Art Exhibition on Women as the Breadwinners of Society

With a new exhibition, the Gunzenhauser Art Museum in Chemnitz explores the connections between food and gender roles. “Serving Gender,” as the show is titled, is “a feminist look beyond the plate,” explains curator Pauline Tigges.

According to the museum, the exhibition features artworks from the 17th century to the present day, including paintings, photography, prints, textile art, and video works. These include Martha Rosler’s video work “Semiotics of the Kitchen,” the 1852 oil painting “Die Traubenspenderin” by Adolf Friedrich Georg Wichmann, and Sophia Süßmilch’s 15-minute video loop “Mutterliebe.” 

Second part of the exhibition trilogy “Mahlzeit”

According to the exhibition organizers, women around the world have borne the brunt of food-related labor for centuries: “They cook, they provide, they feed children, families, and communities.” The exhibition highlights women as society’s primary providers of food and examines how closely food is linked to gender-specific and societal power structures, cultural norms, and assigned roles. “The central question is how food not only satisfies biological needs but also reproduces social structures.” 

The exhibition is set to open on Friday evening (July 3) and will run through November 1. It is the second part of the “Mahlzeit” trilogy, through which the museum is exploring the theme of food this year. In the first part, held this spring, the museum transformed itself into an artistic “fine art gallery.”