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Ulrike Rosenbach «The Image of Woman in Postwar Times»
Ulrike Rosenbach, «The Image of Woman in Postwar Times», 1994
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 Ulrike Rosenbach
«The Image of Woman in Postwar Times»

In the Federal Republic of Germany's 'Haus der Geschichte' in Bonn, a program with three artists' videos runs across a wall of 96 television monitors. One of them is by Ulrike Rosenbach. Shown is postwar documentary footage of women taking part in rebuilding the country: in construction, factories, research. In contrast to this, we see the image of woman purveyed by the German dream-factory, UFA film studios: in evening dress, as a young ballet student, and as beauty queen. A woman with a yellow shawl on a playground swing moves with steady rhythm through the image of the destroyed postwar Germany.
Ulrike Rosenbach combines her artistic work with historical research. She addresses the clichés, stereotypes, and role of women in a patriarchal society. Meanwhile, her work no longer displays the autobiographical radicalism with which she moved people and laid a feminist foundation stone in her 1970s actions. This 1994 work is historically mellowed. The artist no longer employs her own body, but presents documentary material with the newest technical means.

 

Ulrike Rosenbach