Togeth­er, we devel­oped ideas and soon came up with a com­mon vision: to strength­en the vis­i­bil­i­ty of fem­i­nist artists and their art. Our joint project strives to break down stereo­types and make room for shared per­spec­tives and utopias. In this Ger­man-Israeli exchange, we want to cre­ate space for encoun­ters and rela­tion­ships defined by fem­i­nists and artists.

We dreamed of hold­ing a joint exhi­bi­tion for the two cities. It was clear to us all that the exhi­bi­tion would entail uni­ver­sal­ly fem­i­nist ideas. Ques­tions with regard to bond­ing and belong­ing would be addressed as well as the sub­jec­tive local expe­ri­ences of female and fem­i­nist artists – all to be exam­ined by both cities on a top­ic to be chosen.

The world of cul­ture and art have suf­fered great­ly dur­ing this pan­dem­ic. We almost gave up on this project; how­ev­er, resource­ful­ness and out­side-the-box think­ing led us to the cre­ation of a web res­i­den­cy project.

Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary and inter­sec­tion­al inter­ac­tions among artists allow for sol­i­dar­i­ty and col­lec­tive per­spec­tives in times of glob­al divi­sion and iso­la­tion. In the con­text of social crises and a glob­al pan­dem­ic, we need, more than ever, frame­works which allow for vis­i­bil­i­ty and solidarity.

Our top­ic: home

home has become a very com­plex term in 2020. On the one hand, a home pro­tects you from the world and the rag­ing pan­dem­ic. On the oth­er hand, the long peri­ods at home have exposed pow­er struc­tures and gen­der gaps.

“Invis­i­ble” work­ers and inequal­i­ty took on new dimen­sions dur­ing this peri­od. We hope that this vir­tu­al space will pro­vide a fem­i­nist gen­der lens both uni­ver­sal and local dur­ing these dif­fi­cult and strange times.

It is our aim to orga­nize tan­gi­ble ana­logue exhi­bi­tions in the two part­ner cities with­in the next two years. In the mean­time, we will use our web residencies.

This exhi­bi­tion would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the sup­port of Yonit Stern, Direc­tor of Inter­na­tion­al Exchanges – Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Tel Aviv-Yafo and Mar­lies Den­ter, Munic­i­pal Youth Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter – Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Frank­furt, who led the del­e­ga­tions so skill­ful­ly for Frank­furt and Tel Aviv-Yafo. The part­ner­ship with Anat Eizik Caspi and the Resilience & Social Equal­i­ty Author­i­ty  con­tribute to the suc­cess of the project.

Grat­i­tude and appre­ci­a­tion go out to the cura­tor Sonia Müller and to our advi­sor Michal Schwartze.

And of course, a big thanks to all of our lead­ers in the Com­mu­ni­ty, Cul­ture and Sport depart­ments and to which allowed us to dream and ful­fil those dreams.

Lin­da Kagerbauer

Advi­sor for poli­cies for girls and cul­ture at Depart­ment of Women‘s Affairs

Sheer Issar

Advi­sor for Com­mu­ni­ty and Visu­al Arts Pro­grams, Arts Department

Talya Galam

Direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ty Rela­tions, South East Com­mu­ni­ty Department

Fotos: Katha­ri­na Dub­no, Sheer Issar, Talya Galam