Lubaina Himid: The Truth is Never Watertight / Alex Martinis Roe: To Become Two

Lubaina Himid: The Truth is Never Watertight
Badischer Kunstverein presents the first survey exhibition by Lubaina Himid in Germany. As an artist, writer, and professor, Himid has dedicated her work to the discourse on migration, race, slavery and the representation of the Black body. Lubaina Himid played an active role in the Black Arts Movement in the 1980s and 1990s and curated a number of significant exhibitions of Black female artists. The Truth is Never Watertight brings together paintings from the 1980s to the present day, as well as cut-outs, painted wooden objects, and works on paper. Lubaina Himid has been nominated for the 2017 Turner Prize.

Himid's works fuse genres, styles, and patterns from numerous cultural backgrounds questioning preconceived ideas of belongings. She studied theatre design in the 1970s, and her interest in spatial orchestrations led to stage-like compositions in and outside of her paintings; or, as the artist herself states, it also channels “a desire to have art in the room, present, in the moment and not distant and framed within a rectangle.” Furthermore theatre opened up opportunities for political thought and action, first in real street settings and then in the imaginary spaces of her artworks. Flight and migration are main topics, as are questions of identity and origin, but also the loss of collective knowledge. Striking patterns, harking back to the influence of African, European, or Islamic ornamentation, develop their own language (“speaking clothes”). A series of Kangas (2008–12), reference the traditional patterns and motifs of an East African garment, supplemented here with texts by the artist dealing with peril and the will to survive. This atmosphere between harmony and dissonance is characteristic for Lubaina Himid’s works. It is often only at second glance that a reality marked by gender and racial oppression or colonial trauma is visualized, as in her current series Le Rodeur (2016–17).

Curated by Anja Casser

A first extensive publication will be published in collaboration with Modern Art Oxford, Spike Island, and Nottingham Contemporary.
 

Alex Martinis Roe: To Become Two
To Become Two is the first comprehensive solo exhibition of artist Alex Martinis Roe in Germany. Martinis Roe’s project is driven by the parallel histories of several interconnected feminist communities in various places and imagines futures from them in conversation with groups of women from different generations. Over the last four years, she has worked dedicatedly with international feminist communities and institutions in Europe and Australia to develop a series of films and ongoing workshops. The exhibition at Badischer Kunstverein, To Become Two, is an installation comprised of six films, a two-part workshop, and multiple conversations.

One of the key works in the exhibition, the film Our Future Network (2016), was made during workshops and a meeting of women from younger generations. It presents 18 propositions for feminist collective politics now in dialogue with the historical practices explored in the other films. Martinis Roe’s project includes a workshop and public salon, which will engage contributors from Karlsruhe in a digestion of the feminist genealogies narrated in the exhibition.

Curated by Anja Casser and Didem Yazıcı

To Become Two was co-commissioned by ar/ge kunst; Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory; If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution and The Showroom. The production was kindly supported by the Graduiertenschule der Universität der Künste Berlin and the Australia Council for the Arts.

Public programme

October 7–8, 10am–5pm 

Alex Martinis Roe: To Become Two, Workshop (English / German)

Please register at workshop@badischer-kunstverein.de until September 17.

October 21, 2–4:30pm
Public salon with Alex Martinis Roe (English / German)

November 18
4–5:30pm Artist talk by Lubaina Himid (English)
6–8pm Round table with Lubaina Himid and guest artists Mwangi Hutter, Nancy Mteki, Lerato Shadi (English)

For more information please visit: www.badischer-kunstverein.de