Present or absent, supportive or domineering, warm or diabolical – everyone has a Mother! Louisiana's large-scale exhibition revolved around motherhood, viewed through changing notions of art and culture, primarily in the 20th and 21st centuries.
In this video curator, Marie Laurberg introduces the exhibition.
In a sprawling and sensuous, richly unfolded story, motherhood and the figure of the mother was examined in cultural-historical, philosophical, psychological, and artistic depth. As with Louisiana’s recent exhibition THE MOON, the exhibition went back in time and followed the tracks that lead to the present moment. Bringing together works by many of the greatest artists of the period, the exhibition ran the gamut from early avant-garde movements to the present day.
Power and liberation
With the mother figure as the focal point, the work explored themes such as origin and affiliation, changing ideas about femininity, death, and giving life.
A cultural-historical trace outlined the marked societal changes that have changed the social position of women over the past hundred years - and have changed the cultural norms and expectations associated with motherhood. From women's suffrage over abortion legislation and birth control pills to new father roles and queer motherhood.
The exhibition brought together a number of important artists that have been exhibited at Louisiana over the last decade, many of whom are represented in the museum’s collection. But also special contributions by a number of younger artists, like Laura Prouvost, Petrit Halijaj, and Kaari Upson, was represented by – providing new topical on the many-faceted them of motherhood.
Mothers are always present!
One of the hottest contemporary artists of the time Laure Prouvost, created a new work, 'MOOTHERR', especially for the exhibition. Here she is interviewed by Louisiana Channel during the set-up of the installation.
THE EXHIBITION PRESENTED WORKS BY…
Louise Bourgeois, Alberto Giacometti, Tracey Emin, Petrit Halilaj, Candice Breitz, Ragnar Kjartansson, Kirsten Justesen, Lucian Freud, Mary Kelly, Otto Dix, Jennie Livingston, Paul McCarthy, Dea Trier Mørch, René Magritte, Alice Neel, Isamu Noguchi, Laure Prouvost, Egon Schiele, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Johan Georg Röderer, Cindy Sherman, Marcel Proust, Catherine Opie, Pablo Picasso, Yoko Ono, Kai Nielsen, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Henry Moore, Ana Mendieta, Edvard Munch, Suzanne Valadon, Lennart Nilsson, Joni Mitchell (Roberta Joan Anderson), Wilhelm Lachnit, Julie Laurberg & Franziska Gad, Peter Keler, Meret Oppenheim, Henry Heerup, Käthe Kollwitz, Svend Wiig Hansen, Chantal Joffe, Alfred Hitchcock, Tracey Moffatt, Peter Hujar, Frida Orupabo, Stephan Zick, Alina Szapocznikow, Mason Poole, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Valie EXPORT, Rineke Dijkstra, Walt Disney, Ane Crabtree, Jean-Paul Goude, Sophie Calle, Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm & Wilhelm Carl Grimm, Mary Cassatt, Max Beckmann, Miyako Ishiuchi, Dieric Bouts, Elina Brotherus, Thomas Bartholin, Jeanne Mammen, François-Joseph Moreau, Tala Madani, Sano di Pietro, Manjari Sharma & Irina Rozovsky, Ulrike Rosenbach, Kaari Upson, Annegret Soltau and Osamu Takahashi / Taikan Hoshino / Masaharu Kurosu / Kyoko Kita / Madoka Yoshio.
