Emancipatory art – the conscious gesture

In the Berlin Haus am Lützowplatz there are “Berlin realists”. This exhibition refers to a legendary exhibition from 1971 in the same place. It was called “Berlin realist” and justified the tradition of the “1. May Salons «. Below the 28 »Berlin realists«, including Hans-Jürgen Diehl, Johannes Grützke, Matthias Koeppel, Marwan and Wolfgang Petrick, was only one woman: Barbara Keidel. Therefore, the new exhibition is to be understood as a “gender policy commitment” and “conscious gesture of equality”. The only continuity in Sarah Letzel, Marc Wellmann and Asja Wolf together is a painting by Barbara Keidel that shows an interior with a mirror and indirect portrait.

With this exhibition, the house on Lützowplatz (HAL) celebrates its 65th anniversary. It is borne by the Kulturzentrum Berlin e. V., who emerged from the local SPD and in 1960 the former house of the family of the Jewish merchant Egon Sally Fürstenberg on Lützowplatz 9 after a successful restitution procedure from the heirs. Previously, the beneficiary of the Nazi building and was cleaned by Jewish members had been Berlin artists who had acquired the house in 1938 from the Fürstenbergs who had to sell it on the basis of the Aryization policy of the Nazi regime. For a long time, the association still existing today with legal means against a restitution or against just compensation.

According to the ideas of the then ruling mayor Willy Brandt, the HAL should become “a cultural center of cosmopolitan and democratic format”. While the cabaret artist Wolfgang Neuss Haute, “Great Sensual and Vulgar,” as Franz Josef Degenhardt meant, and with his troubleshooting, the Levites read the Levites above, art exhibitions were shown above.

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The municipal gallery of the Tiergarten art office also resided on a floor for a long time. From 1962, the support association also belonged to Egon Bahr, then spokesman for the Berlin Senate. Thus, the association gathered the architects of “relaxation policy”, from which today’s social democracy disintegrates, as is again based on militarization in 1914 and is involved in the 500 billion package, from a democratic point of view.

The HAL is reminiscent of the history of the house and the establishment of the support association in a room with documents in showcases. On a photo wallpaper extending over two walls-an 180-degree panorama recording of the Lützowplatz, which was still strongly marked by the war, including Otto Borutta of July 25, 1956-there are small black and white and color photographs that document the various stages of the design of today’s Lützowplatz. In the room used for video projections, old TV reports from SFB can be seen on early art exhibitions.

At the exhibition “Berlin realist”, it is striking that most works revolve around emancipative aspects, to question the questioning of traditional codes of femininity and diversity, but in contrast to the 1971 exhibition, other socio -political issues are hardly treated.

Impressive sculptures by Birgit Dieker and Sonja Alhäuser can be admired. The first -mentioned shows an object of walking sticks, molarings and upholstery material, a bizarre and more frightening accumulation of lush breasts on three legs. Alhäuser’s female “Kentaurin” from Margarine is closed in a narrowest area into a glass coolant, which also ensures survival.

All bikes stand still … What did the motive of the strong workers ‘arm, which were so popular in the workers’ movement, which were often equipped with a default hammer? The Zuzanna Czebatul from Poland solves the hammer from the male symbol. A headless shoulder with muscle -baked and hammer swinging arm oscillates connected between creating and destroying. The ambivalence is additionally reinforced by the title »Andrea«, a name that is used for both genders.

From the picturesque positions, Stefanie Chichlich stand out with her sausage boxer, fairy Kleiß with her still lifes in still lives and Tanja Selzers borrowed from a porn on a tree trunk. The paintings of male clothing from the Russian sisters Maria and Natalia Petschatnikov are also brilliant.

The most drastic picture comes from the Shanee Roe born in New York. In her painting, the male body is completely reduced to the sexual wishes of the woman. Instead of in a head, the neck runs out into a penis that disappears into the woman’s mouth while the lower link is in her vagina. Roe turns the spit of sexual exploitation of the female body and its reduction to male driving satisfaction sarcastic.

“Berlin realists”, until June 9th, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin.