Empowerment
Art & Feminisms

"We should all be feminists!"

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

About the project

Feminism has long since become part of popular culture in Europe and the United States. However, despite worldwide movements, protests, and demonstrations 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. Structural relationships of power and inequality are responsible for discrimination and exploitation up to physical violence or even femicides. Countless artists worldwide react to these untenable conditions with their feminist-oriented works.

Against the backdrop of ecological catastrophes, war, the pandemic, post-colonialism, and growing social inequality, they also address the intersections of various global fields of conflict and broaden the horizon for planetary approaches that also include nature with its non-human beings in a way that is comprehensive, inclusive, and forward-looking: Activist, provocative, and direct, but also poetic, humorous, and subtle, they strive to achieve equal and future-oriented life opportunities for themselves, for other marginalized people, and for societies as a whole.

Presented at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in 2022-23, with roughly 100 artistic positions from some fifty countries on all continents, Empowerment offered for the first time a comprehensive global overview of art and feminisms in the twenty-first century. This traveling version of Empowerment, stays true to the international scope of the exhibition, within the framework of seven thematic fields that have emerged from worldwide research, Empowerment explores 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 their view of a feminist-oriented future? Can approaches to healing or reconciliation be discerned? With their works, the artists negotiate issues of social inequality, sexism, racism, and the entanglements of forms of discrimination, possibilities of resistance, self-empowerment, and healing, as well as the relationship between bodies, technology, and ecological concerns. These are all issues that affect everyone.

In order to do justice to these globally significant perspectives, the curators initiated several international networks of scholars, curators, and artists for Empowerment. The research for the exhibition was thus supplemented by artistic proposals from globally active regional experts. The curatorial perspective was also expanded by the five invited collectives, two of whom are present in the current show, namely, Nacional TROVOA (Brazil), and Sandbox Collective (India). As Art Mediators, Sandbox Collective has curated a series of multidisciplinary talks and performances in collaboration with local artists, and initiatives. Given the international scope of the exhibition, this traveling version also features an outreach and engagement programme conceptualized by Dr Nishant Shah and Point of View, Mumbai spanning the entire tour. The aim of this is to help audiences engage with the different practices and contexts visible within the show.

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.

Empowerment in Colombo

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?

In Colombo the exhibition will be on view at JDA Perera Gallery (University of Visual and Performaing Arts) from 4th of August until 11th of August.

Empowerment w. Dates (GI Banner) © Goethe-Institut © Goethe-Institut

Photo Gallery | Exhibition Pune 2024

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 1 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 2 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 4 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 7 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 8 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 9 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 11 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 12 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 13 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 14 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 15 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 16 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 18 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 19 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 20 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 21 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 22 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 23 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 24 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 25 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 26 © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Photo: Kunal Sharma

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 27 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 28 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 29 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 30 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 32 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Empowerment exhibition | Pune 33 Photo: Amruta Nemivant

Thematic fields

Participating Artists

Curators

Andreas Beitin studied Art History, Applied Cultural Studies, and Modern and Contemporary History. He obtained his doctoral degree in 2004, after which he worked at the ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art in Karlsruhe. After holding in various academic and curatorial positions, he became director of the museum in 2010. Since then, Beitin has conceived numerous internationally acclaimed exhibitions as curator or co-curator. He has published scholarly texts in Germany and abroad, given lectures and edited numerous publications. For many years, Beitin has been a member of various art juries and academic committees, and he has received several awards for his curatorial work. From 2016 to 2019, he was Director of the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen; since 2019, Andreas Beitin has been Director of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.
Katharina Koch has been working as artistic director of the feminist art space alpha nova & galerie futura in Berlin since 2012. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as well as a M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Social Sciences and Gender Studies. Her fields of activity range from curatorial to academic-theoretical work. She has curated numerous art projects and made several documentaries as a filmmaker. From 2019-23 she worked as co-curator with Dr. Andreas Beitin and Dr. Uta Ruhkamp for the transnational exhibition and publication project Empowerment at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg and in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education. In 2023 she was together with Julie August curator of the large group show SKIN – Membrane, Organ, Archive at ZAK – Zentrum für Aktuelle Kunst / Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin. Her main topics are feminisms, intersectionality, contemporary art, art and activism in public space.
Uta Ruhkamp is senior curator at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. She studied art history, Romance philology (French/Italian), and ethnology in Aachen, Florence, and Münster. In 2009, she completed her doctorate. At the same time, she worked as a freelance writer and for the Galerie Jablonka Lühn, Thomas Rehbein Galerie, and Neumann & Luz, an agency for communication in art and design. Since 2010 she has continuously supervised and curated international thematic exhibitions such as This Was Tomorrow (2016–17), Facing India (2018), On Everyone’s Lips (2020–21), and Empowerment (2022–23) at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, as well as monographic projects with artists like Jeppe Hein, Pieter Hugo, Robin Rhode, Kapwani Kiwanga or Firelei Báez. Currently her special focus is on global, political, and female positions. She has written numerous texts and has published various essays and and books.

