Emancipatory Art | The Conscious Gesture

The Berliner Haus am Lützowplatz presents "Berlin Realists." This exhibition references a legendary exhibition from 1971 at the same venue. It was called "Berlin Realists" and established the local tradition of the "May Day Salons." Among the 28 "Berlin Realists" gathered at that time, including Hans-Jürgen Diehl, Johannes Grützke, Matthias Koeppel, Marwan, and Wolfgang Petrick, there was only one woman: Barbara Keidel. Therefore, the new exhibition is intended as a "gender-political commitment" and a "conscious gesture of equality." The only continuity in the show, curated by Sarah Letzel, Marc Wellmann, and Asja Wolf, is a painting by Barbara Keidel depicting an interior with a mirror and an indirect portrait.

With this exhibition, the Haus am Lützowplatz (HaL) celebrates its 65th anniversary. It is supported by the Förderkreis Kulturzentrum Berlin e. V. (Supporters of the Berlin Cultural Center), which emerged from the local SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) and acquired the former family home of the Jewish merchant Egon Sally Fürstenberg at Lützowplatz 9 from his heirs in 1960 after a successful restitution process. Previously, the building had been used by the Nazi-affiliated Association of Berlin Artists, which had been purged of its Jewish members and acquired the house in 1938 from the Fürstenbergs, who were forced to sell it due to the Nazi regime's Aryanization policies. For a long time, the association, which still exists today, used legal means to resist restitution or fair compensation.

The HaL, however, was intended by then-Governing Mayor Willy Brandt to become "a cultural center of cosmopolitan and democratic stature." While cabaret artist Wolfgang Neuss banged his drums down in the basement, "greatly sensual and vulgar," as Franz Josef Degenhardt put it, and with his vituperative litanies read the riot act to the Cold Warriors and revanchists, art exhibitions were held upstairs.

The Municipal Gallery of the Tiergarten Art Office also occupied one floor for a while. From 1962, Egon Bahr , then press spokesman for the Berlin Senate, was a member of the association. Thus, the association brought together the architects of the "policy of détente," from which today's Social Democrats shamefully distance themselves, once again relying on militarization as in 1914, and participating in the highly problematic, from a democratic perspective, passage of the €500 billion package.

The HaL commemorates the history of the building and the founding of the Friends' Association in an impressively designed room with documents displayed in display cases. A photo wallpaper stretching across two walls—a 180-degree panoramic shot of Lützowplatz, still heavily scarred by the war, and the surrounding area taken by Otto Borutta on July 25, 1956—features small black-and-white and color photographs documenting the various stages of the design of today's Lützowplatz. In the room used for video projections, old SFB TV reports on early art exhibitions can be seen.

What is striking about the exhibition "Berlin Realists" is that most of the works revolve around emancipatory aspects, questioning traditional codes of femininity and diversity, but in contrast to the 1971 exhibition, other socio-political themes are hardly addressed.

Impressive sculptures by Birgit Dieker and Sonja Alhäuser can be admired. The former depicts an object made of walking sticks, corsetry, and upholstery material, a bizarre and rather terrifying accumulation of ample breasts on three legs. Alhäuser's female "Centaur" made of margarine is confined to a confined space in a glass refrigerated display case, which simultaneously ensures her survival.

All wheels stand still... What became of the motif of the strong worker's arm, often equipped with a sledgehammer, so popular in the labor movement? Zuzanna Czebatul, a native of Poland, removes the hammer from the male symbolic figure. A headless shoulder with a muscular, hammer-wielding arm oscillates connotatively between creation and destruction. The ambivalence is further reinforced by the title "Andrea," a name commonly used for both genders.

Among the painterly positions, Stefanie Hillich's "Sausage Boxer," Fee Kleiß's "Still Life within a Still Life," and Tanja Selzer's "Female Nude on a Tree Trunk," borrowed from a pornographic film, stand out. The paintings of men's clothing by the Russian sisters Maria and Natalia Petschatnikov are also brilliant.

Perhaps the most drastic image is by New York-born Shanee Roe. In her painting, the male body is entirely reduced to the woman's sexual desires. Instead of a head, the neck terminates in a penis that disappears into the woman's mouth, while the lower member is inserted into her vagina. Roe sarcastically turns the tables on the sexual exploitation of the female body and its reduction to male sexual gratification.

“Berlin Realists,” until June 9, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin.