Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
26 Oct 2018 - 01 Sep 2019
Osborne Macharia: Kabangu (Serie), 2016, Nairobi, Kenia. Foto: Osborno Macharia. Courtesy the artist and Weltkulturen Museum
Who is old – where and when? Can we meet the ‘challenge of ageing’ optimistically? And what potential lies slumbering in the process of aging? Projections for global demographic trends are forecasting an increase in the world’s older population. The process of growing older is not just important for each individual, but has implications for the social and cultural spheres. Yet each generation ages differently. And when can we actually talk of someone as ‘old’ at all? Even if the visible biological aging processes are the same the world over, each culture has its differences in defining ‘age’. There is no universally valid definition of when ‘old age’ starts. So who is old – where and when? GREY IS THE NEW PINK presents diverse ideas and models of ‘age(ing)’ from the perspective of cultural studies and the visual arts, as well as personal and individual experience. Like fragments in a lifetime’s memories, the exhibition combines into an anthology of aging the individual ways of dealing with such topics as lifestyle, love and sexuality, transmission of knowledge, longevity, illness, health, and death. In the exhibition ‘age(ing)’ is explored internationally in photographs, videos, literature, drawings, as well as large-scale and multimedia installations and performances both in the work of scientists, artists and poets, as well as younger and older people from the general population. Numerous exhibits from the from the Weltkulturen Museum’s Africa, Americas, South East Asia, Oceania, Visual Anthropology collections and the library broaden the view of the subject. With game consoles you can improve your brain functionality and get refreshed at the “Weltkulturen Water Bar”. Curated by Alice Pawlik (curator Visual Anthropology, Weltkulturen Museum). Participating artists: Ishola Akpo (*1983 CI/BJ), Ramy Al-Asheq (*1989 PS/SY/DE), Femi Amogunla (*1984 NG), Naama Attias (*1989 IL), Meret Buser (*1990 CH), Jess T. Dugan (*1986 US) und Vanessa Fabbre (*1978 US), André Günther/Albino (DE), Hartmut Jahn (*1955 DE), Günther Krabbenhöft (*1945 DE) und Britt Kanja (*1951 DE), Lars Krutak (*1971 US), Osborne Macharia (*1986 KE), Ninette Niemeyer (*1961 DE), Raymond Sagapolutele (*1971 WS/NZ), Patricia Thoma (*1977 DE), Karsten Thormaehlen (*1965 DE) und Jake Verzosa (*1979 PH) as well as participants in the open global “Call for Content” and the students and the elderly participants of the “textgestALTER” project. Follow them on Social Media @Weltkulturen.Museum with #GreyIsTheNewPink! The accompanying programme to the exhibition can be found here.
