June 6 to July 28, 2024

MUTTER*SEIN A polyphonic collection

Eva-Maria Baumeister and a choir of mothers* as guests at the RJM

BEING A MOTHER is a boundary-breaking experience: physically and emotionally. Invisible care work, thinking and feeling in exchange for little social recognition. What stories do women* experience with regard to motherhood and the associated projections? MUTTER*SEIN brings together the polyphonic experiences of women* and gives space to their stories and diverse realities. The result is a collection of things and stories that take everyday life seriously: Shopping lists, timetables, daily routines, family photos, the everyday and the extraordinary - the banal, the exhausting, the happiness-making and the meaningful of care work. The exhibition at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (RJM) is opened by a choir that looks at motherhood in our society, comments on it and itself becomes a collection of attributions, observations and experiences - sometimes tender, sometimes wicked and with necessary humour.

Eva-Maria Baumeister and her team have created an audiovisual exhibition that tells stories of motherhood in an acoustic, haptic and visual way. The installation of interview excerpts, everyday objects and an expansive textile sculpture can be explored individually and invites you to linger in the stories and connect with them. To this end, original sounds can be heard in the room and from some of the objects on display: For example, a ball of ‘rubber bands’ tells the story of how a mother holds her family's everyday life together in the same way that rubber bands hold her children's lunch boxes together. Old and very old toys remind us of our own childhood or our own mother. A syringe, a nursing cap and a maternity slip speak of the physical strains of birth and the infant years. An ovulation test tells of the unsuccessful attempt to get pregnant. Some objects, such as the dustpan (care tray), which you can hardly put down, tell of the ups and downs of care work. Painful stories also find their place in the exhibition. It contains objects that symbolise the loss of a child, whether through miscarriage, abortion or early infant death. The collection contains many intimate objects and stories, such as the uterus of a trans* father who gave birth to his son and then sent his organ ‘into retirement’ in formaldehyde. Mothers are not the only ones who give birth. The centre of the exhibition shows the expansive textile object ‘The Mother’ by Theresa Mielich, made from knitted skirts collected by a childless woman.

A co-production of the independent Werkstatt Theater, the Sommerblut Kulturfestival, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum and the Studiobühne Köln.


Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the Fonds Darstellende Künste/Produktionsförderung. With the support of the Frauenkulturbüro NRW and ON - Neue Musik Köln.

Collecting as an act of care

Eva-Maria Baumeister used her practice of collecting and archiving for MOTHER*BEING. She has collected 35 interviews and 60 objects. The collection is curated in a non-hierarchical and caring way. For this process, the artist is inspired by ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ (translated as ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Storytelling’) by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. This theory states that a collection of stories allows for different narrative dramaturgies than the classic heroine story. It allows heterogeneous elements to ‘stand in a powerful relationship to each other and to us’. Collecting thus becomes a feminist narrative style that represents an alternative to the patriarchal narrative strands. With the polyphonic collection of MUTTER*SEIN, Eva-Maria Baumeister wants to bring together many voices and perspectives so that they meet each other and an audience. To give the audience the opportunity to collect thoughts, objects and encounters and to allow their own narrative style to emerge.

 

The choir

The collection will be opened by a choir on three dates. It consists of women* of very different ages and from different life situations who were found by the project through an open call. They are women* who feel connected to motherhood in many different ways. They speak and sing a text by dramaturge Sibylle Dudek:

‘My text itself is also like a kind of collection. I spent some time listening very closely to the social discourse on mothers and motherhood. I quickly realised that this discourse consists of a lot of double messages: The mother is idealised on the one hand and devalued on the other. Her life is sacred and at the same time her existence is absolutely profane. In general, the expectations placed on women are paradoxical and simply impossible to fulfil. These snapshots from the social and media discourse collide in the text with individual memories of one's own mother and motherhood. The choral piece is a reflection on the role of a mother and her position in the family and in society.’

