Photo: Hanna Neander
Marleen Rothaus
That's How The Light Gets In
14 October – 17 December 2023
Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim is pleased to present Marleen Rothaus’s first institutional solo exhibition, entitled “That’s How the Light Gets In.” The exhibition explores what and how inherited narratives determine our ideas of gender and femininity. When and by whom were they set in stone? And, what kind of knowledge has been lost as a result?
Marleen Rothaus (*1991 Bielefeld) seeks answers to these questions by pointing in her works to painful historical ruptures that occurred in the course of the violent enforcement of patriarchy. Incompatible with male claims to power, millennia-old female forms of knowledge were successively overwritten or erased, as were their bearers. In vivid colours, Rothaus’s paintings bring forgotten goddesses, mothers, witches, friends and other resistant beings back into our consciousness. “Mother of Change” (2023) is one such multi-layered figure, inspired by various depictions of mother goddesses. Nursing a pair of winged animal hybrids, she gazes confidently at us – her hair coiling outwards like defiant horns, poisonous green flames flickering between their two poles.
In her compositions, Rothaus deliberately invites the viewer to resist received ideas and to rediscover the emancipatory potential of devalued emotions and characteristics, such as anger or care. For the artist, this is always a demand for self-determination – for freedom of sexuality, motherhood and the right to autonomy over one's childbearing body. In this way, the figures portrayed have fluid, multiform bodies, nurturing and proud; they are free to decide how and for whom they want to (maternally) care.
Starting from the theoretical underpinnings of various revolutionary movements, the artist researches narratives from wide-ranging epochs and cultures in order to imagine contemporary female archetypes. Rothaus is guided by the principles of Jineolojî, which can be translated as the “science of women and life” and has its roots in the Kurdish liberation movement.1 Taking a holistic view of concepts such as knowledge production, ecology and health care, the goal of Jineolojî is to enable all living beings to coexist freely beyond power hierarchies. In its comprehensive analyses of the emergence of patriarchy and alternative forms of society, Jineolojî identifies so-called ‘gender ruptures’ – the moments in history in which the reframing of narratives within mythology, religion and science secured patriarchal power with particularly incisive effect. The title of this exhibition, like Rothaus’s artistic practice as a whole, reinterprets these markers in a gesture of hope. Where rupture becomes visible, that’s how the light gets in – and the realisation of utopian vision and real change becomes possible.
Rothaus’s artistic practice often refers to the misogynistic understanding of ‘witches’ in the early modern period. People who did not conform to gender norms, including midwives and healers, elderly and free-spirited women, were systematically demonised and burned at the
stake in the course of the witch hunts.2 Based on woodcut designs from propaganda used to legitimise this patriarchally-motivated violence, Rothaus reverses the visual evidence that is still effective today, in the sense of a feminist self-definition. Thus “Coven” (2020) depicts the once incendiary narrative of a witches’ banquet under the subtitle “me and my girls”, here rendered as a cheerful celebration of solidarity.
Marleen Rothaus’s work as an artist is inseparable from her activist feminist practice. So the open form of her paintings, which are often combined with lines of scrawling cursive text, deliberately takes on this multiplicity of function: mounted on poles, the canvases can be shown in an exhibition format but are equally conceived and used as banners and signs for political demonstrations.
The artist has created three new works for this exhibition at Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim: a portrait of the Nordic goddess Freya, as well as paintings of two medicinal plants associated with her. Contrary to our present-day, Western-influenced thinking that focuses on binaries, Freya is associated with the spheres of love, lust and fertility as well as with death and destruction. In this sense, she embodies complexity as a fundamental female principle. Standing on a chariot drawn by two cats, in Rothaus’s representation Freya rides across the sky, bringing spring with her: a symbol of renewal and the prospect of light after times of darkness and cold.
Curated by Romina Dümler
Exhibition public programme:
Friday, 13 October 2023, 7pm
Opening
Saturday, 14 October 2023, 11am
"Breakfast & Art" | Curator's tour
with the artist Marleen Rothaus and the curator Romina Dümler -
for mothers and (small) children, as well as all those interested.
A small breakfast buffet will be provided.
