Empowerment – Art and Feminisms

The postcard piece “Woman to Go” will be shown in another venue of the exhibition “Empowerment – Art and Feminisms” in New Delhi.

Opening Reception
Friday, 11 April 2025
Venue: Travancore Palace, New Delhi
Ahead of the opening, from 6:00–6:45 PM, curator Dr. Uta Ruhkamp will offer a guided tour through the exhibition.

Reshaped Reality

Hyperrealistic sculptures emulate the forms, contours and textures of the human body or singular body parts and thereby create a convincing visual illusion of human physicality. From the late 1960s on, different sculptors got involved with a mode of realism based on the physically lifelike appearance of the human body. By deploying traditional techniques of modelling, casting, and painting in order to recreate human figures they followed different approaches towards a contemporary form of figural realism.

Based on a selection of around 30 hyperrealistic sculptures by 26 pioneering international artists the exhibition displays the development of the human figure in hyperrealistic sculpture during the last 50 years.The selection reveals five different key issues in the approach towards the depiction of figural realism in order to emphasize how the way we see our bodies has been subject to constant change.

Osaka Culturarium, Tempozan in Osaka
April 10 until Oktober 13, 2025

More info

Uncanny

Fake Female Artist Life #1, #2, #3 (2003 – ongoing) is shown at the exhibition Uncanny at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. The exhibition explores modern and contemporary women artists’ bold use of the uncanny as a feminist strategy and social critique. 

Uncanny features works by more than 30 artists, from renowned figures of modern art history such as Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Meret Oppenheim and Remedios Varo to prominent contemporary artists including Berlinde De Bruyckere, Pipilotti Rist, Shahzia Sikander, Laurie Simmons, Mathilde ter Heijne, and Gillian Wearing. Named for the term popularized by Sigmund Freud to describe the unsettling psychological experience of something both familiar and foreign, Uncanny is the first exhibition to examine this concept through a feminist lens. The work F.F.A.L. #1, #2, #3 has been donated to the National Museum of Women in the Arts by the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection.

National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington DC
February 28–August 10, 2025

Press release

Empowerment: Art and Feminism

How do artists act in the postcolonial, digital present from their respective situations? What emancipatory understanding underlies their art? How do they broaden the view of a feminist-oriented future? “Empowerment: Art and Feminisms” is a South Asian travelling multidisciplinary exhibition, showcasing the work of thirty one feminist artists or artist collectives.

It looks at inclusion at all levels and showcases the voices and rights of various gender and social minorities, especially in the context of South Asia. The works exhibited at ‘The Box, Pune’ are presented in seven categories: Herstories & Other Narratives, Desired and Violated Bodies, Feminist Futures, Gender & Identity, Labour of Care, Planetary Challenges and Resistance & Protest.

The exhibition project Empowerment is curated by Andreas Beitin, Katharina Koch, Uta Ruhkamp and co produced by Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg and Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai.”

05.10. – 25.10.2024

the Box, Pune, India
43/1, Karve Road, Pune – 411038
Official Opening:
05.10.2024 | 7-9 PM

Exhibition in Goethe Institute at Pune 2024 – more info

Sweet Eighteen

With the eighteen artists Siri Austeen, Diana Dodson, Manaf Halbouni, Mathilde ter Heijne, Gary Hurst, Christian Jankowski, Reto Leibundgut, Marit Lindberg, Nik Nowak, Silke Panknin, Anri Sala, Karin Sander, Salah Saouli, Stefan Schröder, Maya Schweizer, Heidi Sill, Johan Suneson, Veronika Witte and their works, we reflect on the time since 2006 when Kurt-Kurt learnt to walk quickly, visibly, professionally and on an international footing with projects in the public space of Moabit and in the following years has remained true to its claim with its exhibition projects, thematic series, festivals, discussions in the context of art and context in the city laboratory Moabit: To locate art in the surrounding urban space, to address people from the neighbourhood and integrate them into the artistic dialogue, to always act internationally beyond the city and national borders and to cooperate with artists in addition to working and exchanging with the immediate surroundings.

