Fathers as perpetrators - Was sehen Sie Frau Lot

Fathers as perpetrators - Was sehen Sie Frau Lot

Fathers as perpetrators
Ties, book: Fathers as perpetrators
Renate Bühn1998
Book of ties “Fathers as perpetrators”
Ties, 3 books: Fathers as perpetrators, Kiss Daddy goodnight, Against
our will
Renate Bühn1998
In an early piece from 1998 Renate Bühn broaches the issue of the
scandal of the individual and societal inaction. The “not wanting to
know” as socially acceptable reality. In the three pieces ties are pasted
with book pages on both sides. Readable are pieces of text like
“absolutely normal fathers” or “childhood”. The ties are hanging from
butcher hooks on a bar in a row, silent witnesses of societal
conventions and neglects. For the three books of ties “Fathers as
perpetrators “, “Kiss Daddy goodnight”, “Against our will” Renate Bühn
used three of the first German-speaking books that were already
published at the beginning of the 1980’s with expertise to this topic and
still have validity today. Nowadays there are a variety of books
concerning this matter. The artist says: “Today nobody can say they
didn’t know… sexual violence isn’t a taboo anymore; taboo is the
identity of the offender.” An empty book cover with the pages ripped out
is hanging on the side and confronts us with the artists question:
“ How is it possible, that 30 years of publicity and silence
collapse, 30 years knowledge about the reasons and the extent of sexual violence against girls and boys […] 30 years (remain) without
appropriate consequences for the conclusion that the enormity for the victims – points to the dimension of the perpetrators.
Does the perception for the enormity of sexual and domestic violence stay unbearable?”
Jede / jeder kennt Betroffene, jede / jeder kennt Täter.
Sexuelle Gewalt ist kein Tabuthema mehr,
Tabu ist die Identität der Täter.
2000 = 100 = 15 = 3 = 10 = 2 / Renate Bühn 1999
2000 Ties, House paint, Butcher’s hook, Verdicts 1994 – 2014
2000 = 100 = 15 = 3 = 10 = 2
2000 Ties, House paint, Butcher’s hook, Verdicts 1994 – 2014/ Steel frame 380 x 400 x 400
Installation about the dark figure of sexual offender/ on the basis of the analysis of 100 criminal cases relating to sexual crimes
on children by the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry Berlin, Miss Dr. Renate Volbert, June 1993.
Renate Bühn 1999
2000 pink ties hang like swords from a frame. Ties as a traditional attribute of the well groomed male – as a symbol of the daily threat, the hypocrisy
and the covering up of the violence hiding behind it. Pink house paint sticks to the ties. Pink as a symbol of a dispossessed as well as an externally
defined childhood. Stolen vibrancy, trust, unselfconsciousness, childhood.
Underneath the ties lie 15 pages of verdicts speared by butcher’s hooks. These are verdicts from the past 20 years, divided into prosecution, verdicts
and grounds. E.g.: Prosecution: The defendant is accused of abusing his step granddaughter since the age of 6. With her help the Public Attorney’s
Office reconstructed 40 cases of sexual abuse between 1984 and 1989 that don’t fall under the statute of limitations. Half of them fulfilled the facts of
a completed rape. Verdict: The defendant is found not guilty. Grounds: “The defendant denied all accusations during trial. He never carried out any
sexual acts with his step granddaughter. After the results of the trial the plea of the defendant cannot be disproved with the necessary certainty for a
conviction. After consideration of all the evidence the court isn’t able to eliminate the possibility that the acts of sexual abuse described by the witness
have no real background for the given period.” District Court Munich 8. March 2002.
“2000 = 100 = 15 = 3 = 10 = 2”, the installation and the title picks up the central topic of the protection of the perpetrators and our jurisdiction
concerning sexual abuse. In the estimate of the dark figure of 1:20 only 100 out of 2.000 sexual perpetrators where threatened with criminal charges
and only a few offenders have to expect imprisonment. According to an analysis of 100 criminal cases relating to sexual crimes on children by the
Institute of Forensic Psychiatry in Berlin 1993 by Dr. Renate Volbert, 85 cases out of 100 reported crimes would not be put on record by the
prosecution, only 15 cases were tried in a trial, out of these cases 3 offenders were released and 10 offenders got a suspended sentence, only 2
offenders were imprisoned without parole.
