejada-Herrera, Bussaraporn Thongchai, LIN Tianmiao, Wu Tsang, Moara Tupinambá, Kawita Vatanajyankur, Mônica Ventura, Kara Walker, Leafā Wilson alias Olga Hedwig Krause mit Faith Wilson & Olive Wilson, Anna Witt, Ming Wong, Shevaun Wright, Juliana Xukuru, Jing Y., LEI Yan, CAO Yu, Mia YU, Jade Maria Zimbra

In order to do justice to these globally significant perspectives, several international networks of scholars, curators, and artists were initiated for Empowerment. The museums own research was thus supplemented by artistic proposals from globally active regional experts. The curatorial perspective has also been expanded by the invited collectives Nacional TROVOA (Brazil), Njabala Foundation (Uganda), What the hELL she doin! (Great Britain/ Kenya/South Africa/Uganda), AXA projects (China), and Sandbox Collective (India), each of which will curate their own Guest Space within the exhibition. Empowerment is presented in a scenography designed especially for the show by the award-winning Berlin studio raumlabor.

 

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