20.09. – 05.10.2024, Eröffnung Freitag, 20.09.2024 / 19h

Kurt – Kurt | Kunst und Kontext im Stadtlabor Moabit; Ein Projekt von Simone Zaugg und Pfelder im Geburtshaus von Kurt Tucholsky
Lübecker Straße 13 | 10559 Berlin

Maintaining Its Spirit 

Starting in September 2024, Bonnefanten and Kasteel Wijlre Estate will join forces to present a unique and complete overview of the former private collection of the Limburg collector couple, Marlies and Jo Eyck. On display at these two venues, the exhibition is a testament to distinctive private collecting. Marlies and Jo Eyck were prominent collectors in the Netherlands and they created undisputedly the most important former private collection in Limburg. This is the first time the collection will be exhibited in its entirety. 
Maintaining Its Spirit encompasses 147 works by 60 artists.

Opening September 20, 2024
Bonnefanten
Avenue Ceramique 250
MAASTRICHT, Limburg 
62212, Netherlands

Hyper

The “HYPER – 50 Jahre hyperrealistische Skulptur” exhibition explores the relationship between life and death, reality and fantasy, human and machine, as well as various deformations of the human body.
Tampere Art Museum
01.06.2024 – 29.09.2024

PUBLIKATION GBEGBETOPIA—MAISON GBEGBE: AN ART-BASED COMMUNITY AND SPIRITUAL CENTER

Presentation and book launch of Gbegbetopia-Maison Gbegbe: An Art-Based Community and Spiritual Center. Introduction by Samira Ghoualmia from Archive Books and with contributions by Elom 20ce & Kofi Alexis Hountoundji, Anani Sanouvi, Mathilde ter Heijne, Musquiqui Chihying & Gregor Kaspar, Adjo Goussanou, Augusto Gerardi Rousset and an invocation by Messanh Amedegnato.

This presentation took place as part of the project Gbegbetopia – Reimagining Knowledge Sharing, and was realized with financial support from the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.

Juli 12, 2024, 7pm @Archive Books in S A V V Y Contemporary

MAISON GBEGBE – LA MER NE TARIT JAMAIS

Maison Gbegbe – La mer ne tarit jamais is a documentary production by art&dialogue e.V. the UCTT and l’Africaine d’architecture, camera by Dodo Adogji, directed by Mathilde ter Heijne.

This Project was supported by Goethe Institute:
More info at Goethe Institute site

Award Winner London International Cult Film Festival, May 24
Award Winner Better Earth International Film Festival, Apr. 24
Official Selection Seoul International Short Film Festival, Seoul, May 24
Official Selection Munich New Wave Short Film Festival, April 24
Official Selection Beach House African Short Film Festival, Lagos, Feb. 24
Official Selection Tokyo International Short Film Festival, Feb. 24
Official Selection Ananse Cinema International Film Festival, Ghana, Dec. 23
Official Selection Nollywood International Film Festival, Abuja, Dec. 23
Official Selection Benin City Filmfestival, Benin City, Nov. 23

Woman* to Go

As a contribution to this year’s seasonal theme Heroes, Deutsche Bank, as a partner of the Berliner Philharmoniker, is showing from its collection the installation Woman* to Go by Mathilde ter Heijne. This project, begun in 2005 and continued to this day, varies the theme of heroes by focusing on forgotten “heroines” and biographies from the past.
Hundreds of different postcards are offered for free in rondels. The front of the cards feature photographs of unknown women taken between 1839 and 1920. On the backs of each are biographies from that era, but they obviously have nothing to do with the photographs. They are the biographies of unusual women from all over the world – artists, tea merchants, pirates, writers, explorers, partisans, suffragettes.

