Tabea Blumenschein (1952–2020), Hilka Nordhausen (1949–1993), and Rabe perplexum (1956–1996) acted ex-centrically in several senses: outside the centre of attention, deviating from social norms and often also from institutionalised art. The results of their productions - performances, readings, films, concerts or murals - were sometimes fleeting, ephemeral and thus less marketable at the time. Blumenschein, Nordhausen and perplexum worked in the cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. At the time, they represented non-recognised gender and identity images and lived sexual orientations non-conformably. Their work transcended the narrow boundaries of genres and modes of expression: Hilka Nordhausen, for example, founded the off-space Buch Handlung Welt, which was a bookshop, art space and social contact zone. Tabea Blumenschein worked as a performer, designed costumes for film and theatre, and left behind a body of drawings and paintings. Rabe perplexum realised performances and actions in public space in collaboration with friends and confidants, painted and was one of the early digital video artists.
The exhibition and publication project focuses on themes such as subculture, queerness, performative and collaborative ways of working. It tells a different story of the art of the 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany; beyond the great male master narrative that has dominated the narrative of these years until now.
The contemporary artists Ergül Cengiz (*1975) (3 Hamburger Frauen), Philipp Gufler (*1989) and Angela Stiegler (*1987) question the positions of the 1980s from today's perspective. Their structurally hidden work will be activated on the basis of archive material, exchange with companions and their own artworks: Together with the art historians Burcu Dogramaci and Mareike Schwarz, an exhibition project is being created in which artistic and art-historically situated knowledge is combined. In this way, the three positions from the 1980s are made accessible for new perspectives of reception, both in relation to each other and to the contemporary artworks.
The exhibition project was developed in cooperation with Lothringer 13 Halle Munich, Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten Berlin and Kunsthaus Hamburg.
A German- and English-language publication will be published by b_books, Berlin, to accompany the project.
An extensive programme of events with films, readings, workshops and discussions with contemporary witnesses accompanies the exhibition.
The exhibition at Lothringer 13 Halle ist supported by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst and Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München.
The research and catalog are supported by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, Bundesprogramm “Neustart Kultur” der Stiftung Kunstfonds as well as Spartenoffene Förderung and bezirklicher Förderfonds der Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Erwin und Gisela von Steiner-Stiftung, Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse München, Liebelt-Stiftung Hamburg, Neustart Kultur-Stipendium der Stiftung Kunstfonds, Prinzessin Therese von Bayern-Stiftung, and Stiftung IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute, Düsseldorf.
Kindly supported by Monacensia in the Hildebrandhaus.
