Concerted Actions: Women*s Year at Schwules Museum Berlin 2018
Birgit Bosold / Vera Hofmann
Ironically calling back to the International Women’s Year (IWY) given to 1975 by the United Nations, and in light of current discourses on “lesbian visibility” and queer feminism in Berlin’s cultural landscape and LGBTIQ+ communities, a radical intervention into the Schwules* Museum Berlin is currently taking place: a year-long program weaving itself through all levels and spaces of the museum from events to exhibitions, from archive to management. Giving care, voice, budget and space to (queer-)feminist and female* perspectives for a whole year has caused a stir: not only in the institution, which has mainly been a home for white gay male perspectives during its 30-year history, but also within the LGBTIQ+ communities at large. While some in the community have scorned the project and harshly criticized it in the media, new visitors are flocking in as never before. Treating the project as a case study for (queer)-feminist curatorial, artistic and activist practice, we will present the methods of the program including its different formats. Furthermore, we will address the political and psychological conflict zones that have revealed themselves during the year and pair them with an intimate insight into the invisible labour happening in the background. We will share experiences of lack, limitations and sorrows, but also success.
Birgit Bosold has been a member of the board of the Schwules Museum Berlin since 2006. She is responsible for the museum’s finances and was instrumental in its strategic reorientation, including the (co-)curation of exhibitions. She was project director and co-curator of the exhibition Homosexualität_en, initiated by the Schwules Museum in collaboration with the German Historical Museum, shown at both museums in 2015 and then 2016 at the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster. Responsible for the 2017 projects Ein anderer Blick. Postkoloniale Perspektiven im Schwulen Museum and Queering Holocaust History as well as a research and exhibition project on the persecution and repression of lesbian women and gay men in Hesse (1945–1985). Together with Vera Hofmann, project director for the 2018 Women*s Year at Schwules Museum Berlin. In this context, together with Carina Klugbauer, she curated the exhibition Lesbisches Sehen (The Lesbian Gaze).
Vera Hofmann is an artist and has been a member of the board of directors of the Schwules Museum Berlin since 2016. She initiates and works on strategic projects to foster the opening of the Schwules Museum towards a contemporary museum for the whole spectrum of queerness. Together with Birgit Bosold, project director of Women*s Year at Schwules Museum Berlin. In this context, she curated the film lounge 12 Moons, the lecture series our own feminismS and the Dyke Bar: SPIRITS – formats for intergenerational, intersectional, queer mutual learning with a strong focus on aesthetic considerations of (semi-)public space and qualities of queering. As an artist, she has shown her work at De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam; Benaki Museum, Athens; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and Pori Art Museum, Finland. She established and has worked in the artist collective BENTEN CLAY.
Revolt She Said. Perspectives and Questions on Feminist Art Curating and
Anti-Hegemonic Production of His/Herstories
Katharina Koch
Which ideal claims are linked to the production of feminist art spaces? With which realities are they confronted? What does a feminist practice of curating mean in this context? The lecture will give an insight into the history, processes and work of the feminist art space alpha nova & galerie futura by presenting its concept and resulting practices and structures. Founded in 1986 alpha nova & galerie futura once started out as an explicit women’s project, acting in the spirit of the second wave feminism in Western Germany of fighting for women’s rights and emancipation. A generational change of the curatorial collective in 2012 went along with a strong reflection on changes in positions, practices and strategies of feminist art curating. By presenting selected projects of the past years as well as a current one – Revolt She Said – decolonial and feminist perspectives on 68, questions and (self)reflections on the production of history/herstory, knowledge, and representation and which role race and gender play for (non)visibility within this context, will be discussed. What are the preconditions for non-hierarchical, solidary and inclusive ways of collaboration, knowledge production and sharing as well as for forms of exhibiting and representation?
Katharina Koch is director and co-curator of the feminist art space alpha nova & galerie futura in Berlin, Germany. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and a M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Social Sciences and Gender Studies. Her fields of activity range from curatorial to academic-theoretical work. She is a filmmaker and realized several documentaries. Her main topics are feminism, art in public space, participative art, and film.
Workshop
Public Feminisms Forum. Collectively: Thinking, Speaking, Writing
With Anschläge (Lea Susemichel), AUF (Eva Geber, Marietta Schneider), Ona B., Bliss (Marlene Bür- gerkurator Engel), Johanna Braun, Frauenhetz (Birge Krondorfer), Lena Fritsch, Intakt (Stella Bach, Julia Bugram, Susanne Kompast), Kunst und Kind (Vasilena Gankovska, Hansel Sato), Sophie Lingg, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Raum (Christine Zwingl), MenstruationsNetzwerk (Valentina Mitterer), Migrationsskizzen (Carla Bobadilla), Miss Balthazar’s Laboratory (Lale Rodgarkia-Dara, Stephanie Wuschitz), ÖGGF (Romana Hagyo), Iver Ohm, RADS, RitClique (Erica Fischer), Salon Talk (Dudu Kü- cükgöl, Anna Mendelssohn), Juliane Saupe, Basak Senova, Sorority (Sandra Nigischer, Martina Schöggl), Melinda Tamas, VBKÖ (Stephanie Misa, Ruby Sircar), Wienwoche (Nataša Mackuljak, Iva- na Marjanovic), Wirsindfeige.org (Malu Blume, Ebru Düzgün, Magdalena Fischer, Franziska Kabisch, Sophie Utikal). The workshop is based on texts written by all the contributors. Workshop run by Elke Krasny and Claudia Lomoschitz.
Lectures
Birgit Bosold / Vera Hofmann, Concerted Actions: Women*s Year at Schwules Museum Berlin 2018
Katharina Koch, Revolt She Said. Perspectives and Questions on Feminist Art Curating and Anti- Hegemonic Production of His/Herstories
Moderated by Dorothee Richter
Lara Perry, Viewing Women's Work in the Art Museum
Dorothee Richter, Artistic and Curatorial Turns, Care and Accelerated Capitalism. From the Sixties to Contemporary Practices in Feminist Perspectives. A Tour de Force
Moderated by Elke Krasny
Noit Banai, Biopolitical Regimes of Feminism: 1938 – 1968 – 2018
Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Who is a Revolutionary?
Moderated by Luisa Ziaja
Workshop
Night School - Neda Hosseinyar, Marissa Lôbo, Stephanie Misa, Catrin Seefranz, Contagious Ideas: A Night School Workshop