August 28, 2023 – Juli 30, 2024

Sonderausstellung in Green Room
Philharmonie Berlin
Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1
10785 Berlin

more info

She Devil

For this edition of SHE DEVIL in Argentina, around sixty international artists from previous editions have been selected, and among those already confirmed are Lara Torres, Tamara Moyzes, Lerato Shadi, Bertille Bak, Laura Grisi, Irene Sosa, Ming Wong, Mathilde ter Heijne… and many others.

August 10, 2023
Buenos Aires
Bienalsur
MUNTREF

More info

Inside out

INSIDE OUT features artworks from the collection of the Bonnefanten Museum, such as Otobong Nkanga, Tanja Ritterbex, Mathilde ter Heijne, Philippe Coclers and the Polling ceramics collection.

From the dreamy inner world of a child to the big outside world of an adolescent. Go through the developmental stages of a child at INSIDE OUT. With art and sensory stimulating activities, all ages will be turned inside out. Discover what makes you, you and then zoom out again to your role in society and the footprint you leave behind.

Opening: Friday, October 13, 2023
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Bonnefanten
Avenue Céramique 250
6221 KX, Maastricht

more info

SEMBRA VIVO!

An exhibition that provokes, questions, and brings together the artists who have been most controversial: what caused the hyperrealist sculptures to short-circuit visitors’ minds? We know they are not real, yet that skin, hair, beards, fingers tell us otherwise. The naked bodies shock us, the eyes hypnotize us, and those dimensions-sometimes perfectly to scale and sometimes wrong-confuse us: It looks alive! Is it really?

This exhibition is dedicated to great international hyperrealist sculpture, told through the most important contemporary artists. “It looks alive!” will be the most uttered phrase in front of the incredible works by Maurizio Cattelan, Ron Mueck, George Segal, Carole Feuerman, Mathilde ter Heijne and many others.

May 26th – October 28th, 2023

Palazzo Bonaparte
Roma, Italy

What comes next?! 70 Years Kunstverein Reutlingen.

Through their works, some of which were specifically conceived for the exhibition, contemporary artists such as Ana Alenso, Marie Aly, Mathilde ter Heijne, Anike Joyce Sadiq, Max Schaffer as well as art&sdialogue and Viola Eickmeier explore the history of the institution and question traditional art-historic narratives. Their statements tie in with the big questions of our time, including the breakneck speed of digitalisation, current gender discourses or the use of natural resources on the backdrop of pressing economic and environmental issues. These themes are developed across the exhibition space and engage in a dialogue with the historical positions on display, but also, importantly, with visitors.

Mai 7 – November 5, 2023
Opening Mai 7, 2023, 11am

Wandel-Hallen (1. OG)
Eberhardstraße 14
72764 Reutlingen

In Watte und Nadeln – Contours of Grief

Loss and grief are inevitable and universal experiences that nevertheless each of us encounter unexpectedly sooner or later. The exhibition “Contours of Grief” explores this tension and examines the different emotional states of mourning through various artistic media. We don’t know how we grieve until we grieve, notices Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Grief is a nonlinear process in which ambivalent emotional states collide. We feel detached and cut off from the world, with pressure on our chest and emptiness in our heart. At the same time, painful memories keep catching up with us, piercing through the indifferent protective layer like hot needles. Anger is followed by despair, loneliness by exhaustion, guilt by resignation. Even though each loss is unique, through sharing our pain we develop understanding for each other and can heal together.The time we need to grieve is the transitional period before we adapt to our new reality. In doing so, we can learn to understand grief not as an end, but as a process of transformation. Following this example, the exhibition aims to create a space for the ambivalences of grief.
Curated by Dorothee Bienert, Yolanda Kaddu-Mulindwa, Nina Marlene Kraus & Beatris Wakaresko

Opening March 3, 6pm, exhibition from March 4 to May 18, 2023

Galerie im Körnerpark
Schierker Str. 8
D-12951 Berlin

#EMPOWERMENT. PLANETARY FEMINISMS.

