Lena Braun (born April 4, 1961 in Wuppertal, Germany) is a Berlin-based artist, curator and author. She works as a cross-genre artist in the fields of
performance
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Performance has evolved glo ...
and
visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...
, often addressing non-normative femininity and gender expression. The art spaces that she has curated since 1988 have earned her the reputation of being a "Grand Dame" of Berlin's art scene.
Life and career
Braun grew up in western Germany and came to Berlin in 1981 to study at
FU Free University. In 1987, she wrote her master's thesis on the novel "The Tigress: A Strange Love Story" by
Walter Serner
Walter Serner (15 January 1889 – August 1942) was a German-language writer and essayist. His manifesto ''Letzte Lockerung'' was an important text of Dadaism.
Life
Walter Serner was born Walter Eduard Seligmann in Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary), B ...
.
In 1988, she opened the first of her – to this day - 9 art spaces in Berlin. The art magazine
Kunstforum International
''Kunstforum International'' is a bi-monthly magazine for contemporary art. Every issue has about 350 pages with a first part on a specific theme and in-depth articles on contemporary art, a part with interviews with artists and art professionals, ...
called it a "meeting place for the young, experimental art scene" and Braun soon made a name for herself as "a real diva of Berlin's cultural scene". One of her art spaces, the Boudoir in Berlin-Mitte (1991 – 1995), was honored by the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
(MoMA) in New York with the exhibition “Boudoir in Exile
and is now considered the “First Queer Art Salon” in Berlin.
In 1993, she founded the Queen Barbie Lodge, defined as an “underground organization” for women artists. The lodge, which Braun chaired until 2009, was the female counterpart to an all-male association called Lord Jim Lodge, operated by artists like
Martin Kippenberger
Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German painter, draftsman, photographer, sculptor, installation and performance artist. He became known for his prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction, as w ...
and
Albert Oehlen
Albert Oehlen (born 17 September 1954) is a German painter, installation artist and musician. He lives and works in Bühler, Switzerland and Segovia, Spain. (among others). The Queen Barbie Lodge regularly organized exhibitions and performances ironizing
sexism
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
and championing female empowerment. The Berlin city magazine Tip wrote: “Lena Braun aka Queen Barbie is not only a curator, but also a visual artist and above all an intrepid performer. As a curator, she … mainly promotes and exhibits female artists, without being dogmatic about it.”
Queen-barbie-loge-zentralorgan-tattoo.jpg, Viennese magazine ST/A/R about a life tattoo session with Lena Braun aka Queen Barbie
Queen-barbie-loge-zentralorgan-18-01.jpg, Periodical of the Queen Barbie Lodge. Braun published 36 issues between 1993 and 2008
Alongside her curatorial projects, Lena Braun also works as a freelance author and artist. In the 1990s and 2000s, she wrote plays, acted in films
and published a periodical for the Queen Barbie Lodge (36 issues,
Xerox art
Xerox art (sometimes, more generically, called copy art, electrostatic art, scanography or xerography) is an art form that began in the 1960s. Prints are created by putting objects on the glass, or platen, of a photocopier and by pressing "start" t ...
). In 2013 she founded a literary label called Edition Fortyfour, where she publishes her novels. Braun's artistic oeuvre includes
performances
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Performance has evolved glo ...
,
collage
Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...
s and
installations. She exhibits both in Germany and internationally.
Art Spaces
Lena Braun has been initiating and curating art spaces in Berlin since 1988. She sees her spaces as installations, i.e. artificial environments that stage art (as opposed to showing it in a white cube). For an exhibition on "Today's
Avant-Garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
" at the Kindl Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin (2017)
Braun created an installation that reflects her point of view: "My art spaces are
campy
Camp is an aesthetic and sensibility that regards something as appealing or amusing because of its heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration, especially when there is also a playful or ironic element. ''Camp'' is historically ...
environments that shape alternative queer lifestyles and suspend classic markers of social exclusion such as age, origin, or saleability."
Braun's art spaces in Berlin (selection)
* 2017 – 2019 BARBICHE, Potsdamerstraße, Schöneberg, Berlin
* 2009 – 2014 SU DE COUCOU, Weserstraße, Neukölln, Berlin
* 2003 – 2007 BARBIE DEINHOFF's, Schlesische Straße, Kreuzberg, Berlin
* 1991 – 1995 BOUDOIR, Brunnenstraße, Berlin-Mitte
* 1989 LOULOU LASARD, Crellestraße, Schöneberg, Berlin
* 1988 BICHETTE, Fürbringerstraße, Kreuzberg, Berlin
The press often focuses on the ambience in which Braun presents art. The British
Guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...
, for example, listed her art space Barbie Deinhoff's as one of the ten best bars in Berlin. The German national weekly
Die Zeit
(, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The first edition of was ...
described another of her art spaces, the BOUDOIR, as a mixture of "club, gallery and art
happening
A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow in 1959 to describe a range of art-related events.
History
Origins
Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" i ...
".
Similar comments were made by media such as
Die Welt
(, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE.
is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...
,
Die tageszeitung
''Die Tageszeitung'' (, "The Daily Newspaper"), stylized as ''die tageszeitung'' and commonly referred to as ''taz'', is a German daily newspaper. It is run as a cooperative – it is administered by its employees and a co-operative of sharehol ...
and
Tagesspiegel
(meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunification ...
.
In a recent interview with the Berlin-based radio station RBB, Braun described this very mix as intentional: Her art spaces, says Braun, are social spaces meant to transcend art world elitism.
Film
Braun appeared in several films, among them ''Gender X'', which premiered at the
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
in 2005 and ''B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989'', which was released in 2015.
Braun was a voice actress in
Nekromantik 2
''Nekromantik 2: Die Rückkehr der Liebenden Toten (The Return of the Loving Dead)'' (stylized as ''NEKRomantik 2'') is a 1991 German horror film directed by Jörg Buttgereit and a sequel to his 1988 film ''Nekromantik''. The highly controversial ...
, and she co-wrote and co-directed a film for German television (“Der hellblaue Engel”, The Light-Blue Angel, 1996).
In 2007, she wrote and directed the video “Hairspray II", based on the Film
Hairspray
Hairspray may refer to:
* Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind
* Hairspray (1988 film), ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters
** Hairspray (1988 soundtrack), ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundt ...
by
John Waters
John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...
(director). Braun also played the role of "Mom". The video was shown in Amsterdam in 2010 and in Berlin in 2021
Stage: plays and performances
Braun performed in
Robyn Orlin
Robyn Orlin (born 1955) is a South African dancer and choreographer, born in Johannesburg.
Nicknamed in South Africa "a permanent irritation", she is well known for reflecting the difficult and complex realities in her country. Integrating differ ...
's play “Ski-fi-Jenni”, with performances in Montpellier, Paris and Berlin (2002).
Braun also wrote, produced and directed own plays, among them:
* The Queer Version of Nibelungen. A revue for 36 performers queering the historic saga of the Germanic
Nibelung
The term Nibelung ( German) or Niflungr (Old Norse) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend. It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root ''Nebel'', meaning mist. The ...
clan (premiered 2000 in Berlin, BKA-Theater).
* Die Hassfabrik (The Hate Factory). A one-act play on female rampage killers (premiered 2003 in Wels, Austria.
* All About Eve II. A performance with 4 actresses undoing Eve's expulsion from paradise (premiered 2009 in Berlin).
Literature
In 2013, Lena Braun published three novels in homage to
Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes ( ; June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel '' Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist lite ...
: Ladies Almanach, Nachtschatten, Tyler.
The titles echo those chosen by Barnes:
Ladies Almanack
''Ladies Almanack'', its complete title being ''Ladies Almanack: showing their Signs and their Tides; their Moons and their Changes; the Seasons as it is with them; their Eclipses and Equinoxes; as well as a full Record of diurnal and nocturnal D ...
,
Nightwood
''Nightwood'' is a 1936 novel by American author Djuna Barnes that was first published by publishing house Faber and Faber. It is one of the early prominent novels to portray explicit homosexuality between women, and as such can be considered ...
,
Ryder
Ryder System, Inc. is an American transportation and logistics company, specializing in truck rental and leasing, fleet management, supply chain management, and transportation management. It also offers full-service leasing, rental and maint ...
. Braun's novels tell stories that reflect and rewrite the ones Barnes told: For example, Braun's Ladies Almanach transposes the lesbian circle in Paris that Barnes portrayed in 1928 to Berlin in the 1990s. Braun's homage also simulates the editorial gesture: Like Barnes, who published her Almanack as a private print, Braun self-published her novels, founding the literary label EDITION FortyFour for this purpose.
Lena-braun-ladies-almanach.jpg, Braun's novel "Ladies Almanach", a tribute to Djuna Barnes and her book "Ladies Almanack"
Lena-braun-djuna-barnes-1.jpg, Lena Braun staging herself as Djuna Barnes
Lena-braun-djuna-barnes-2.jpg, Lena Braun performing as Djuna Barnes, with Charlie Chaplin (aka artist Shou). Photo: Iris Weirich
Texts (selected)
All texts & publications are in German:
* Braun, Lena (2017 – 2021). Hinterzimmer in Heaven I und II (novel, still unpublished)
* Braun, Lena (2013). Ladies Almanack. Berlin: Edition Fourtyfour. ISBN 978-3-944865-00-3
* Braun, Lena (2013). Nachtschatten/Tyler. Berlin: Edition Fourtyfour. ISBN 978-3-944865-01-0
* Braun, Lena (2013). Ladies Almanack. Berlin: Edition Fourtyfour. ISBN 978-3-944865-00-3
* Braun, Lena (1999 – 2009). 36 issues of a periodical published for the Queen Barbie Lodge
* Braun, Lena. Plays: The Queer Version of Nibelungen, The Hate Factory, All About Eve II (manuscripts)
Prints, collages, installations
Braun is a multi-genre artist in the fields of
visual
The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to detect and process light). The system detects, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an image and buil ...
and
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
. In her performances, Braun often puts herself in the roles of famous
women artists
The absence of women from the canon of Western culture, Western Art history, art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s. Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?", e ...