Renate Bühn’s piece illustrates the shortcomings of the criminal prosecution for sexual violence. What kind of answers does our society have for the
dark figure that has been known for centuries, how is the law administered and interpreted? Why do the sentences stay noticeably at the bottom of
the legal possibilities?
Sexual violence is not a taboo anymore – Taboo is the identity of the offenders.
What do you see, Misses Lot?
Maria Mathieu 2001
Installation, Fabric, Metal, CD, Speakers/ H 330 x W 400 x L 400
What do you see, Misses Lot?
Installation, Fabric, Metal, CD, Speakers/ H 330 x W 400 x L 400
Maria Mathieu 2001
The piece of Maria Mathieu consists of red fabric banners, painted and scorched,
hanging on a metal frame 400 x 400cm forming a closed room with the exception of a
small entrance.
In the middle of the room hangs an aluminum megaphone at height of the head. When
visitors put their ear to the megaphone and listen, they can hear the poem: “Come
Mama, tell me about the shame” by Maria Mathieu, played back via audiotape that is
fixed at the megaphone.
The poem is playing in an infinite loop but extremely quiet so that the visitors have to
put their ear very close to the megaphone.
The history to this piece: the Old Testament talks about Lot and his daughters. It is
written about a mob that wanted to assault two men that were guests in the home of
Lot. The right to hospitality was of high value at that time and in order to spare his
guests, Lot offered his young daughters to the mob. “Lot went out to the men at the
entrance, shut the door after him, and said: I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any
man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof. But
they said: Stand back!” In this night god told Lot to leave the city with his family and to never turn back. God wanted to let the two cities Sodom and
Gomorrah light up in flames. But Lot’s wife still turned around, because she wanted to see it. When doing so she froze to a pillar of salt as
punishment. Lot went on alone with his daughter and walked to a secluded mountain area, against God’s wishes who wanted him to go the city of
Zoar.” 30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two
daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger: Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.
32
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father. (3. Mose 18.7) 33 So they made
their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.” According
to the transcript the daughters raped their old father in order to fulfill their wish of an offspring. The two sons that were born to them would be the son
and heir of the two tribes of the Moabites and Ammonites.
The piece of art points to the absent mother, a mother, which froze and has no possibility to protect her daughters.
Miss Lot
Watercolours on a banner, H 170 x W 90
Maria Mathieu 2000
The drawing ‘Miss Lot’ stands for the “furious woman (Lot)”,
the woman that is forced by God not to look.
The one he prevents to talk about what happened to her daughters
through the punishment of the Old Testament “the freezing”.
No Title/ Detail
Safety glass, Canvas, Fabric
H 280 x W 80 x D 40
Heike Pich 2001
With this installation Heike Pich is directly referring to
the topic of the destroyed childhood. This piece has no
title. On a rack of thin metal bars hangs a panel of
thick, black fabric, closing off the installation at the
back and making for some kind of a backboard. In the
middle of the room, that forms through the metal bars
and the fabric, hangs a black and white photo of a
child, the little girl is roughly three years old with a
pleated skirt and a bandanna. It is standing alone on
the lawn stretching out her left arm and points to
something behind the camera. Through the illumination
in the photo the shadows of the cracks in the glass
show and it appears as if the little girl wants to poke
through the glass with her finger. A little child behind
glass. Safety glass cracked and destroyed. It should be
falling, if it would not be held together by a nearly
invisible foil. Only this foil makes the destruction
visible. The apparent idyll, which this kind of children’s
photos seem to present, is debunked as a lie. The
protective glass is destroyed, the family idyll broken by
violence and looking the other way.
geHEIMnis secret
Light projection in the libary in Hannover / Renate Bühn04/ 2005
geHEIMnis - secret
Light projection Munich Oktober 2004
Renate Bühn
Renate Bühn is constantly looking to make things visible in everyday life. Her light projection “Secret” makes for irritation in public areas like the
entrance of the public library in Hannover or on pedestrian walkways in the middle of the city. People walk on their everyday paths, to work, to go
shopping or to a nice casual date in a bar on top of it without noticing, they don’t pay attention, stumble, stand still, acknowledge, get curious or ask
themselves about it, get left there irritated or touched by it. The metaphor of the safe and protecting home touches people in an uncomfortable way in
“Secret”. Something isn’t right here. Irritation, unanswered questions, diffuse feelings are raised. Similar to the array of feelings that the affected girls
and boys and their caregivers have.
