With 500 artworks from the SAMMLUNG VERBUND, the ZKM is showing how female artists in the 1970s collectively recreated their own »Image of Woman« for the first time. Most recently, in spring 2015, the ZKM presented the virtual »Women Video Work(s)« exhibition from the ZKM video collection plus loans as part of the »Karlsruhe Women’s Perspectives« Festival. The exhibition opens on November 17, 2017 – we look forward to seeing you there!

To date, the important »Feminist Avant-Garde« movement has attracted little interest in the history of art. The aim of the exhibition in the ZKM is not just to include the »Feminist Avant-Garde« in the canon of art history, but also to emphasize the pioneering work of these female artists. For the first time, it was possible for female artists, who were born in the war and post-war years, to study in noteworthy numbers at the academies of art and to emancipate themselves from the passive role of muse and model. In their works, they posed radical new questions to society, to the art scene and the roles of women. The rejection of handed-down, normative concepts connects the commitment of female artists from this generation. Even if they did not all know each other, related pieces were created.

Organization / Institution

ZKM | Center for Art and Media