In cooperation with the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien the exhibition Sirene –
Goldrausch 2020 presents the works of the current participants of the Goldrausch
Künstlerinnenprojekt from December 01, 2020 - January 10, 2021.

The Anniversary
30 years Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt: The renowned feminist project from Berlin
presents its annual exhibition; with works by 15 international women artists - resident
in Berlin and with roots all over the world. The show at Kunstraum Kreuzberg
combines video films, installations, painting, sound objects, performances and
sculptures.
These polyphonic works deal with personal and socio-political questions as well as
history and utopia, myths and magic and individuality and groups. They document
animated things and feelings, the effects of the Anthropocene on the climate,
geography and people, and life under digital surveillance - and ask how all this
manifests itself in the environment and in bodies.
The title "Siren" recalls the device that emits an acoustic warning tone and brings
attention to important information that is equally relevant to everyone. The Goldrausch
siren demands: polyphony and the overcoming of exclusion mechanisms in the field of
art.
The Status Quo
The Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt is a programme for professionalization. The one-
year programme provides background knowledge, a wide range of professional
expertise and also opens up networks. Goldrausch’s goal continues to be equal rights,
but this is far from being achieved. This year, the German Cultural Council criticized the
fact that the gender pay gap in the visual arts in 2019 was at 28 percent and unchanged
since the last survey in 2016. The higher the income, the higher the pay gap - for female
artists, a lower market presence also means fewer sales at lower prices.
The issue of unequal pay begins early in the career: a study of female graduates from
the Hamburg University of Fine Arts shows that female artists are very active,
participate in competitions more often than their male colleagues, win more often and
also negotiate a fee and budget more often. However, the average exhibition fee paid
to men is 1,000 €, which is twice that of women.
How it all began
Women were admitted to study at art academies in Germany from 1919. A first step.
70 years later, in 1989, the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt started a pioneering
course in West Berlin with twelve women. With the title Ohne Kompromiss - Strategien
professioneller Selbstbehauptung (Without Compromise - Strategies of Professional
Self-Assertion), the project founders Anne Marie Freybourg and Ute Birk reacted to the
obvious gap between the artistic visibility of women and men. The eponymous
Goldrausch Frauennetzwerk, the programme's sponsoring association, has been
working toward professional equality and economic independence for women since
1982\.

The principle of "help for self-help" proved to be a central theme of the project's daily
work; collegial counseling in a reliable peer group that provides valuable feedback to
the female artists.
In 30 years of Goldrausch, 447 female artists have participated in the programme, the
youngest born after the project began in 1989, and some have experienced an alumna
as a professor or artistic role model. "Ex-Goldies", as they call themselves, are present
everywhere in the art field and are well networked through their shared experience.
Ever since the programme began 30 years ago, female artists have been much more
present in the art world, up until 2020.
Project director Hannah Kruse sums up: "Many things have changed for the better.
What remains to be achieved is to finally overcome deep-seated structural inequality -
with the tools of the professionalization project, but also with political measures that
make equality possible". The Goldrausch women therefore demand support for the
compatibility of artistic work and family, anonymized awarding procedures for grants
and prizes, the quotation of purchase budgets and project budgets and the addition of
works by female artists to collections.
Kruse is optimistic, "that in 30 years the work will be done, the Goldrausch
Künstlerinnenprojekt will have made itself superfluous and we will be able to see the
whole picture.”
Anniversary program
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt will take a look
at the works of former participants as well as the history and the present of the project.
A selection of texts and images will be regularly published on the Goldrausch website
from October to December 2020.
In addition, on the weekend of December 5 and 6, works on the themes collaboration,
cohesion and self-organization by former project participants will be presented : All
Goldrausch alumnae have been invited to participate via an open call; the video,
performance and sound works will be selected by a jury (Yalda Afsah, Kira Dell, Olaf
Stüber) and made available on the project website for the two days.


Sirene - Goldrausch 2020