BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE. RETHINKING FAMILY
with a talk by curator Melanie Bühler, and contributions by Annie Goodner and Mirthe Berentsen at 6.30pm
Friday December 13, 6pm
The family is a rare topic in contemporary art. While feminist artists have thematized the roles of women, caretakers, and mothers, the family has—weirdly—largely been absent. To be sure, family life is a well-represented genre in photography, and the family has a long history in portraiture, but as a subject for critical investigation, beyond mere representation, the family has only rarely been addressed. Burning Down the House untangles some of the crucial problems, beliefs, and contradictions that the family as an institution embodies and takes a close, critical view of family constructs across geographies, histories, and scales.
The publication reflects on the exhibition Burning Down the House. Rethinking Family (Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, May 31 – October 20, 2024), bringing together works by more than forty artists in which notions of family—and representations of the stereotypical, bourgeois family in particular—are problematized. The book provides a rare overview of contemporary art practices relating to this topic, alongside newly commissioned writing.
Published by Hatje Cantz Verlag GmbH and Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, edited by Melanie Bühler.
