Exzentrische 80er: Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen, Rabe perplexum und Kompliz*innen aus dem Jetzt

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The exhibition and publication project presents marginalised voices of 1980s’ artists in West Germany. It combines historical and contemporary forms of subculture, queerness, performative and collaborative ways of working.

Tabea Blumenschein (1952−2020), Hilka Nordhausen (1949−1993) and Rabe perplexum (1956−1996) were eccentric voices of the eighties. Deviating from social norms, the three artists acted in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. They lived sexual orientations non-conformably and represented unrecognised gender and identity images. Their art crossed the boundaries of genres and expressed themselves in collaborative ways of working and ephemeral forms. Tabea Blumenschein was a performer, designed costumes for film and theatre and created drawings and paintings. The painter and writer Hilka Nordhausen founded the legendary off-space Buch Handlung Welt in Hamburg, which was an art space, bookshop and social contact zone. Rabe perplexum painted and drew, realised collaborative actions and was one of the early video artists.

For the first time, their work will be shown together in the cities in which they lived. The contemporary artists Ergül Cengiz (3 Hamburger Frauen), Philipp Gufler and Angela Stiegler, together with the art historians Burcu Dogramaci and Mareike Schwarz, have created a scenography of images, videos, documents, texts and their own current works. In an exchange with contemporaries, an audio-visual resonance space unfolds that offers polyphonic insights into the subcultural scenes of the 1980s and reflects them for today.

Curated by Ergül Cengiz, Burcu Dogramaci, Philipp Gufler, Mareike Schwarz and Angela Stiegler

The German/English publication is available for 22€ at the gallery as well as at the publishing house b_books.

Press:
Noemi Molitor: “Die Rabenkinder” in taz, 18.1.23
Gunda Bartels: “Vergessene Heroinen der Subkultur” in Tagesspiegel, 17.12.22
Maximilian Wahlich: “Hommage an eine gelebte Revolte” in art in berlin, 3.2.23
Sophie Paul: “No Place for Our Quick Stuff” in passe-avant.net, 14.12.22

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Programme Series VOICE:over

Over the next two years, the Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten’s VOICE:over programme series will delve into various phenomena related to the voice. With cross-disciplinary exhibition projects, performances and a multifaceted outreach programme, VOICE:over explores the changes in meaning and significance of physical and social forms of the voice – from screams to speech and song to artificial intelligences’ posthuman imitation of the human voice.

Exhibition and catalog are supported by: Spartenoffene Förderung und bezirkliche Förderfonds der Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, Prinzessin Therese von Bayern-Stiftung, Erwin und Gisela von Steiner-Stiftung, Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse München, Liebelt-Stiftung Hamburg, Bundesprogramm „Neustart Kultur“ der Stiftung Kunstfonds, Studio Ulrike Ottinger: Reinhild Feldhaus und Sarah Polligkeit, die Stiftung IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute, Düsseldorf, Monacensia im Hildebrandhaus, München.

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