Lynn Hershman Leeson
First Person Plural
19 May – 15 July 18

 

Address: The Shelf, Prinzenstraße 34, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg

Opening hours: Wed–Sun 11 am – 7 pm, Thu 11 am – 9 pm

Admission: 5 €, reduced 3 €

Free admission on Thursday evenings between 6–9 pm

U8 Moritzplatz / Bus 140 Prinzenstraße/Ritterstraße

Partly accessible for wheelchair users

 

<p>Lynn Hershman Leeson, still from <em>First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman </em>(1984–96)</p>

Lynn Hershman Leeson, still from First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman (1984–96)

 

Opening: 18 May 18, 7 pm

 

Located in a large abandoned warehouse in the middle of Berlin-Kreuzberg, KW Institute for Contemporary Art presents the exhibition First Person Plural by American artist Lynn Hershman Leeson (born 1941, Cleveland, US), which brings together selected video works from the 1970s-90s as well as the installation Lorna (1979-83).

 

The focus of the exhibition lies on Hershman Leeson’s continuous engagement with identity, gender construction, sexual self-determination, and her progression of these ideas in close exchange with advances in technology, and science. The work challenges our relationship to reality and the possibilities that virtual reality, artificial intelligence as well as genetics are made accessible as a strategy of resistance. By doing so, she defies the limitation of censorship and elimination of the individual voice while also recognizing the dangers inherent in the question, who controls these new technologies.

 

The title of the show is pulled from Lynn Hershman Leeson’s film First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman (1984-96) that sits at the center of the exhibition. In the form of a video confessional amassed over 12 years, the film records Hershman Leeeson’s struggle, transformation, and transcendence as her personal story unfolds before the camera and sees the mirroring effects of when the personal becomes political, becomes cultural.

 

Curator: Anna Gritz

Assistant curator and project management: Cathrin Mayer

 

 

Mediation

 

Public guided tours

Public guided tours through the exihibition Lynn Hershman Leeson: First Person Plural will be held every Thursday at 7 pm (in German) and every Saturday at 3 pm (in English).

 

Meeting point is at the counter, admission is free (without prior registration)

 

Guided group tours

Duration: 60 minutes

70 € / reduced 50 €, plus reduced admission fee/person

For further information on guided tours, please contact Duygu Örs at do@kw-berlin.de or +49 30 243459-132

 

 

The exhibition space is kindly provided by THE SHELF by Pandion.

 

 

 

 

1/5
Lynn Hershman Leeson, <i>Lorna</i>, 1979–82, Installation view of the exhibition <i>First Person Plural</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lorna, 1979–82, Installation view of the exhibition First Person Plural, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, <i>First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman, 1984–96</i> (in four parts), installation view of the exhibition <i>First Person Plural</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, First Person Plural, the Electronic Diaries of Lynn Hershman, 1984–96 (in four parts), installation view of the exhibition First Person Plural, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Installation view of the exhibition <i>First Person Plural</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Installation view of the exhibition First Person Plural, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, <i>Lorna</i>, 1979–82, Installation view of the exhibition <i>First Person Plural</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lorna, 1979–82, Installation view of the exhibition First Person Plural, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, <i>Venus of the Anthropocene</i>, 2017, Installation view of the exhibition <i>First Person Plural</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Venus of the Anthropocene, 2017, Installation view of the exhibition First Person Plural, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018, Photo: Frank Sperling