Inside Other Spaces. Environments by Women Artists 1956 – 1976

The group exhibition “Inside Other Spaces. Environments by Women Artists 1956—1976” focuses on the history of environments in the period from the late nineteen fifties to the late nineteen seventies, highlighting women’s fundamental contributions to the field. It features the work of eleven female artists spanning three generations from Asia, Europe as well as North- and South America: Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Laura Grisi, Aleksandra Kašuba, Lea Lublin, Marta Minujín, Tania Mouraud, Maria Nordman, Nanda Vigo, Faith Wilding, and Tsuruko Yamazaki.

Environments are situated at the threshold between art, architecture and design, creating and transforming space but also inviting the spectator to enter, engage and interact with them. They became a major feature in the international art world, yet so far, their historiography centres almost exclusively on the United States, and partially Europe, as well as on the works of male artists. Since most environments were deconstructed or destroyed right after their display, “Inside Other Spaces” will be the first show of this kind ever realised, reconstructing the immersive art works, with the help of conservators, and based on archival material and heterogeneous sources such as photographs, architectural plans, reviews, materials’ lists and providers’ invoices. The outcome of a comprehensive three-year research process, “Inside Other Spaces” aims to signpost a different historiography, allowing for multiple, delocalised narratives through the lens of women artists, thereby bridging the gap between then and now.

As with several shows within this season at Haus der Kunst, “Inside Other Spaces” looks to re-examine stories and histories and to highlight those that are missing from historic narratives. This exhibition reframes the artistic canon by presenting women’s fundamental role in the development of environments, which have gone on to have a lasting impact in the field of visual art.

With works by Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Laura Grisi, Aleksandra Kašuba, Lea Lublin, Marta Minujín, Tania Mouraud, Maria Nordman, Nanda Vigo, Faith Wilding, and Tsuruko Yamazaki.

Curated by Andrea Lissoni and Marina Pugliese with Anne Pfautsch.

The exhibition is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and by the Federal Government Comissioner for Culture and the Media.