Von der Zuverlässigkeit des Fragments, Kunstverein Pforzheim, 2019
Von der Zuverlässigkeit des Fragments (On the reliability of fragments) is a comprehensive solo exhibition that reunites works from 2008 to 2019. Ströbel's drawings, site-specific works and installations are based on critical observation of social, urban and geopolitical conditions. In her work, the artist deconstructs gender relations and cultural codes and questions Eurocentric perspectives on colonial history and their impact on present times.
"Von der Zuverlässigkeit des Fragments" links questions of architecture, body politics and public space with the history of the art center. The city center of Pforzheim has been completely erased by one of the most devastating area bombardments of World War II. The post-war museum complex was built in 1957 by Manfred Lehmbruck, son of sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck, whose work has been confiscated by the Nazis and shown at the "Entartete Kunst" exhibition in Munich in 1937. Katrin Ströbel has integrated a sculpture by Wilhelm Lehmbruck in her exhibition; a female torso that usually stands in the entry hall of the Kunstverein.
"Hands of War", a new series of works developed for this exhibition investigates the traces of Maghreb soldiers in the region. It also remembers Noor Inayat Khan, Britain's first Muslim war heroine, a spy of Indian and American descent has been emprisoned in Pforzheim before being killed in the concentration camp of Dachau.
For this exhibition, Ströbel creates various dialogues between her work and the history of Pforzheim during and after World War II.
Colonize my Mind, Kunst mit politischer Tiefenwirkung, a text by Carmela Thiele
