BERLIN — Title Extreme Tension It perfectly represents the current cultural climate in Germany, as politicians censor artists’ freedom of expression and museums struggle to respond to ever-changing polycrises. In response, the Neue Nationalgalerie takes a critical view of its collection, recontextualizing the history of art told by the museum’s collection, from the point of view of colonialism and underrepresentation, re-examining the works of women artists, some of whom have not been seen for a long time. . During the 2023 exhibition Art and society 1900–1945 featured biographies of female models of modernist artists and biographies of some Western women painters such as Hilma af Klint and Hanna Höch. Extreme Tension: Art between Politics and Society It gives ample space to women’s art from East and West Germany, as well as women’s art from Austria, Eastern Europe and the United States.
The exhibition takes off with a headlining section by a video that shares its title. “Extreme Tension” (1965), a live album by Viennese activist Günter Brus, embodies the mystical and political edge of actionism. It is hard not to see the work as a metaphor for the dangers of some artists today using their physical presence to draw attention to crises outside the museum space, such as the artists who protested Israel’s attacks on Gaza by occupying the Museum. Modern Art, or those who attacked their works at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Artists protesting in Germany, for example, have always faced threats of violence, recently the case of Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, who received death threats after speaking out against the war at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Although the ethos of actionism is often described as masculine by critics, many women artists recognized the power of realpolitik, opposition to censorship and oppression. In fact, the exhibition features the Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT, who expanded the movement to include video art. His “Touch Cinema” (1968) is in an extended film screening, artist Peter Weibel was encouraged to touch EXPORT’s breasts, enclosed by a box, imitating a movie theater. The performance is a sardonic retort to the exploitative history of female nudity and a critique of the reductive ways in which women’s bodies and sexuality were used to market products, an expression of sexism that resonates in entertainment.
A section dedicated to the 1970s includes works by other famous women artists, including Carolee Schneemann, Marina Abramović and Martha Rosler, as well as women who worked under oppressive regimes that prevented their art from reaching a wider audience. In two works, both entitled “Self-staging in Hüpstedt” (1982), Cornelia Schleime’s torso is bare and her head is tied with a rope, echoing German artist Rebecca Horn’s “Unicorn” (1970–72), in which a woman walks naked. chest, dressed only in white strips of cloth and a giant unicorn (the latter is also included in the exhibition). Like EXPORT, both artists often use imagery associated with slavery—sometimes to absurd effect—to draw attention to social subjugation, but also to stage their bodies in contexts that suggest defiance of social norms.
Ewa Partum, one of Poland’s first feminist artists, now living in Germany, stands out rightly. “Women, marriage is against you!” (1980), appeared in a gallery dressed in a wedding dress and paper, holding a sign that read “For Men”. She then cut her dress with scissors until she was naked, articulating a feminist art platform that united the country’s opposition at a time when the anti-communist struggle left little room for discussion of women’s rights. His art resonates today: Polish women have taken to the streets to protest the far-right’s strict anti-abortion laws.
In his most striking work on view, “Selfidentification” (1980/1989), consisting of six photocollages, Partum pastes his naked portrait onto urban landscapes, from pedestrian crossings to government buildings. In one, she confronts another woman wearing a riot police uniform, a symbol of the repression that followed the violent crackdown on the anti-communist Solidarity movement in Poland in 1981. Seen today, against the backdrop of global conflicts and wars, increasing ideological polarization and the collapse of civic dialogue, the image of the past radical feminist position and the history of the liberation struggle resonates with chilling intensity.
Extreme Tension: Art between Politics and Society It is on view at the Neue Nationalgalerie (Potsdamer straße 50, Berlin) until September 28, 2025.
