Rosemarie Trockel

“Finally, to comprehend, not just know”. This quote by the artist Rosemarie Trockel (* 1952) is regularly cited today as a key to deciphering the meaning of her works. These are found in the spaces in between, productively setting ambivalence in motion, but never having simple political messages. Rather, they reveal the ambiguities of the present, in which the established structures of power and historically grown imbalances are clearly graspable.

Although Trockel originally specialised in painting, she began to playfully interchange her media at the end of the 1970s. Her works consist of Super-8 film footage, collages, sculptures and even mixed-media works and installations. In these pieces, she repeatedly alludes to heavily symbolic objects, materials and techniques from the repertoire of domestic life, e.g. integrating wool and machine-made embroidery into her art. Rosemarie Trockel, “possibly feminism’s favourite child against her will” (Heinz-Norbert Jocks), breaks with stereotypes, questions the role of female artists in a male-dominated art industry (“Who will be in in 1999”) and drastically visualises the objectification of the female body (“Ohne Titel, Frau ohne Unterleib”, “Untitled, Woman without a Lower Half”). Her multifaceted works have since become more topical than ever, revealing the structural distribution of power in a patriarchal society and brutal interconnections of gender and violence.

In this large-scale retrospective, the MMK Frankfurt presents more than 200 artworks spanning 50 years from Trockel’s earliest pieces to her most recent works, inviting visitors to discover the predominant themes and cross-references in her oeuvre. Organisers plan to produce an extensive catalogue to accompany the exhibition, featuring essays by the writer Michel Houellebecq, philosopher Rosi Braidotti and biologist Cord Riechelmann, among others.
 

Artistic director: Susanne Pfeffer
Artist: Rosemarie Trockel

Exhibition: MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, Frankfurt am Main: 10 Dec. 2022 – 4 Jun. 2023