Scherben

Louisa Frauenheim's works link biographical, personal memories with collective cultures of remembrance. Her grandmother's house forms a central starting point for this: as a place where objects are found that find their way into Frauenheim's works, but also as the subject of her video films, which often revolve around the questions of what spaces and objects store and how these in turn can be remembered. Her works are thus biographically motivated, they are an examination of her origins, her memories and those of her family, but they also point beyond the private sphere and refer to overall social contexts and structures. She is particularly interested in the phenomenon of matriarchy, which was embedded in a strictly patriarchal environment within her family. She also relates these themes to the various facets of her own motherhood. Depending on the theme and the question, she works with different artistic forms such as photography, installation, video or performance. One of her main materials, which also gives the exhibition its title, is porcelain. She is interested in its connection to stereotypes of femininity - on the one hand, porcelain stands for preciousness and fragility (according to which a woman is better treated “gently”), while the material is also associated with the “hysterical woman” who throws plates against the wall, or is given to female footballers as a prize for winning a European Championship title. Frauenheim's piles of broken glass contain less destruction than liberation, which doesn't mean that you can't be hurt by them.