The American artist Suzanne Lacy is regarded as a pioneer of socially engaged performance art. Since the 1970s, she has collaborated with diverse communities on projects and interventions addressing gender equality, violence against women, racism, immigration, and workers’ rights. For the project Uncertain Futures, Lacy worked with Manchester Art Gallery, university academics, an advisory group, and more than 100 women in Manchester, UK, from 2019 to 2024 to develop interviews, workshops, and presentations examining the inequalities faced by women over 50 in relation to work and unemployment.

n.b.k. presents Uncertain Futures for the first time in Germany, where women over 50 face similar structural disadvantages to those in the UK. These include sexism, discrimination based on social status, origin, or illness, unpaid and unequally distributed care work, the gender pay gap, and poverty in old age, all of which are omnipresent. This is exemplified in Her Uncertain Futures (2024), a 3-channel video installation by Suzanne Lacy that serves as a summary of the project, bringing together a range of stories that highlight experiences of intersectional disadvantage. In the video, the artist weaves together excerpts from interviews conducted as part of the project, recited in a theater hall by members of the project team, particularly the advisory group. Their collective voices and shared experiences testify to the universality of discrimination against women, while also highlighting the potential of networking and collective resistance.

The film is accompanied by a group photo of the 100 women, displayed in the entrance area of the n.b.k. Showroom. The research team around Suzanne Lacy also authored a manifesto advocating for long-term improvements in the lives of women over 50 and produced a documentary film that provides insights into the development and execution of the research project. Both the manifesto and the documentary are available below.

Suzanne Lacy (*1945 in Wasco/California) lives and works in Los Angeles. As one of the first participants in the Feminist Art Program founded by Judy Chicago (1970) and a student of Allan Kaprow, Lacy not only created activist and community-oriented art early in her career but also pioneered feminist art education and advanced the development of socially engaged projects at numerous institutions. In 2019, her work was honored with a comprehensive retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Other exhibitions include: Queens Museum, New York (2022); The Whitworth, Manchester / UK (2021); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2021; 1983); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2021); Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2020); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015; 1993); Tate Modern, London (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2012; 2008; 2007; 1998); Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2008); Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (2007); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2006).

Discourse program

Thursday, April 10, 2024, 7 pm

Artist Talk: What’s Good Socially Engaged Performance Art?

Conversation with Suzanne Lacy and Alistair Hudson (Scientific and Artistic Director of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe)

In English

Free admission