Einer historischen Vergangenheit gehören sie keinesfalls an, die Debatten um und die Kämpfe für Lohngleichheit und gerechte Arbeitsbedingungen. Beim Blick in ihre Geschichte wird überdies deutlich, dass Arbeitskämpfe heute wie vor fünfzig oder hundert Jahren immer in enger Verbindung mit künstlerischer Praxis, Performativität und künstlerischen Lebensrealitäten standen und stehen. Das Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen versammelt nun nicht nur Dokumentarisches über die Arbeitskämpfe vergangener Tage, sondern auch Kunstwerke, die im Zuge dieser entstanden sind oder sich mit ihnen auseinandersetzen. Christina Irrgang fokussiert in ihrer Besprechung die Aktualität dieser künstlerischen Arbeiten und Artefakte hinsichtlich der kritisierten Arbeitsbedingungen und der damit verbundenen Forderungen – und dies mit besonderem Blick für die Verschränkungen proletarischer und feministischer Kämpfe.

Even before its opening, the “urban intervention” – as the Volksbühne theater calls the temporary 25-meter-long free-to-use pool in its forecourt – generated a great deal of media attention. The so-called “Volksbad” – presented by the Volksbühne as a measure against the underfunding of Berlin’s civic infrastructure and against the increased control and regulation of public space – triggered a range of reactions, from outrage over its performative nature and supposed waste of taxpayer money to enthusiasm for the attempt to truly establish a “people’s theater” in urban space. Instrumentalization of the debate reached its peak following the announcement of an afternoon during which the swimming pool was to be made available exclusively to the Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V. association – a racist media backlash ensued. Here, Susanne von Falkenhausen and Christoph Gurk present their respective viewpoints on a project that must meet institutional expectations but also confront social realities that lack any consensus regarding an open, discrimination-sensitive society. While Christoph Gurk – currently involved in a stage production at the theater himself – argues for and contextualizes the swimming pool project by drawing on the history of the Volksbühne and the institution’s educational approach, Susanne von Falkenhausen explores the possibilities and limitations of safe spaces within the context of institutional public life.

Even before its opening, the “urban intervention” – as the Volksbühne theater calls the temporary 25-meter-long free-to-use pool in its forecourt – generated a great deal of media attention. The so-called “Volksbad” – presented by the Volksbühne as a measure against the underfunding of Berlin’s civic infrastructure and against the increased control and regulation of public space – triggered a range of reactions, from outrage over its performative nature and supposed waste of taxpayer money to enthusiasm for the attempt to truly establish a “people’s theater” in urban space. Instrumentalization of the debate reached its peak following the announcement of an afternoon during which the swimming pool was to be made available exclusively to the Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V. association – a racist media backlash ensued. Here, Susanne von Falkenhausen and Christoph Gurk present their respective viewpoints on a project that must meet institutional expectations but also confront social realities that lack any consensus regarding an open, discrimination-sensitive society. While Christoph Gurk – currently involved in a stage production at the theater himself – argues for and contextualizes the swimming pool project by drawing on the history of the Volksbühne and the institution’s educational approach, Susanne von Falkenhausen explores the possibilities and limitations of safe spaces within the context of institutional public life. Transparency statement: Christoph Gurk is currently engaged as a dramaturge for another project at the Volksbühne and was involved in the “Pool People” project in Munich.

With an impressive 130-year history, the Carnegie International has regularly showcased international art in Pittsburgh while remaining true to its founding mission of promoting international exchange and understanding among cultures. Particularly in the context of biennials and other large, regularly recurring exhibition formats, trends in curatorial approaches can be observed – shifting away from a focus on individual objects and aesthetic experience toward a focus on contextualization and knowledge production. James Voorhies also observes these approaches at the 59th edition of the Carnegie International and situates them within a broader dynamic of changing conditions in artistic and curatorial practice, as well as shifting expectations regarding aesthetic experience and reception.

With the invention of the printing press and the distribution of the Gutenberg Bible, the shift from the Middle Ages to modernity is commonly understood to be marked by profound changes in technology and the means of knowledge production. With AI-based translation, an arguably comparable change is underway. As many contributions to our current issue, “Mittelalter,” demonstrate, epochal shifts are processes rather than ruptures. Here, Ben Caton focuses on Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, which, from a historiographical point of view, faces both toward the Middle Ages and toward modernity. Situating the Reformer’s work in translation theory, Caton relates Luther’s approach to precursors in late antiquity as well as to current developments and updates his own June 2020 text in TEXTE ZUR KUNST on machine translation software such as DeepL. In the 16th century, as today, the question remains how equivalence between languages is negotiated and how norms are constructed and challenged.

Mehr als 36 Jahre nach dem Mauerfall bietet der Diskurs um die deutsch-deutsche Geschichte vermehrt endlich auch Räume für Debatten, die sich jenseits festgefahrener, häufig von reflexhaften Abwertungstendenzen geprägter Narrative bewegen. Im Zuge dieser Debatten scheint auch in der Kunstwelt Raum und Bewusstsein geschaffen worden zu sein für diesen Teil jüngerer deutscher Geschichte: in Form von öffentlichkeitswirksamen, künstlerischen Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Erbe der Wiedervereinigung, aber auch in Form der sträflich vernachlässigten Beschäftigung mit DDR-Kunst, die jahrzehntelang in Archiven und Depots verschwunden war. Einem solchen Projekt hat das ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen nun nicht nur eine, sondern ganze sechs Ausstellungen gewidmet. Zu Recht, wie Marlene Militz konstatiert, hatte doch das ifa in Westdeutschland ein ganz ähnliches Aufgabenprofil wie das in der DDR gegründete Zentrum für Kunstausstellungen, dessen Bestand das bundesdeutsche Institut zwar übernahm, aber im Zuge der generellen Abwertung einer „Regime-Kunst“ in den Jahren nach der Wende gänzlich unbearbeitet ließ.

Mit Blick auf eine Niedergangsrhetorik, die in politischen und Alltagsdebatten aktuell Konjunktur hat, scheint die Beschäftigung mit dem Ruinösen, wie sie sich auf der diesjährigen Biennale in Venedig beobachten lässt, zunächst wenig überraschend. Die hier reichlich referenzierten Ruinen dienen allerdings nicht der Illustration einer Larmoyanz über den Status quo, sondern der multidirektionalen Erinnerung an historische und gegenwärtige Kämpfe und Ausschlüsse sowie der Kritik an ihrem Vergessen. So Burcu Dogramaci, die sich anhand von drei Ausstellungen – dem Slowenischen Pavillon im Arsenale, der Gruppenschau „Still Joy“ auf Dorsoduro und dem Deutschen Pavillon in den Giardini – exemplarisch künstlerischen Strategien annähert, die Verfallenes und im Vergessen Begriffenes ins Werk setzen.

In 1959, the Kunstmuseum Basel became the first European institution to acquire abstract expressionist paintings for its collection. The fact that these works were by four male artists likely did not trouble anyone in the late 1950s. Since then, female painters of that era – including Helen Frankenthaler, who concurrently made a name for herself in the New York art scene as a leading figure in Color Field painting and was also represented at Documenta II – have been given their rightful place in 20th-century art history. With “Riverhead” (1963), a donation from the artist’s foundation in 2024, Frankenthaler recently became part of the Basler collection. It is this work that painter Flora Klein focuses on in her exhibition review of the comprehensive solo exhibition of Frankenthaler at the Kunstmuseum, tracing both the artist’s leap into abstraction and the curatorial emphasis on figurative references.