Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel (Germany, b. 1952) is one of the most multi-faceted and idiosyncratic artists of our time. Her breakthrough came in the 1980s, and ever since she has been critically examining art, the structures of society, and gender roles with analytical acuity and humor and with a sensuality that is all her own.

The exhibition The Same Different at Moderna Museet Malmö features more than forty works from 1988 to the present. Visitors will get a chance to discover the breadth of Rosemarie Trockel’s work, in which ideas, materials, and everyday objects are transformed and given new meaning. Rosemarie Trockel is an artist who takes a stance and gives her opinion of contemporary society. The exhibition allows the onlooker to follow the artist’s career from her feminist examinations of the 1990s to later works in which she addresses issues of animal ethics, artistic processes, and what art can be.

It shows her enthusiasm for experimentation and the rich variety of expressions in her works, which include video, digital prints, drawings, ceramics, and large installations. Anyone who looks for a recognizable style in Rosemarie Trockel’s work is looking in vain. She evades anything that might lock her down and confine her. But the one thing we can be sure of is that she will surprise us. Rosemarie Trockel has been closely involved in the production of the exhibition at Moderna Museet Malmö and has made a series of new pieces that will be shown for the first time.

Rosemarie Trockel has been featured in several solo exhibitions at museums such as Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Dia Art Foundation in New York, Kunsthaus Zürich, and Wiels in Brussels. She has also represented Germany at the 1999 Venice Biennale and has been honored with major awards for her work, including the Wolfgang Hahn Prize and the Kaiserring Goslar. A richly illustrated catalogue is being produced for the exhibition and will be released in the fall along with a program series that shed light on Trockel’s work.

Curator: Iris Müller-Westermann