Do we want to get rid of this uncomfortable, diffuse feeling as soon as possible or start looking for answers?
The shirts of the rapists white
Renate Bühn
Installation Kröpke-Uhr, Hannover 2005
four white shirts for men, printed
german, english, french, spain
The shirts of the rapists white
Renate Bühn
Work in progress
six white shirts for men, printed
German, English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian
Like the tie the white shirt is a symbol of spotless male authority.
The clean white shirts are printed in bright red
and six languages at the back with a text of the artist:
WHITE FACADES
BEHIND WHITE CURTAINS
AT WHITE
FAMILY TABLECLOTH
THE SHIRTS
OF THE RAPISTS
WHITE
The artist broaches the issue of everyday occurrences and the
extent of the acceptance (and with that the integration) of the
offenders as an individual, structural and cultural component in
patriarchal societies, worldwide.
Furthermore the artist performs with the shirts in public spaces,
presents the issue on the streets or at the Documenta and
encourages the debate about it.
o.T. / Renate Bühn
Kassel 08/2002 Documenta II
Breakfast with daddy / Detail
Flies, Shellac, 2 Half Buns, 2 Breakfast Plates, Wooden Table, 2 Chairs
H 74 x W 110 x D 74
Renate Bühn 1999
Breakfast with daddy
Flies, Shellac, 2 Half Buns, 2 Breakfast Plates,
Wooden Table, 2 Chairs/ H 74 x W 110 x D 74
Renate Bühn 1999
Paying close attention and visibility is an important
aspect and impulse in the artistic work and acting of
Renate Bühn. “Breakfast with daddy” from 1999 should
point out the horror of sexualized violence in a quiet
everyday situation. On two wooden breakfast plates lie
two buns spread with honey. The honey is sprinkled
with dead flies. In contrary to the title of this art piece
and the pictures of a seemingly perfect world that
appear in ones mind, the artist confronts the observer
with the everyday life of the affected children, the life
they have to cope with on a daily basis. What does it
mean for a little girl, a little boy to live in a setting of
sexual violence and to survive? How is it possible to sit
at the table opposite the father and rapist having
breakfast? What kind of psychological splitting, notfeeling, daily strength has a small child to must to be
able to eat and to survive?
Der Vergewaltiger lebt / Renate Bühn 1999 / Fliegen, Holz, Schellack auf Leinwand / 2 x B 36 x H 36
In der Arbeit „Der Vergewaltiger lebt“ greift Renate Bühn die Symbolik der Fliege wieder auf. Die Fliege, in der früheren Ikonographie auch als
Sinnbild für Teufelswerkzeug verwendet, wird in ihren Arbeiten zu einem von Tätern kalkuliert eingesetzten Mittel, mit dem das Kind eingeschüchtert
werden soll. Gleichzeitig stehen die Fliegen für den Ekel, den das Kind durch den sexuellen Missbrauch erlebt. Sie erscheinen hier in einer
bedrohlichen Präsenz, überwuchern aber nur das Innere des Profils. Das Gesicht, welches der Silhouette eine Persönlichkeit geben würde, ist mit
toten Fliegenleibern und Farbe bedeckt und dadurch nicht mehr zu erkennen. Es ist zwar eindeutig männlich, aber anonym, nicht mehr wieder zu
erkennen, so wie betroffene Kinder den Vater_Täter nicht mehr zu erkennen meinen.
My 10th Birthday
Maria Mathieu 2001
Installation/ Wood, Canvas/ H 260 x W 300 x L 250
Maria Mathieu shows 2 large white canvases painted with a red
rose pattern – 260 x 240cm – set up to resemble a room. A used
Persian carpet, a roughly carpentered white children’s table and
a child’s chair, used male loafers, used girl slippers, chocolate
on the table round up the display.
About this piece: Canvases and children’s furniture alongside
the carpet seem to present a comfortable living room. The thing
out of the ordinary is that everything is slanting, seems to
collapse. The furniture has partly cut off legs, the walls tilt
towards the center of the room. In the center the male loafers
stand in front of the child’s chair, the girls slippers face astride in
the opposite direction. They fell off the feet on either side of the
chair. An opened and bitten off chocolate is lying on the table.
The world of an affected girl/ boy is necessarily a
misaligned one, one that turned unreal because the people
that should keep her/ him safe twist her/ his natural feeling
for right and wrong, they deprive her/ him of it by threat of
punishment.