Tuesday, 31 October 2023, 7pm
"All Hallows' Eve | Samhain Night"
Bonfire and open get-together in the backyard:
Origins of ancient customs and rites.
The exhibition is open in the evening from 6-10pm.
Friday, 10 November 2023, 4pm
"Experience the power of nature: Wild Plant Walk"
with Alexa Balderhaar, wild herb and medicinal plant educator
Meeting place: Sünnenberg 10, 49824 Emlichheim
Registration until 09 November 2023 via info@kvgb.de
Sunday, 12 November 2023, 4pm
"Kunst Up Platt" [Low German language] guided tour
with Friederike Klever, 2nd chairwoman of the Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim
Monday, 13 November 2023, 7pm
"Drawing with Plant Colour" Workshop
with Alexa Balderhaar, wild herb and medicinal plant educator
Registration until 09 November 2023 via info@kvgb.de
Saturday, 18 November 2023, 2-5:30pm
Young Art Association | "Empowerment" Workshop
with Carolin Itterbeck, interim director Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim;
jointly "dreaming up" feminist utopias and transforming
them into powerful poster messages - for teenagers and young adults.
Registration until 17 November 2023 via info@kvgb.de
Saturday, 25 November 2023, 3:30pm
Artist talk on the exhibition with open exchange and space for action |
commemoration on the occasion of the "International Day against
Patriarchal Violence”
Saturday, 2 December 2023, 2-6pm
Christmas Market Neuenhaus
"Pop Up" bazaar table and reading at the Kunstverein
Sunday, 17 December 2023, 10am-2pm
"Echte twentse Middewinterhornwanderung" (Real twentse Middewinterhorn
hike)
Reference to the regionally famous hike, which this year starts in Neuenhaus at
the Old Town Hall.
The exhibition will be open on this day from 10am–6pm.
This exhibition is supported by the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, the Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim and the Stadt- und Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus.
Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim
Hauptstraße 37
49828 Neuenhaus,
Germany
+49 5941 98019
kvgb.de
info@kvgb.de
Hours
Thursday to Sunday 3-6pm
and by appointment
Free entry
1
See the writings of Abdullah Öcalan.
2
See the research by Silvia Federici.
That's How The Light Gets In
14 October – 17 December 2023
Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim is pleased to present Marleen Rothaus’s first institutional solo exhibition, entitled “That’s How the Light Gets In.” The exhibition explores what and how inherited narratives determine our ideas of gender and femininity. When and by whom were they set in stone? And, what kind of knowledge has been lost as a result?
Marleen Rothaus (*1991 Bielefeld) seeks answers to these questions by pointing in her works to painful historical ruptures that occurred in the course of the violent enforcement of patriarchy. Incompatible with male claims to power, millennia-old female forms of knowledge were successively overwritten or erased, as were their bearers. In vivid colours, Rothaus’s paintings bring forgotten goddesses, mothers, witches, friends and other resistant beings back into our consciousness. “Mother of Change” (2023) is one such multi-layered figure, inspired by various depictions of mother goddesses. Nursing a pair of winged animal hybrids, she gazes confidently at us – her hair coiling outwards like defiant horns, poisonous green flames flickering between their two poles.
In her compositions, Rothaus deliberately invites the viewer to resist received ideas and to rediscover the emancipatory potential of devalued emotions and characteristics, such as anger or care. For the artist, this is always a demand for self-determination – for freedom of sexuality, motherhood and the right to autonomy over one's childbearing body. In this way, the figures portrayed have fluid, multiform bodies, nurturing and proud; they are free to decide how and for whom they want to (maternally) care.
Starting from the theoretical underpinnings of various revolutionary movements, the artist researches narratives from wide-ranging epochs and cultures in order to imagine contemporary female archetypes. Rothaus is guided by the principles of Jineolojî, which can be translated as the “science of women and life” and has its roots in the Kurdish liberation movement.1 Taking a holistic view of concepts such as knowledge production, ecology and health care, the goal of Jineolojî is to enable all living beings to coexist freely beyond power hierarchies. In its comprehensive analyses of the emergence of patriarchy and alternative forms of society, Jineolojî identifies so-called ‘gender ruptures’ – the moments in history in which the reframing of narratives within mythology, religion and science secured patriarchal power with particularly incisive effect. The title of this exhibition, like Rothaus’s artistic practice as a whole, reinterprets these markers in a gesture of hope. Where rupture becomes visible, that’s how the light gets in – and the realisation of utopian vision and real change becomes possible.
