DISRUPTIVE REALITIES
In the exhibition DISRUPTIVE REALITIES – On working in the arts, its conditions – and the resilience of female artists, Friederike von Rauch and Stefanie Schweiger deploy artistic and documentary perspectives to examine the effects of contemporary crises on the realities of life and work of female artists. The exhibition opens up a space for reflection: on structural inequality, the relationship between art and society, and- what resilience can mean today.
Today’s global crises are multilayered. Climate catastrophes, war, political instability, and social polarization are the marks of our times. As public discourse sways between feelings of defensiveness and being overwhelmed, the field of art is coming under pressure as well. The idea that art exists outside of social framework conditions is an illusion. When funding structures collapse, institutions react from a place of uncertainty, and the economic basis of cultural practitioners remains fragile, artistic freedom can no longer be taken for granted.
Female artists are especially affected by this. They operate in a field of tension shaped by structural inequality, family obligations, invisible labor, and economic instability–often within an art industry that is largely opaque and selective.
DISRUPTIVE REALITIES sees itself as an open, living project where voices and data, biographies and statistics, art and analysis are in conversation with one another. Aside from slogans of perseverance, what might resilience look like? How can we engage with the topic of structural inequality without being reductive towards individual experiences?
The exhibition rejects simple narratives. Instead, it focuses on moments of ambivalence, fracture, and tension. Resilience is not understood as a strength
but as a practice––as an ongoing negotiation of one’s position, stance, and visibility. Thus, DISRUPTIVE REALITIES is also a statement: for artistic autonomy, structural visibility, and the right to complexity.
It is aimed at artists, institutions, funding organizations, the media––and at a
broad audience. For the political dimensions of artistic work are not just evident
in the artwork itself, but also in the conditions of its creation.
For this project, Friederike von Rauch and Stefanie Schweiger conducted interviews
with twenty female artists from various backgrounds, disciplines, and age groups, exploring themes of labor, resistance, exhaustion, and hope.
These conversations form the basis for a polyphonic archive of the present that
connects personal experiences with socio-political issues.
Alice Dittmar
Frauke Boggasch
Malika Chalabi
Bettina Scholz
Celina Basra
Sonya Schönberger
Daniela Friebel
Irina Novarese
Käthe Kruse
Anna Fiegen
Julio Paradise
Sabine Dehnel
Caroline Schnitzer
Wiebke Löper
Mireille Moga
Maria Vedder
Heidi Sill
This is about shame and silence–
and about a culture that facilitates this silence.
Twenty female artists spoke with us–
about what remains when attributions, roles, and
expectations drop away.
“I will torture you with my work until I die.”
“To make a living off of your art–that is a narrative.”
“You achieve nothing, you are not systemically relevant,
and you make no contribution to the gross national product.”
This exhibition shifts one’s attention away from the
finished work–
focusing instead on that which is not readily visible
but determines everything.
It is an invitation to perceive structures–and to question them.
The female artists’ voices lead us through these rooms.
They contradict, call into doubt, argue, remain strong–
and remain here.
These voices are not notes on the margin.
They shape our present.
We would like to thank all the artists–
for their trust, their courage to acknowledge ruptures,
and for showing how politics seeps into biographies.
Resilience–here, it means agility.
Not adaptation, but attitude.
Not retreat, but positioning.
This exhibition is not the end of the story.
It is a space for different perspectives.
For how might art change if its conditions were visible?
It is an attempt to contextualize art.
A space in which the personal becomes political.
And it is an appeal to society:
Creative spaces are not a matter of course.
Friederike von Rauch, Stefanie Schweiger
Camila Paz Araya
How does art come about? And at what price?
How does it feel to be a female artist?
Art does not just happen.
What you see is just a fraction of it:
You do not see the unpaid rehearsals. Nor the rejected
proposals. Nor the research without pay. Nor the side job
hat pays for the studio and oftentimes the art itself too.
We are female artists.
We work with light and language, with the body,
with sound, color, and installation.
We live with question marks–usually without fixed
contracts, reserve assets, or security.
We navigate through structures that are meant to include us,
but seldom support us.
The freedom of art we hear so much about
A story that we tell.
Its price: exhaustion. Instability. Dependency.
It clashes with economic realities:
unpaid care work, lack of time, structural pressure–
and the fear of not being enough.
The glittery surface of the art world conceals this:
Many of us are living on the edge.
Production budgets? The exception.
Pay? A stroke of luck.
Pension plans? An unfulfilled wish.
The gender pay gap in the arts: nearly 30 %.
The conditions under which art is created are fragile as well.
Funding mechanisms, committees, and budgets are
subject to political changes.
They react to situations of crisis, they shift priorities,
they can be cut or even discontinued.
Reliable structures are rarely guaranteed.
A system that feigns openness–yet causes marginalization.
Yet this is rarely spoken about.
To show weakness is to put visibility and opportunities at risk.