Zärtlichkeit, Zins & Zusammenbruch. Über den Körper als erschöpfte Ressource

Programme & Events

The Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren is presenting the first institutional solo exhibition in southern Germany by Berlin-based artist Julia Lübbecke. Julia Lübbecke works with sculptural installations, photography, text, video, and performative elements. Her artistic research projects usually take their starting point in archives or libraries. She critically examines archival materials and reproductions to explore how power relations are inscribed both in archives and in bodies. In her research on the representation of feminized labor, the historical continuity of institutional violence in medicine, and the right to bodily self-determination, she is particularly interested in the relationship between the informative and the emotional—or affective—dimensions of knowledge. The extensive solo exhibition “Tenderness, Interest & Collapse” presents three ongoing series of works together for the first time. For this exhibition, the artist adapts the installations specifically to the space and develops them further so that their interrelationships and references to one another become legible within the exhibition space.

The series Kleber und Falten (Glue and foldings) (ongoing since 2023) explores materiality and tactility in the archives of political movements. The archival materials gathered there—documenting the struggles for the right to abortion, childcare, or fair wages—reflect the precarious conditions under which these movements operate and document their history—in the form of sun exposure, sweat stains, or material residues. Julia Lübbecke translates this intertwining of materials and political struggles, as well as her own physical presence in the archive, into a space-filling installation in the form of a walk-through leporello, in which photographic-sculptural works are displayed mounted, suspended, or laid flat.

The installation Weiche Knie (Weak knees) (ongoing since 2021) explores resistant knowledge and self-help practices. It includes the artist’s own photographs of interpersonal gestures as well as material from research in queer*feminist archives. These archives document both the historical continuity of violence in the context of institutional care and practices of resistance; examples include the first feminist health centers of the 1970s, first-aid manuals on dealing with police violence, and guides on preventing unwanted pregnancies.

In the video lecture series Slight Discomfort (ongoing since 2017), the artist’s own computer screen or desktop serves as a subjective interface and the starting point. Through screen recordings, Julia Lübbecke reflects on the search for and generation of knowledge and narratives. The series explores neoliberal excesses such as Ivanka Trump’s #womenwhowork, Kathy Acker’s enthusiasm for the fragmentation of bodies, McKenzie Wark’s analysis of the cis gaze, and Jack Halberstam’s investigations into how the morphology of one’s own body influences which spaces we (are allowed to) use. Errors, interruptions, and incongruities shape the editing and visual composition of the lectures. To what extent can such glitches create alternative spaces, movements, and perspectives in which normative body politics are subverted, rejected, and unlearned?