Empowerment
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

Curators: Andreas Beitin, Katharina Koch, Uta Ruhkamp
Curatorial Assistants: Regine Epp, Dino Steinhof

With Empowerment, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg offers on this scale the worldwide first comprehensive, transnational exhibition of feminist-oriented art of the twenty-first century. On more than 2,000 m2, the exhibition brings together works by roughly 100 artists from 50 countries who reflect different feminist approaches and analyze the societies of the world with the means of art in order to point to possible and impossible ways out of the global crises.

“We should all be feminists!” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) – Feminism has long since become part of popular culture in Europe and the United States. However, despite worldwide movements, demonstrations, and petitions to establish equality, it is still not possible in the twenty-first century to speak of comprehensive gender equality with regard to women and LGBTQIA+ communities— neither in this country nor elsewhere. In many places, structural relationships of power and inequality prevent equal pay or the remuneration of domestic work and are responsible for oppression and exploitation up to physical violence or even murder. Activist, provocative, and direct, but also poetic, humorous, and subtle, countless artists worldwide react with their works to draw
attention to these untenable conditions and to achieve equal and forward-looking life opportunities for themselves and other marginalized people. Last but not least, the overturning of the Roe vs Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022, among other things, has shown that it is exactly the right time to obtain an overview of how artists imbue their art with political meaning and
create such fascinating and stirring works of art.

With the exhibition Empowerment, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is offering a comprehensive global overview of art and feminisms of the twenty-first century—from roughly 50 countries from all continents. Within the framework of seven thematic areas that have emerged from the worldwide research of artworks (Protest & Empowerment, Gender & Identity, Herstories & Other Narratives,
Desired & Violated Bodies, Labor of Care, Planetary Challenges, Feminist Futures), the works on view help to explore the following questions, among others: How do artists act out of their respective situations in the postcolonial, digital present? What emancipatory understanding underlies their art? How do they broaden the view of a feminist-oriented future? Can approaches to
healing or reconciliation be discerned? Questions regarding social inequality, sexism, racism, migration, the relationship of bodies, technology, and ecological concerns are also negotiated. These are all issues that affect everyone.

In order to do justice to these globally significant perspectives, several international networks of scholars, curators, and artists were initiated for Empowerment. The museum’s own research was supplemented by artistic proposals from globally active regional experts.

The curatorial perspective was further expanded by the invited collectives Nacional Trovoa (Brazil), Njabala (Uganda), What the hELL she doin! (Great Britain/Kenya/South Africa/ Uganda), AXA projects (China/Germany), and Sandbox Collective (India), each of whom have curated their own Guest Spaces within the exhibition. Empowerment is presented in a scenography designed
especially for the exhibition by the award-winning Berlin studio raumlabor.

Installation photography by Marek Kruszewski, Individual photography by Ludger Paffrath.