unBinding Bodies
Lotus Shoes and Corset
For a thousand years, Chinese girls had their feet bound to keep them as small as possible. Europeans looked at this ideal of beauty with a mixture of fascination and astonishment. In the 19th century, doctors also became interested in the so-called “lotus feet“. Many such specimens can still be found in scientific collections today.
The exhibition shows these sensitive things against the background of social, colonial and medical history. It examines foot-binding as a situated practice that not only restricted women but also had an identity-forming effect. One focus is on the interplay of self-perceptions and foreign perceptions and the intertwining of Chinese and European emancipation movements: Parallel to the initiatives for “foot liberation“, women in Europe fought against the corset. The exhibition gives women a voice. Artistic positions by Zhang Gong, kate-hers RHEE and Zhang Rui enter into a dialogue with the exhibition and open up the perspective on beauty norms and the conditioning of bodies in the present.
Related exhibitions and events
Credits
- Curators: Jasmin Mersmann, Evke Rulffes, Felix Sattler
- Team TA T (project lead), Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Team MARKK: Barbara Plankensteiner, Susanne Knödel, Gabriel Schimmeroth
- Artists: kate-hers RHEE, Zhang Gong and Zhang Rui
- Scientific advisory board: Han Congyao, Mireile Flitsch, Dorothy Ko, Carina Phillips, Thomas Schnalke, Susanne Wernsing, Zhu Yijie
A cooperation of Tieranatomisches Theater der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum. Künste und Kulturen der Welt, Kunstuniversität Linz.
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
