Based on a centrally presented group of works by Vienne, the exhibition shows female artists of the avant-garde who used puppets (marionettes, hand puppets) in their work or enacted them through poses, costumes or stage movements. These artists were active in the interwar period in various artistic centers such as Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Paris, Zurich, Prague, Krakow and Kiev. The exhibited artists include well-known names such as Claude Cahun, Hannah Höch, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Emmy Hennings as well as lesser-known artists such as Hermine Moos, Maria Jarema and Milada Marešová. For female artists in search of new freedoms and sources for the renewal of artistic language, the puppet theater offered an excellent space for interdisciplinary experimentation, as it opened up opportunities to work on the border between disciplines such as painting, sculpture, kinetic sculpture, dance and choreography. For the artists, the marionette became a new, full-fledged form of artistic expression with extraordinarily subversive potential for political and social criticism. The exhibition title stems from Emmy Hennings’ 1920 dairy Das Brandmal: Ein Tagebuch (The Stigma: A Diary).
Artists:
Josephine Baker, Claude Cahun, Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster, Valeska Gert, Estelle Hanania, Emmy Hennings, Hannah Höch, Maria Jarema, Milada Marešová, Hermine Moos, Lotte Pritzel, Lotte Reiniger, Lavinia Schulz, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Marie Vassilieff, and Gisèle Vienne.
The exhibition opens on September 12, 2024 at the Georg Kolbe Museum.