The exhibition does not directly express the history of feminism in art but traces a network of multiple references, drawing connections between aesthetically and politically, geographically and historically heterogeneous perspectives. Different narratives and movements thus shape feminist tendencies that are not unified by any style or label. Rather, their connection lies in a shared attitude towards art as a field of antagonistic relationships and hierarchical structures that run through society as a whole.
In 1969 this relationship between artistic and social hierarchies led Lee Lozano to the conclusion that “there can be no artistic revolution separate from a scientific revolution, political revolution, educational revolution, drug revolution, sex revolution, or personal revolution”. Understanding the personal as political as two sides of the same coin was one of the most central feminist demands of the time. She articulated a common denominator of diverse, activist, theoretical and artistic feminisms across political and social boundaries.
In 2019, exactly 50 years later, the relationship between public and private, personal experience and structural violence remains a controversial terrain. After the Weinstein scandal and various other cases of sexual abuse across the social spectrum, this relationship is once again at the center of political debates and media attention. Whether in politics, media, business, science, art, or our daily lives, we still have to insist on #metoo: that experiences of sexism, racism, or other forms of abuse and violence are not a personal issue, but structural.
Straying from the Line presents artistic approaches that explore the political within the personal, the public within the private and vice versa, placing the supposed outward appearance of art as its core. They do this, for example, by examining the social codes of artistic forms, techniques or models of representation; expressing desires beyond the confines of the binary logic of gender or problematizing the political economies of the circulation of images.
In addition to these contemporary and modern approaches (including Maria Lassnig, Lynda Benglis, Teresa Burga, Ulrike Müller and Heji Shin, among others), the exhibition presents a number of practices that are not usually associated with feminist art or they are never part of canon. These include the collective work of Tim Rollins & KOS, the examination of caring and exchange relationships by Constantina Zavitsanos and Park McArthur (Score for Before, 2012-2015), the almost forgotten kinetic objects of Irma Hünerfauth (Erste Liebe, 1973 ) and the collages of Alice Lex-Nerlinger (e.g. Arbeiten, Arbeiten, Arbeiten, 1928). Cross-links and elective affinities within the exhibition structure invite visitors to create their own links between different bodies of work. What happens when Claude Cahun's strange self-portraits of the late 1920s are seen in relation to Leigh Ledare's photographic models of the biographical and the pornographic (Personal Commissions, 2008)? Or when Diamond Stingily's Kanekalon hair braid (Kaas, 2017) is considered together with Eva Hesse's organic strings (One More Than One, 1967)? What affinities or continuities and what differences in terms of desire and corporeality and their inscriptions in the relations of gender, race, class and ability derive from such ties? Presenting a repertoire of artistic approaches that cannot be limited to femininity or candor, nor to historical, political or aesthetic parameters, Moving Away from the Line investigates the potential of art to give feminist tendencies new meanings and different forms.
Works by: Vito Acconci, Lynda Benglis, Dara Birnbaum, Jenna Bliss, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Teresa Burga, Tom Burr, Claude Cahun, Ellen Cantor, Tony Cokes, Anna Daučíková, Cosey Fanni All, Nicole Eisenman, Ellen Gallagher, Jef Geys, Guerilla Girls, Barbara Hammer, Eva Hesse, Irma Hünerfauth, Mike Kuchar, Maria Lassnig, Leigh Ledare, Alice Lex-Nerlinger, Klara Lidén, Lee Lozano, Sarah Lucas, Ulrike Müller, Gabriele Münter, Anna Oppermann, Charlotte Posenenske, Tim Rollins & KOS, Aura Rosenberg, Betye Saar, Heji Shin, Marianna Simnett, Jack Smith, Nancy Spero, Diamond Stingily, Sturtevant, Martine Syms, Rosemarie Trockel, Anna Uddenberg, Raphaela Vogel, Constantina Zavitzanos & Park McArthur