Homage to Sonja R. I + II
Maria Mathieu 2003
Netting of nylons on a frame and stone base
each H 50 x W 140 x L 140
This piece of art consists of 3 frames,
each 140 x 140cm. They each have
been stringed with white, black/white or
coloured netting of nylons, embroidered
and interlaced. They lie on the ground,
their head side boasted by underlying
stones, which can resemble tomb slaps.
This piece was only crafted after the 4th
phase of the exhibition in Cologne, after
the artist read an article in the morning
paper about the murder of a prostitute.
This woman was strangled with her own
pantyhose after being raped.
„Lavabo inter innocentes manus means - In Unschuld will ich meine Hände waschen“
30 x 50 cm, ca. 4.000 Stecknadeln, Lavabo (Kelchtuch) auf Schaumstoff
Renate Bühn 2014
„Lavabo inter innocentes manus means - In Unschuld will ich meine Hände waschen“
30 x 50 cm, ca. 4.000 Stecknadeln, Lavabo (Kelchtuch) auf Schaumstoff
Renate Bühn 2014
4.000 Stecknadeln stecken in einem weißen
Lavabotuch, fügen sich zu einem lateinischen
Gebet, das der Priester bei der Händewaschung
in der außerordentlichen Form des Römischen
Ritus spricht: Lavabo inter innocentes manus
meas... („In Unschuld will ich meine Hände
waschen“).
Lavabo (von lat. lavare: waschen, also: „ich
werde waschen“) bezeichnet den symbolischen
Ritus der Händewaschung eines Priesters in der
Heiligen Messe. Ein Ministrant gießt bei diesem
Ritus etwas Wasser über die Finger des
Zelebranten und fängt dieses mit dem
Lavabotablett oder -becken auf. Ein zweiter
Ministrant reicht ihm das Lavabotuch zum
Abtrocknen der Hände.
Weltweit verschafften sich in den letzten Jahren
auch Missbrauchsopfer aus der katholischen
Kirche und ihren Einrichtungen Gehör. Viele
Übergriffe und Täter wurden öffentlich, die in den (Geheim)Archiven der katholischen Kirche, der Bistümer und des Vatikans bekannt waren und
dokumentiert sind, jedoch lange geleugnet und verschleiert wurden. Heute sind viele Übergriffe, schwere Misshandlungen und Vergewaltigungen
verjährt oder gar Akten und damit Beweise bereits vernichtet.
Was geschieht mit diesem Wissen und den noch vorhandenen Dokumenten? Wie kann heute von der katholischen Kirche, den einzelnen
Einrichtungen und Bistümern Verantwortung übernommen und gehandelt werden? Wie kann für die Opfer ein heilsames Umfeld geschaffen werden
und wie können die Täter zur Verantwortung gezogen werden?
Die künstlerische Arbeit befragt die eigene WAHRnehmung, das eigene Handeln, thematisiert den Mangel an alltäglicher Wahrnehmung und Handeln
als weltweiter Bestandteil in allen gesellschaftlichen Strukturen. Jeder Übergriff, aber auch das eigene Nicht-wissen-wollen, Wegschauen, Leugnen,
Vertuschen oder Bagatellisieren, sind Nadelstiche im Fleisch der Betroffenen, im Fleisch der Familie, der Kirche, der Gesellschaft.
beichteundgebet
30 x 50 cm
ca. 7.000 Stecknadeln,
Lavabo (Kelchtuch)
auf Schaumstoff
Renate Bühn 2014
Inhaltliche Grundlage der Arbeit ist der Bericht zum Abschluss der Hotline der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs vom
März 2010 – Dez.2012 mit Telefon-, Internet und postalischem Beratungsangebot.
7.000 Stecknadeln formulieren ein Ergebnis aus dem „Tätigkeitsbericht der Hotline_Deskriptive Statistik zu den gemeldeten Delikten.
noch immer – immer noch
work in progress
Calender Cards 2002-2014
Renate Bühn
still and still and still
work in progress, Calendar Cards 2001 – 2014
Doormat
Renate Bühn
The multiple to take, in a way that banks or other
firms usually use for their year-round advertising,
has on the calendar of 2013 the inscription: “still the
14 year old girl chokes on the dick of her father”.
