This Is Not A Love Song
15 Jan - 09 Mar 2019
THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG
Dave Allen, Christian Falsnaes, Nadira Husain, Shila Khatami, Almut Linde, Stefanie von Schroeter, Joulia Strauss, Silke Wagner
15 January – 9 March 2019
Curated by Raimar Stange
In the seventies, women of the “Revolutionary Cell” militantly protest against the abortion ban; a good three quarters of a century earlier, the so-called “Malweiber” fight for emancipation – not only in Worpswede; and today, vernissage visitors destroy parts of a typical “male-dominated” museum collection. “Feminist issues” like these are the focus of the exhibition THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG. It is important that its selection considers not only – as it is common in today’s discussion – the aspects of identity politics, where materialist-Marxist issues, as e.g. “class membership”, are forgotten. Already Didier Eribon had self-critically confessed precisely this dysfunction in his book “Return to Reims” (2009).
Hence, THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG is also about women working in denim production in the Global South for the lowest wage, as well as about the important role of women in the “Refugee Movement” in Berlin; at the same time, a child prostitute sings sentimental children’s songs. In this exhibition, these seemingly unrelated issues are claimed to condition one another. In THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG (the title of a song by the post-punk band Public Image Ltd from 1985) all works, complex and varied in their thematic spectrum and usage of media – from painting and sculpture, through video and neon works, to a sound installation – are united through their high degree of formal sensuality.
Text by Raimar Stange
Dave Allen, Christian Falsnaes, Nadira Husain, Shila Khatami, Almut Linde, Stefanie von Schroeter, Joulia Strauss, Silke Wagner
15 January – 9 March 2019
Curated by Raimar Stange
In the seventies, women of the “Revolutionary Cell” militantly protest against the abortion ban; a good three quarters of a century earlier, the so-called “Malweiber” fight for emancipation – not only in Worpswede; and today, vernissage visitors destroy parts of a typical “male-dominated” museum collection. “Feminist issues” like these are the focus of the exhibition THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG. It is important that its selection considers not only – as it is common in today’s discussion – the aspects of identity politics, where materialist-Marxist issues, as e.g. “class membership”, are forgotten. Already Didier Eribon had self-critically confessed precisely this dysfunction in his book “Return to Reims” (2009).
Hence, THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG is also about women working in denim production in the Global South for the lowest wage, as well as about the important role of women in the “Refugee Movement” in Berlin; at the same time, a child prostitute sings sentimental children’s songs. In this exhibition, these seemingly unrelated issues are claimed to condition one another. In THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG (the title of a song by the post-punk band Public Image Ltd from 1985) all works, complex and varied in their thematic spectrum and usage of media – from painting and sculpture, through video and neon works, to a sound installation – are united through their high degree of formal sensuality.
Text by Raimar Stange