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[14. november
2002]
pressemeddelelse
Hausordnungen - Stadthaus Ulm
Hausordnungen
Opening reception November 17th 2002, 11:00
November 18th 2002 - January 26th 2003
curated by Katharina Menzel and Antje Krause-Wahl
Stadthaus Ulm
Münsterplatz 50
D-89073 Ulm
phone +49 0731 1617700
www.stadthaus.ulm.de
email: stadthaus@ulm.de
Director: Dr. Joachim Gerner
opening hours: Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri: 9 -18 Thurs: 9 20,
Sun and Holidays: 11 - 18
Hausordnungen (Rules for Residents)
Nairy Baghramian, Monica Bonvicini, Kaucyila Brooke, Nanna Buhl,
Andrea Geyer, Jacqueline Hassink, Anna Lehmann-Brauns, Dorit Margreiter,
Matthias Müller
Hausordnungen (Rules for Residents) brings together contemporary
works that investigate concepts of gender identity in relation to
architecture and living space.
Architectural spaces define, structure and organize our daily territories,
social relations and perception. The nine artists in the exhibition
employ photography and video to draw attention to the architecture
itself, the interior, and the physical ordering of environments
and to reflect on the impact of gender relations. Even though many
of the works in the exhibition use an outwardly documentary approach,
they do not function as simple representations. Instead they construct
new spaces through their use of architectural ensembles, photographic
series and video installations and their engagement with narrative
and memory.
In the video installation "Hausfrau Swinging" Monica Bonvicini
metaphorically questions the gender of architecture by literally
translating "Hausfrau" into a woman embedded in the house.
Andrea Geyer's installation "Information Upon Request," uses
photographs, texts and a carpet to investigate contemporary ideas
of feminism and gender. An apartment building in New York City founded
in 1920 for professional women is the inspiration for and basis
of the work and serves as a metaphoric space housing different ideas
and knowledge on the subject.
Kaucyila Brooke and Anna Lehmann-Brauns reconstruct spaces
from memory. The photographs of Lehmann-Brauns show miniature models
from the 1960s and 1970s rebuilt through recollection. Her intimate
approach recreates the atmosphere of the political and social reality
of the time. Kaucyila Brooke traces the sites of lesbian bars in
San Diego, California, which have almost all gone out of business.
The photographs not only depict the spaces that these meeting points
of the local lesbian community occupy but also develop an alternative
topography of the city.
Nanna Buhl employs similar documentary strategies in "Red
Light Transfer." Focusing on the representation of gender and sex
in the red-light district of Copenhagen, Denmark, her video essay
discusses the impact of internet prostitution on that particular
public site, mutating it from a concrete physical place to a virtual
space.
Dorit Margreiter's photographs of "Short Hills" could be
read as pictures of stage sets built for soap operas. But instead
they are, in fact, photographs taken in the homes of her relatives
from East Asia. The photographs are infused with signs of mixed
identities. The videos shown in combination with the photographs
hints at the construction of identities through TV series.
In "Home Stories" Matthias Müller combines short clips from
different Hollywood films from the 1950s and 1960s, in which solitary
women (mostly played by Lauren Bacall) are shown in typical domestic
settings of the time. His links create a story pinpointing the stereotypes
inherent in the scenes.
Nairy Baghramian combines photographs taken in a "Frauenhaus"
(womans's home) in Dahlem, Germany with film stills from Agnes Vardas
"Cleo von 5-7" (1964). Jacqueline Hassink's photographs juxtapose
the conference and the dining tables of female managers. Both works
encourage the viewer to inspect their own prejudices regarding 'female
spaces'.
A catalogue is available (96 pages, text in German,
ISBN 3-934 727-16-6)
This exhibiton was made possible through the generous support of:
randstad, Bang & Olufsen, Sächsische Textilforschungsgemeinschaft
Chemnitz e.V., Danish Contemporary Art Foundation
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