The exhibition offers a geographically comprehensive overview of progressive artistic positions that stand for feminist concerns, demands and visions of the 21st century. In a global arc, the exhibition will present positions of feminist-oriented art under gender-critical and intersectional questions. Questions about postcolonial, anti-racist, ecological and planetary perspectives as well as the relationship between feminism and digital development gain central importance. These generate insights into current conflicts, but also formulate visions for the future. Curated by Regine Epp, Andres Beitin and Uta Ruhkamp.

Opening: September 9, 2022, 7 pm.

Wolfsburg Art Museum
Hollerplatz 1
D-38440 Wolfsburg

HEALING POWER

Healing Power, the spiritual search for balance. The exhibition Healing Power gives an insight into different forms of (spiritual) healing and shows the search for balance between body, soul and spirit. Six ritual specialists are presented. They are active in the fields of winti, vodun, shamanism, santo daime, mestizo and witchcraft. Contemporary art also occupies an important place. In fact, many well-known and lesser-known artists have been inspired by the theme of healing power.

Opening: october 14, 2022, 4pm.

Africa Museum
Postweg 6
6571 CS Berg en Dal

Project presentation: »Maison Gbébé, Togo«

This year’s festival focuses in particular on the artistic works and urban interventions of the 3 Dekoloniale Berlin Residents 2022, as well as biographies of significance to colonial migrants and places associated with them, which we will visit as part of a full-day, decolonial city walk on Saturday, September 3rd. On Friday, September 2nd, we will come together at the Mariannenplatz for the »Dekoloniale Africa Conference« with our guests from the former German colonies in Africa .

Part of the festival will be a project presentation of »Maison Gbébé, Togo«.
With the project partners »L’Union des Cultes Traditions du Togo«, University of the Arts, (UDK) Berlin, »L’Africaine d’Architecture«, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou, architect and anthropologist, Mathilde ter Heijne, visual artist, professor and moderator, Anani Dodji Sanouvi, performance artist and others.
02.09.2022 | 17:00 -19:00

Dekoloniale Festival 2022
Sep 1, 2022 – Sep 4, 2022
Mariannenplatz, Luisenstadt, Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg,
Berlin, 10997, Deutschland

Sometimes Time

Short film festival about loss, grief, and death.
Organized by the Mourning School, a curatorial project on grief, death, loss, and mourning,
that is active in Stockholm and beyond.
17-19 June 2022

School in Common
Johannesfredsvägen 26, Lgh 1
168 68, Bromma
Sweden

https://mourningschool.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mourning_school/

Give and Take. Images upon Images

Ausstellung im Rahmen von Currency – Triennale der Photographie Hamburg

Give and Take illustrates processes of exchange and appropriation of pictorial material in contemporary photography based on a selection of twenty artistic positions. Images circulate and migrate these days across diverse geographical, cultural and social boundaries. One and the same photograph may appear in my­riad contexts, multiplying its impact exponentially. This makes it nearly impossi­ble to control all the meanings that may be assigned to images we release into the world. In this »give and take«, artists appropriate images from a variety of fields as they explore the mechanisms behind the production of realities and iden­tities. The material on view ranges from early picture archives, historical film foo­tage and museum collections to classic print media as well as digital images on social media and in image search engines. The artists respond in their photo­graphs, video works and installations to images that originated in another time or were developed for a different purpose, retrieving them in order to examine them in the light of the present day. The show features primarily works on loan that come from galleries or directly from the artists from America and Europe, supple­mented by exhibits from the collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. As if in an archive, the main themes are organised into »folders«: archive & algorithm, profile & identity, fact & fiction, protest & dissemination and canon & violence.

Eröffnung Freitag, den 20. Mai 2022, um 19 Uhr

Hamburger Kunsthalle
Glockengießerwall 5
20095 Hamburg

More info