Ulrike Grossarth: gibt es ein grau glühend?… / Embrace Platform

Ulrike Grossarth: gibt es ein grau glühend?…
With photographs from the archive of Stefan Kiełsznia

Badischer Kunstverein is pleased 
to present Ulrike Grossarth (b. 1952, Oberhausen) in the largest retrospective in Germany to date. The exhibition ranges from her sculptural, installative works of the 1980s and 1990s to the more recent projects, which revolve around the Schule von Lublin (School of Lublin; since 2014). Originally active in the world of dance, Grossarth turned toward visual art in the 1980s—although the artist emphasizes that she is interested less in producing artworks then in developing forms and methods that enable an opening perception. In her early works, Grossarth was preoccupied with visualizing economic concepts and fictive exchange activities, which she processed performatively in the so-called “public exercises.” Later, she turned her attention toward Central and Eastern European intellectual history, and to the lost history of Jewish life of Lublin/Poland. Influenced by the stylistic idiom of the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert and by Hannah Arendt’s conception of action as “a factor that still remains to be developed in culture,” Grossarth has arrived at a singular method of artistic research. Her artistic practice reflects the formulation of a future concept of art and culture from the sources of Jewish thought and teaching tradition, and her interests focus on anthropological themes. This includes the study of the Talmud, which she practices in various learning groups.
 The exhibition presents selected work ensembles from a variety of working periods, including Bau II, rot/grün-grau (1999), and dedicates an entire exhibition level to the Lublin projects. In Schule von Lublin, Grossarth extends her researches into Jewish history in the direction of concrete teaching activity, and the project Stoffe aus Lublin (Fabrics from Lublin; 2007/10) embodies her intensive preoccupation with the archive of the photographer Stefan Kiełsznia.

A book on the School of Lublin will be published.

Curated by Anja Casser. 

Program
Saturday, April 2, 3–6pm
School of Lublin
An event with lectures, an artist talk and a “public exercise” as a fictive exchange activity

Embrace Platform: Charlotte Eifler, Mara Ittel, Edka Jarząb, Jessica Kessler, Kerstin Möller, Karol Radziszewski & Queer Archives Institute, Karolina Sobel, Liliana Zeic

Embrace is a nomadic platform for interdisciplinary cultural and artistic exchange designed to promote both national and international cooperation. The Embrace Platform, established in 2020 by Karolina Sobel and Kerstin Möller, brings together a multiplicity of medial art forms, including video, photography, sound installations, performances, and workshops. The exhibition Embrace advocates gender equality and the normalization of non-binary gender identities in Germany, Poland, and Europe. The emphasis is on artistic exchange on the topics of LGBTQIA+ and women’s rights, as well as on forms of nonviolent resistance. The exhibition at the Kunstverein is the first project in a series of further events. Liliana Zeic explores the history of non-normative women in Poland with reference to a portrait of Polish novelist Narcyza Żmichowska, while Karol Radziszewski provides insights into the Queer Archives Institute, an institution founded by the artist as an alternative collection for queer sources from Central and Eastern Europe. Edka Jarząb elaborates an audio-manifesto, that seeks to come to terms with the concept of the “safe space.” It explores how normative, dominant models complicate everyday struggles with queerness, femmehood, and high sensitivity. Mara Ittel and Charlotte Eifler address the issue of post-digital worlds from a feminist perspective. Jessica Kessler intervenes in the restrooms of the institution, critically interrogating inherent binary decisions. The exhibition incorporates film screenings, with interventions by Karolina Sobel and Kerstin Möller.

Program
Thursday, February 10, 8pm 

Performance by Edka Jarząb

Friday, February 11, 5pm
Artist tour with Liliana Zeic

Saturday, February 12, 2pm

Queer Urban History
City tour with Ilona Scheidle

Sunday, February 13, 5pm and 7pm
Thursday, April 14, 7pm and 9pm
Film program at the Kinemathek Karlsruhe: i.a. Charlotte Eifler, Peaches, Karol Radziszewski

For more information please visit here.