Mothers*, Warriors and Poets is an exhibition and discussion programme that is focusing on the question of what it means to be a mother and a parent artist today in an art world that assumes that artists have no children. Instead of an illustrative exhibition about motherhood/parenthood and contemporary art, we come together to speak about the dynamics of being an artist mother/parent – through art works, research and activist projects. Whether women, trans, men, nonbinary people or samesex couples, single mothers, self-mothered-children or polyamorous people, all artist parents experience the similar structures that are limited, unsupportive and discriminative. As an independent art worker, currently a pregnant woman and a non-western person living in Germany, I come to the realisation that the act of mothering oneself is not only being tender with yourself instead of judgemental in good and bad times, but it can also be an act of resistance. Probably one of the greatest things we can do to ourselves in life is to know how to mother ourselves.  In Audre Lorde’s (1932-1994)  essay “Eye to Eye” she writes that we can learn to mother ourselves: “It [mothering oneself] means we must establish authority over own definition, provide an attentive concern and expectation of growth which is the beginning of that acceptance we came to expect only from our mothers. It means that I affirm my own worth by committing myself to my own survival, in my own self, and in the self of other Black women. On the other hand, it means that as I learn my worth and genuine possibility, I refuse to settle for anything less than rigorous pursuit of the possible in myself, making a distinction between what is possible and what the outside world drives me to do in order to prove I am human.” Inspired by the struggle and work of black feminism and Audre Lorde’s idea of mothering ourselves, the exhibition is titled after her self-description “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,”. For Lorde, it has been crucial to choose multiple adjectives as she honors the complexity of oneself and one’s vision. To be a mother/parent artist is to be a warrior at the same time, and to think radically and metaphorically like a poet.

Whether through a plant named ‘Mutterkraut’ (literal translation: mother herb), a post-colonial feminist perspective and sugary and salty relationships to our mothers, fragility of mothering demonstrated through (im)balance of levitating balloons, exploring the women’s resistance in the Southern-Italian folk dance and music tradition of Tarantella, counter statements to artists who argue that being a mother conflicts with being an artist, a multi-layered filmic essay by an expectant mother and another single mother having been in the menopause, the exhibition manifests different forms and struggles of being an artist parent. In 2021, artist Joanne Masding shared an urgent and timely guideline titled ‘How Not To Exclude Artist Parents: Some Guidelines for Institutions and Residencies’ on the internet/online. Written collectively by art critic Hettie Judah and a group of artist mothers, the guideline is made of ten clear points, demanding fair working conditions for artist mothers and parents. As part of the discussion programme, Masding will speak about the process of working on the guideline. Following the talk, there will be an open discussion on what can be done to make the working conditions better for the mother/parent artist parents. After the exhibition, we will keep on our research on critical thinking and artistic and literary practices on motherhood and art in different forms. I have been invited to curate this exhibition by Stuttgart-based artists, Marie Lienhard, Anna Gohmert and Renate Liebel, who initiated this project. Following this collective spirit, we asked all the participants of Mothers, Warriors and Poets to co-write the exhibition text with their statements on the exhibition concept. Let’s pay attention to their words.

Didem Yazıcı

 (*mothers, parents and everyone who’s mothering themselves)

Mothers*, Warriors and Poets is an exhibition and discussion programme that is focusing on the question of what it means to be a mother and a parent artist today in an art world that assumes that artists have no children. Instead of an illustrative exhibition about motherhood/parenthood and contemporary art, we come together to speak about the dynamics of being an artist mother/parent – through art works, research and activist projects. Whether women, trans, men, nonbinary people or samesex couples, single mothers, self-mothered-children or polyamorous people, all artist parents experience the similar structures that are limited, unsupportive and discriminative. As an independent art worker, currently a pregnant woman and a non-western person living in Germany, I come to the realisation that the act of mothering oneself is not only being tender with yourself instead of judgemental in good and bad times, but it can also be an act of resistance. Probably one of the greatest things we can do to ourselves in life is to know how to mother ourselves.  In Audre Lorde’s (1932-1994)  essay “Eye to Eye” she writes that we can learn to mother ourselves: “It [mothering oneself] means we must establish authority over own definition, provide an attentive concern and expectation of growth which is the beginning of that acceptance we came to expect only from our mothers. It means that I affirm my own worth by committing myself to my own survival, in my own self, and in the self of other Black women. On the other hand, it means that as I learn my worth and genuine possibility, I refuse to settle for anything less than rigorous pursuit of the possible in myself, making a distinction between what is possible and what the outside world drives me to do in order to prove I am human.” Inspired by the struggle and work of black feminism and Audre Lorde’s idea of mothering ourselves, the exhibition is titled after her self-description “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,”. For Lorde, it has been crucial to choose multiple adjectives as she honors the complexity of oneself and one’s vision. To be a mother/parent artist is to be a warrior at the same time, and to think radically and metaphorically like a poet.

Whether through a plant named ‘Mutterkraut’ (literal translation: mother herb), a post-colonial feminist perspective and sugary and salty relationships to our mothers, fragility of mothering demonstrated through (im)balance of levitating balloons, exploring the women’s resistance in the Southern-Italian folk dance and music tradition of Tarantella, counter statements to artists who argue that being a mother conflicts with being an artist, a multi-layered filmic essay by an expectant mother and another single mother having been in the menopause, the exhibition manifests different forms and struggles of being an artist parent. In 2021, artist Joanne Masding shared an urgent and timely guideline titled ‘How Not To Exclude Artist Parents: Some Guidelines for Institutions and Residencies’ on the internet/online. Written collectively by art critic Hettie Judah and a group of artist mothers, the guideline is made of ten clear points, demanding fair working conditions for artist mothers and parents. As part of the discussion programme, Masding will speak about the process of working on the guideline. Following the talk, there will be an open discussion on what can be done to make the working conditions better for the mother/parent artist parents. After the exhibition, we will keep on our research on critical thinking and artistic and literary practices on motherhood and art in different forms. I have been invited to curate this exhibition by Stuttgart-based artists, Marie Lienhard, Anna Gohmert and Renate Liebel, who initiated this project. Following this collective spirit, we asked all the participants of Mothers, Warriors and Poets to co-write the exhibition text with their statements on the exhibition concept. Let’s pay attention to their words.

Didem Yazıcı

 (*mothers, parents and everyone who’s mothering themselves)