A body
A woman
A mother
A skin
A womb
A uterus
A shell
A fetus

Squeeze

Overlays, deformations, openings, surfaces, structures – Alexandra Tretter’s symbolism and Laura Mahnke’s material-related, strangely alien shapes enter into a close dialogue in the KVHBF showcases as differing approaches to feminine corporeality. They open up an atmospheric but also rigorous scope for interpretation and reflection. 

Based on their roles as mothers and artists, Laura Mahnke and Alexandra Tretter enter into a dialogical discussion about similar experiences and different ways of dealing with them, about taboo topics, idealized motherly love and the social (under)evaluation of motherhood. An ambivalence of proximity and distance is evident in their showcase exhibition, which is also reflected in the relationship between independent and collective, which they have chosen for their works and which is also reflected in the relationship between mother and child. In the HFBK showcase, the two artists are not showing their own works, but drawings and paintings by their children. Mahnke and Tretter address changes and connections between woman and mother, as well as the journey of mother and child through life – an analogy to the station as a place of arrival, departure and connections. The public space of the showcases is turned into a platform for making visible the appreciation of both physical and emotional female power.