Thicker Than Water

The family has always been the focus of social debates and has served time and again as a projection surface for the values and conflicts of every generation. Since the 68er movement, entire generations have fought against outdated traditions and inflexible role models, and have strived to establish new models of coexistence.
The exhibition at the Kunstpalais Erlangen highlighted the numerous forms of familial life and has tried a look at what its future might hold: How important is family today in view of globalised working conditions and pluralised lifestyles? How are medical and technical possibilities of surrogate motherhood and reproductive medicine, for example, changing our traditional understanding of the family? Artists and researchers from a broad range of disciplines, e.g. art history, philosophy, sociology and gender studies, had been invited to investigate the family and family models with a focus on the concept of the “Doing Family”. Nina Katchadourian's video work “Accent Elimination” for example explored the linguistic history of her own family, and Johannes Paul Raether has developed performances which addressed the future of human propagation. The exhibition has been supplemented by an extensive educational programme, numerous joint projects developed in cooperation with schools and organisations of Erlangen, and a research conference on the topic of “family”.

Artistic directors: Amely Deiss, Ina Neddermeyer
Artists: Simon Fujiwara (GB), Badr el Hammami (MA), Verena Jaekel, Haejun Jo (KR), Fadma Kaddouri (MA), Nina Katchadourian (US), Ragnar Kjartansson (IS), Johannes Paul Raether and others