Eva-Maria Baumeister - Thoughts and background to the MOTHER*BEING project

‘For a long time, motherhood was not a topic that was considered in any way culturally or philosophically. The experiences that mothers had were considered rather mundane and not worth mentioning. However, many women actually faced very similar challenges: How do I remain an independent person despite having children? How can I reconcile work and childcare? What kind of imbalance does having children, i.e. being a mother, create in a partner or in the world of work? I also ask myself what social pressure are women* who decide not to have children exposed to? And which children and which mothers are actually socially desirable and which are undesirable? I think that for a long time women have always thought that these are individual problems and that these social demands can somehow be solved individually. But the fact that these are structural problems was not recognised. Although there was the women's movement in the 60s and 70s, which was already further along with the demand that the private sphere should be considered politically. It is only in recent years that a common language has actually been found again. Terms such as ‘mental load’ and ‘invisible care work’ were very helpful in driving the discourse forward again. The project builds on this discourse. With MOTHER*BEING, we are creating a space for the experiences and stories of people who are confronted with these expectations and the concept of motherhood. It's very much about pain, about being overwhelmed, but also about happiness and sadness, and actually about self-assertion in everyday life and about this care that you take on for others every day.’

Eva-Maria Baumeister works as a director, author and curator at the interface of (music) theatre, radio play and performance and is the mother of two children.
Sibylle Dudek is a dramaturge, author and mother. After working in Vienna and Berlin, she has been a dramaturge at Schauspiel Köln since 2013.

Biographies

Eva-Maria Baumeister
Eva-Maria Baumeister studied directing at the Folkwang University in Essen and Amsterdam and has worked as a director, curator and author at the interface of (music) theatre, radio plays, performance and artistic research. Founded the Kaltstart festival in Hamburg in 2006. In the 2013/14 season, artistic director of the Young Theatre in Göttingen together with dramaturge Udo Eidinger, from 2015 to 2017 artistic director of the 2-year pilot project DIE STADT VON DER ANDEREN SEITE SEHEN at Schauspiel Köln together with urban planner Isabel FIinkenberger. Last directorial works: VERSCHWINDENDE ORTE (2019/2020 theatre and radio play for WDR), I FEEL STUPID ... (radio play, DLF 2021). In 2023 she was a scholarship holder of the Frauenkulturbüro NRW.

Sibylle Dudek
Sibylle Dudek, born and raised in Dortmund, studied directing at the Hamburg Theatre Academy. During her studies, she realised theatre projects as an author, director and dramaturge at the Thalia Theater, Kampnagel and in the independent scene. After graduating, she worked as an assistant director and freelance editor for the radio drama department of NDR. From 2005-2009 she worked as an assistant dramaturge and dramaturge at the Burgtheater in Vienna. She has worked closely with Joachim Meyerhoff, Cornelia Rainer and Bastian Kraft, among others. A one-year writing scholarship took her to Koblenz Theatre in 2010, where her plays KLYTAIMNESTRA and HEIMGESUCHT were premiered. In a collective with Franziska Walser, Edgar Selge, Falko Herold and Peter Baur, she developed a production of IPHIGENIE, which toured to numerous theatres in German-speaking countries. From 2011-2013 she worked as a dramaturge at the Maxim Gorki Theatre, where she worked closely with Armin Petras, Jan Bosse and Jorinde Dröse, among others. Sibylle Dudek has been a dramaturge at Schauspiel Köln since 2013.

Further information

Direction | Conception:
Eva-Maria Baumeister

Dramaturgy | Conception | Text:
Sibylle Dudek

Set design:
Theresa Mielich

Choir director:
Julia Klomfass

Sound design:
Tobias Hartmann

Lighting design:
Martin Leetz

Theatre pedagogy:
Lenn Brokinkel

Project assistance | Graphics:
Maike Graf

Equipment assistance:
Lisa Kreis

Sponsors
Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the Fonds Darstellende Künste/Production Fund. NRW Women's Cultural Offices
ON - New Music Cologne

Dates:
Thursday, 6.6., 6 pm, vernissage 
Sunday, 30.6., 2 pm, performance 
Sunday, 28.7., 2 pm, performance 

Admission: 4 Euro

Opening hours:
Saturday and Sunday, 10 am - 6 pm, on the KölnTage (first Thursday of the month) from 10 am - 10 pm.