Renate Bühn started this piece of art in 2001. As a
work-in-progress this piece takes on a different form
at every exhibition site in alignment with the location
and the little girl is continuously getting older since
2001. As a doormat or on the steps of a stair the
cards of the calendar are placed in the entrance
area of every exhibition site for the entire time as a
reminder for every visitor of everyone’s own passing
by, walking past it.
Visitors can take the cards with them and carry
them with them in their pocket. An everyday
reminder, an everyday questionnaire about their
own actions. The work of the artist points to the lack
of everyday observations and actions. At the same
time it illustrates what this means for the affected
girls and boys. They are left alone for years in these
situations that are hopeless for them with no way
out. Caregivers, family, their close environment,
school, the society still don’t them a chance to
speak up and break free from it.
Silence
Cement sculpture/ H 33 x W 35 x D 15
Heike Pich 2001
The painful violation through breach of trust
and domestic abuse often only result in one
reaction: the inner silence. This piece of art
by Heike Pich titled “Silence” shows a bust
made of white cement (height 33cm,
shoulder width 33cm), placed on a pillar of
rusty metal. The facial expression seems
absent and closed, the features appear
feminine without it explicitly presenting a
female person. The piece broaches the
issue of the silence of entire generations
throughout centuries and different cultures,
the silence of parents and children, schools
and churches, patients and doctors. Even
boys experience brutal violence - to talk
about it, to feel the pain, their manhood
doesn’t allow it. They remain silent.
I put on my mask
Window, Window colour
Heike Pich 2004
Heike Pich shows with this installation
the attempt to establish normality,
to pretend in spite of the violence.
Window colour writing on a pane of glass :
“I put on my mask
pretend as if
I put on my mask
smile
My nice little smile
of a well looked after daughter”
Instead of coloured funny pictures with window colours
on the window of a child’s room,
here the distress of the child is shown,
not being allowed to talk about the experienced
violence and having to pretend that everything is fine.
Burring – Hurt – Socialization of the woman
Cement sculpture 60 x 30 x 33,
Stainless steel base 80 x 25 x 25, Glass, Lighting
Heike Pich 2000
The sculpture of Heike Pich broaches the issue of the examination of
ones own injuries and the demands of a social role that girls, women and
mothers are exposed to. A sculpture made of dark grey cement. Placed
on a base of stainless steel, height 80cm, diameter 25cm, the opening of
the base is covered by a round pane of glass, overlapping the rim of the
base. Within the base is a light source illuminating the sculpture from
underneath. Through this light the rim of the glass is coloured green. The
figure appears to be wrapped in rugged garments and is reminiscent to
Misses Lot that froze to a pillar of salt. The Rugged and Harsh as an
allegory for the safeguard of the soul against assault and violence. But in
the upper (head) area the sculpture is molded smoothly, resembling the
hope of healing or metamorphosis, the upwardly stretched out posture
also expresses hope, hope for change and living instead of surviving.
Lullaby
Maria Mathieu 2001
Installation/ Wood, Embroidery, Fabric/ H 200 x L 135
A self built bed of white glazed wood – 120 x 70 cm +
90cm thin wooden legs.
In it lies a white blanket, embroidered with red yarn,
spelling out the lyrics of the German children’s song “Guten
Abend, Gute Nacht” (Brahm’s lullaby).
In the last verse the artist exchanged the word God for him
(the father): Guten Abend, gute Nacht, mit Rosen
bedacht. Mit Näglein besteckt, schlüpf unter die Deck’.
Morgen früh, wenn er will, wirst du wieder geweckt.
The display shows a piece of furniture in between a child’s
bed and a child’s coffin. Within the room, which resembles
the most intimate and safe place in a child’s life, the
bedroom, the bed, often the most brutal assaults happen.
Silence is deadly
Rocking horse, motor, wooden fence, 2 chairs, mirror / Renate Bühn 2001
Silence is deadly
Rocking horse, motor, wooden fence, 2 chairs,
mirror
Renate Bühn2001
The title refers to the saying: “Speaking is silver,
silence is gold”. You see a pink rocking horse,
substitutional for being a child: climbing on it,
trying it, rocking, finding ones own rhythm, rocking
oneself … it’s moving mechanically powered much
too fast and rough back and forth – a strange
rhythm. The sound of the motor is monotonously – something isn’t right here.In the background two pink chairs with golden covers, representative of
the spectators, the familial and societal complicity. The artist confronts the observers with their own responsibility not to deny, to speak up and to take
action, to look closely and to notice.