Partner | Art Mediators | Education & Outreach

Art is enthusiasm, and art is knowledge. The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg wishes to share this knowledge. It strives to be a place of identification for the citizens of the city and the region and, of course, also wants to appeal to international visitors. It wants to take an artistic look at the world from the standpoint of Wolfsburg in order to contribute to an understanding of global events in all their complexity with the help of current art themes. The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg wishes to inspire and to build bridges with art. With contemporary digital strategies, it strives to communicate its contents to the widest possible audience, arouse curiosity, and inspire enthusiasm for (inter)active encounters with art.
The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg intends to further expand its significance with a scholarly and curatorially ambitious exhibition program. The central starting point is both the high-caliber collection and an independent program that focuses on contemporary art, but also takes positions of classical modernism into account in order to open up larger cultural contexts for the public.
As a place of cultural education for all, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg aims to be a meeting place for people from a wide variety of social backgrounds, with fascinating artistic positions and themes of global relevance. The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg strives to be a place where visitors can feel at home at their own level of knowledge through differentiated offerings of information, where they can learn interesting facts about art, culture, and society and also make emotional experiences. At the same time, it also sees itself as a critical analyst and companion of global developments.
The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg strives to be an open, vital, and dynamic place of art and culture for everyone.
Sandbox Collective was founded in 2013 by Nimi Ravindran and Shiva Pathak. Through its work, the collective has constantly questioned the concept of identity, inclusiveness, diversity, and even access to the arts. Their annual festival Gender Bender is a platform for creating safe spaces for art, activism, debate and dialogue. With its special focus on gender, gender equality, and sexuality, Sandbox Collective curates and produces performances and festivals, nationally and internationally, works on artistic, research-based projects, and offers both mentorship facilities and residencies to artists. They are the recipients of the 2022 Goethe-Medaille.
Dr Nishant Shah is an Associate Professor of Global Media and the Director of the Digital Narratives Studio, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since co-founding the Centre for Internet & Society, in India, he has served in different capacities as Professor and Director of the Digital School at Leuphana University in Germany, Vice-President at ArtEZ University of the Arts and Endowed Professor at Radboud University in The Netherlands. He is also a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society, Harvard University in USA.
Point of View is a non-profit founded in Mumbai in 1996, when it wasn’t evident that digital technologies would become a governing force in our lives – shaping and reconfiguring spaces, bodies, sexualities, norms and violences. But today, we live simultaneously in physical-digital spaces. Restrictive gender norms flow onground and online, limiting the freedoms of women and gender minorities. While many initiatives counter patriarchy onground, few do so online. Point of View’s aim is to ensure that marginalised women and gender minorities participate fully, freely and equally in digital spaces - regardless of caste, class, religion, education, sexuality or ability. They work with 5 core constituencies to build gender-just digital spaces – women, girls, LGBTQI persons, sex workers, women with disabilities from low-income communities.

The Exhibition Tour

Pune

05.10.2024 - 25.10.2024
The Box, Pune
New Delhi

12.04.2025-11.05.2025
Travancore Palace, Copernicus Marg, Delhi
Colombo

04.08.2025 - 11.08.2025
JDA Perera Gallery, Colombo
Mumbai

2026
Kolkata

2026

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Empowerment Art & Feminisms

About the project

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Photo Gallery | Exhibition Pune 2024

Thematic fields

Herstories & Other Narratives

Desired & violated bodies

Feminist Futures

Gender & Identity

Labour of Care

Planetary challenges

Resistance & Protest

Participating Artists

Anetta Mona Chișa and Lucia Tkáčová

Mathilde ter Heijne

Mia Yu

Pushpamala N

Tracey Rose

Boryana Rossa

Gabrielle Goliath

Regina José Galindo

Hyphen-labs

Mithu Sen

Pacific Sisters

Shana Moulton

Yael Bartana

Nilbar Güres

Selma Selman

Zanele Muholi

Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai

Irena Jukić Pranjić

Kawita Vatanajyankur

Wura-Natasha Ogunji

Aline Motta

Nacional TROVOA

Shilpa Gupta

Tabita Rezaire

Tejal Shah

Colectivo Lastesis

Dean Hutton

Ebtisam Abdulaziz

Lerato Shadi

Newsha Tavakolian

Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot)

Curators

Andreas Beitin

Katharina Koch

Uta Ruhkamp

Partner | Art Mediators | Education & Outreach

P Partner | Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

A Art Mediators | Sandbox Collective

E Education & Outreach | Dr Nishant Shah

E Education & Outreach | Point of View

The Exhibition Tour

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Empowerment
Art & Feminisms