Rothaus’s artistic practice often refers to the misogynistic understanding of ‘witches’ in the early modern period. People who did not conform to gender norms, including midwives and healers, elderly and free-spirited women, were systematically demonised and burned at the
stake in the course of the witch hunts.2 Based on woodcut designs from propaganda used to legitimise this patriarchally-motivated violence, Rothaus reverses the visual evidence that is still effective today, in the sense of a feminist self-definition. Thus “Coven” (2020) depicts the once incendiary narrative of a witches’ banquet under the subtitle “me and my girls”, here rendered as a cheerful celebration of solidarity.
Marleen Rothaus’s work as an artist is inseparable from her activist feminist practice. So the open form of her paintings, which are often combined with lines of scrawling cursive text, deliberately takes on this multiplicity of function: mounted on poles, the canvases can be shown in an exhibition format but are equally conceived and used as banners and signs for political demonstrations.
The artist has created three new works for this exhibition at Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim: a portrait of the Nordic goddess Freya, as well as paintings of two medicinal plants associated with her. Contrary to our present-day, Western-influenced thinking that focuses on binaries, Freya is associated with the spheres of love, lust and fertility as well as with death and destruction. In this sense, she embodies complexity as a fundamental female principle. Standing on a chariot drawn by two cats, in Rothaus’s representation Freya rides across the sky, bringing spring with her: a symbol of renewal and the prospect of light after times of darkness and cold.
Curated by Romina Dümler
Exhibition public programme:
Friday, 13 October 2023, 7pm
Opening
Saturday, 14 October 2023, 11am
"Breakfast & Art" | Curator's tour
with the artist Marleen Rothaus and the curator Romina Dümler -
for mothers and (small) children, as well as all those interested.
A small breakfast buffet will be provided.
Tuesday, 31 October 2023, 7pm
"All Hallows' Eve | Samhain Night"
Bonfire and open get-together in the backyard:
Origins of ancient customs and rites.
The exhibition is open in the evening from 6-10pm.
Friday, 10 November 2023, 4pm
"Experience the power of nature: Wild Plant Walk"
with Alexa Balderhaar, wild herb and medicinal plant educator
Meeting place: Sünnenberg 10, 49824 Emlichheim
Registration until 09 November 2023 via info@kvgb.de
Sunday, 12 November 2023, 4pm
"Kunst Up Platt" [Low German language] guided tour
with Friederike Klever, 2nd chairwoman of the Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim
Monday, 13 November 2023, 7pm
"Drawing with Plant Colour" Workshop
with Alexa Balderhaar, wild herb and medicinal plant educator
Registration until 09 November 2023 via info@kvgb.de
Saturday, 18 November 2023, 2-5:30pm
Young Art Association | "Empowerment" Workshop
with Carolin Itterbeck, interim director Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim;
jointly "dreaming up" feminist utopias and transforming
them into powerful poster messages - for teenagers and young adults.
Registration until 17 November 2023 via info@kvgb.de
Saturday, 25 November 2023, 3:30pm
Artist talk on the exhibition with open exchange and space for action |
commemoration on the occasion of the "International Day against
Patriarchal Violence”
Saturday, 2 December 2023, 2-6pm
Christmas Market Neuenhaus
"Pop Up" bazaar table and reading at the Kunstverein
Sunday, 17 December 2023, 10am-2pm
"Echte twentse Middewinterhornwanderung" (Real twentse Middewinterhorn
hike)
Reference to the regionally famous hike, which this year starts in Neuenhaus at
the Old Town Hall.
The exhibition will be open on this day from 10am–6pm.
This exhibition is supported by the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, the Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim and the Stadt- und Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus.
Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim
Hauptstraße 37
49828 Neuenhaus,
Germany
+49 5941 98019
kvgb.de
info@kvgb.de
Hours
Thursday to Sunday 3-6pm
and by appointment
Free entry
1
See the writings of Abdullah Öcalan.
2
See the research by Silvia Federici.