“Everyone knows persons concerned, everyone knows perpetrators”, states the artist, what so many don’t want to accept in their everyday life.
Tatjana
born 09.11.1972
died 01.11.1992
overdose
Hildegard
born 13.11.1952
died 06.02.1994
heart failure
Christina
born 12.09.1968
died 24.04.1994
she jumped to her death
Lotta
born 03.10.1985
died 21.08.1994
raped and choked to death
Elke
born 18.08.1958
died 15.03.1996
overdose
Rebecca
born 08.11.1976
died 11.05.2003
she took pills
Kay
born 22.01.1976
died 20.09.2001
she took pills
Floh
born 27.03.1977
died 19.07.2007
self-determined
via insulin overdose
Tatjana, Hildegard,
Lotta, Christina, Elke,
Kai, Rebecca, Floh
work in progress 1997 – 2013
8 light boxes each 21 x 30 x 14,5
In memoriam
Renate Bühn
The light installation with eight light boxes at the moment shines for women and girls whose murder via sexual
violence is mostly not obvious. The light boxes are representing the many girls and women that didn’t survive their
assault. Sexual violence is a crime, it breaks trust, it breaks protection, flow of life and reason of life, destroys
childhood, kills. The killers live, live on mostly unoffended: fathers, step- and grandfathers, brothers.
They are tagged with names, cause of death, date of birth and death and create a space and an expression to the
remembrance, not to forget their life stories. Anyone who wants to commemorate a girl, a woman that died or
dedicate a light box to the remembrance, can broaden the recollection. Tatjana, Hildegard and Christina are three
women that the artist knew personally. Renate Bühn started with these three light boxes in 1997, five more where
added since then. Elke was dedicated by her friend Frauke Mahr, Rebecca by the girls shelter Cologne – Kay by
the girls shelter Bremen. The parents Barbara Heitzer and Andreas Promitzer commemorate the murder of their
daughter Lotta Heitzer with another light box. Since 2010 her mother Tina Reuther with her life partner Isabelle
Feix, the lesbian partnerr Johanna D.of Floh with their child Milo and her friend Anja S. remind us of Floh.
Sleep, father, sleep
Steel, wood 430 x 35 x 35 / lime rock, feather pillows 25 x 80 x 80
Renate Bühn 2003
A knife over four meters long hangs close to an anatomically formed heart
carved from stone. The heart is placed on a pillow, the blade of the knife is welded
from steel, the handle made of lightwood. Who is the knife pointed at?
This piece is a metaphor for the persons concerned. They broke the silence,
demand social changes for centuries and took a leading role in building outreach
centres and setting up support programs. The offenders cannot feel safe anymore.
No Title
Puzzle, edited photograph / 40 x 30
Renate Bühn2012
A puzzle lies on the table. The visitors can put the pieces together without the original pattern at hand.
Which picture, which story is developing with each new piece? What do you see?
I will never know
Renate Bühn
Work in progress / wooden bed, mattress
w120 x d200 x h40, fabric, paper, nightstand
In individual pieces – like this one – the active
participation of the persons concerned is important
to Renate Bühn.
As the victims write down their stories, an additional
aspect of remembrance and visibility is created.
The pillowcase is filled with the texts of the artist
“I will never know, who I could have been, before”.
Beside the bed is a locked nightstand. Here the persons concerned can drop their own texts and memories anonymously. The nightstand is emptied
daily and the texts are carefully wrapped in the delicate blanket. Furthermore the texts are made visible via Internet and can also be added via email.
This way the see through tulle-blanket is filled bit by bit with poems, memories and texts of the victims and attain visibility.
How many pearls does luck have
Oil on canvas 80 x 75
Renate Bühn 2010
“How many pearls does luck have”
shows an approximately ten-year-old girl
by herself and sitting at the table
absorbed in what she is doing. She is
threading white pearls on a necklace.
The eye of the observer is lead from the
string of pearls that seem to be falling
out of the picture in the foreground to the
girl.
The seemingly peaceful picture of an
intact children’s world is disturbed and
challenged by an overflowing ashtray
that is placed on the table at the edge of
the picture. The picture, held in muted
colours, broaches the issue of the
loneliness of children that have to grow
up in an environment shaped by
violence.
In order to survive the girls and boys
create their own strategies, create inner
and outer free spaces for themselves,
collect and guard positive, life-affirming
experiences like little treasures:
pearls of luck.