, reenacting scenes from their lives. The reenactments are captured in photos. Braun is present in the images as an art director and performer:
"As a performer I often slip into the skin of others, Djuna Barnes, for example, or Peggy Guggenheim
Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemianism, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who we ...
, Anita Berber
Anita Berber (10 June 1899 – 10 November 1928) was a German dancer, actress, and writer who was the subject of an Otto Dix painting. She lived during the time of the Weimar Republic.
Early life
Berber was born in Leipzig to the violinist Feli ...
or Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress and inventor. After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial erotic romantic drama '' Ecstasy ...
. I incorporate biographical scraps, and gradually this creates a kind of rage - a rage that suspects the truth but can't grasp it. I always do long research for these performances. They are an attempt to revive history, or rather, repressed and misrepresented history.”
Braun processes the photos taken during performances into prints and collages. Her works have been exhibited both in Germany and abroad. In 2020, they were shown in the U.S., alongside works by
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
Elsa Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven (née Else Hildegard Plötz; 12 July 1874 – 14 December 1927) was a German avant-garde visual artist and poet, who was active in Greenwich Village, New York, from 1913 to 1923, where her radical self-displa ...
and as part of the exhibition "The Art of Djuna Barnes." The genres of
collage
Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...
and
installation remain central to Braun's work today, with a wide range of materials including found objects of all kinds.
"I find materials everywhere, in the street, in the garden, and while travelling. I immortalize the carelessly discarded and give it a new meaning."
In 2017, she created an installation of discarded ball gowns from the Vienna Opera Ball, that was shown in Berlin in 2017 and at the art festival ''open art Lausitz'' in South
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
in 2021.
Since 2019, Lena Braun has been producing woven objects and concrete sculptures. For her, the 100th anniversary of the German art school
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
was an invitation to suspend its gender code - concrete for men, weaving for women – by working in both media. The genre of collage also plays a central role here: Braun's woven objects often collage textile with non-textile materials. Her concrete casts immortalize found objects in sculptural works that turn into a kind of
time capsule
A time capsule is a historic treasure trove, cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy ...
.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions (selected)
* 2019 The Women of Bauhaus, Galerie Walden, Berlin, Germany
* 2017 Homage to
Frida Kahlo
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country' ...
and other women artists, Galerie Woyy, Berlin, Germany
* 2015 Homage to Peggy Guggenheim, Kunstraum Gerry Wruss, Venice, Italy
* 2013 Divamania, Galerie „Reinraum“, Düsseldorf, Germany
* 2012 Retrospective 2007 – 2012, Galerii Fotografi, Rzeszow, Poland
* 2010 Retrospective 1999 – 2009, Gallery Su de Coucou, Berlin, Germany
* 2007 Zuchthausköder, Black Box Theater, Oslo, Norway
Group shows (selected)
* 2020 Open Studios, Atelierhof Werenzhain, Werenzhain, Germany
3
* 2020 Across the Pane: The Art of Djuna Barnes, University of Maryland Art Gallery, USA
* 2019 CROSS-OVER-ME, art space BARBICHE, Berlin, Germany
* 2018 Hommage á Palomo Spain, art space BARBICHE, Berlin, Germany
* 2017 Up and Down, KINDL Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
* 2016 GOLDTRAIN, Gallery K-Salon, Berlin, Germany
* 2014 Winter Art Fair, Gallery The Ballery, Berlin, Germany
* 2012 Divamania, GRID Photofestival, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Art projects (selected)
* 2020 Opening “Effis Haus” in Brandenburg, Germany (a studio house named after
Effi Briest
''Effi Briest'' () is a realist novel by Theodor Fontane. Published in book form in 1895, ''Effi Briest'' marks both a watershed and a climax in the poetic realism of literature. It can be thematically compared to other novels on 19th-century m ...
)
* 2009 Curating “Stigma”, a performance festival, SO36, Berlin, Germany
* 2008 Curating the group exhibition “Rotes Haus”, Kunstraum Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
* 2006 Scenic reading of the play „Melancholie ist Luxus“ at Salon Noir, Neue Nationalglerie, Berlin, Germany
* 2004 Participating in an art festival hosted by Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria
* 1994 Curating the exhibition „Boudoir in Exile“ at MoMa P.S.1, New York, USA
* 1993 Founding of the Queen Barbie Lodge, an underground organization for women artists
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braun, Lena
1961 births
Living people
Artists from Wuppertal
German women artists
German curators
German performance artists
Writers from Wuppertal
German women curators