GROW IT, SHOW IT!

In the organizer's words:

Hair at a glance from Diane Arbus to TikTok

Whether afro, locs, braids or cornrows, bob, beehive or taper: hair is an integral part of our everyday culture and offers inexhaustible design possibilities. How we show or hide, grow or shave our head, facial and body hair is an expression of our personality, but also of our affiliation to social, religious or cultural communities. We use hairstyles to communicate, optimize and conceal a part of our identity, to set ourselves apart or fit into the collective, and thus send out messages - intentionally or unintentionally.

The exhibition Grow It, Show It! explores the historical, political and everyday cultural significance of hair through a wide range of historical and contemporary photographs, videos and film clips from art, fashion and social media. The overview exhibition shows that hair is caught between the poles of intimacy and public representation. As a carrier of information, it reveals itself as individual, conformist, rebellious or solidary, and provides information about status and power. In ritual, hair reveals its spiritually charged materiality.
From photographers such as Helmut Newton, Chaumont-Zaerpour or Suffo Moncloa, who stage hairstyles not just as accessories but as a central design element, to artists such as Hoda Afshar, Thandiwe Muriu or Maria Tomanova, who present hair as a means of resistance and emancipation: Grow It, Show It! uses exhibits from the 19th century to the present day to show that hair and its staging are not only the subject of the beauty industry, but also of queer-feminist, body-political and post-colonial discourses. At the same time, the comprehensive themed exhibition examines the ways in which images of hair have consolidated and defined trends over the course of time and the central role photography has played in this.

With works by:
Hoda Afshar, Laura Aguilar, Diane Arbus, Ellen Auerbach, AWA Magazine, BALAM, Jürgen Baldiga, Barber Turko, Carina Brandes, BRAVO, Nakeya Brown, Tessica Brown, Julia Margaret Cameron, Jim Carrey, Chaumont-Zaerpour, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Rineke Dijkstra, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Anna Ehrenstein, Lotte Errell, Jason Evans, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Samuel Fosso, Pippa Garner, André Gelpke, Weronika Gęsicka, Camilo Godoy, Nan Goldin, Ulrich Görlich, Henriette Grindat, Carola von Groddeck, F. C. Gundlach, Johann Hinrich W. Hamann, Mona Hatoum, Florence Henri, Florian Hetz, David O. Hill & Robert Adamson, Thomas Hoepker, Ewald Hoinkis, Peter Hujar, Graciela Iturbide, Lebohang Kganye, Jens Klein, Peter Knapp, Herlinde Koelbl, Paul Kooiker, Anouk Kruithof, Andreas Langfeld, Alwin Lay, Zoe Leonard, Madame d'Ora, Mahmoud Manaa, Ana Mendieta, Sabelo Mlangeni, Suffo Moncloa, Marge Monko, Thandiwe Muriu, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Helmut Newton, Satomi Nihongi, Nicholas Nixon, Fred Odede, Bubu Ogisi, Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, Ulrike Ottinger, Helga Paris, Doris Quarella, Alfred A. Rau, Eugene Richards, ringl + pit, Roxana Rios, Torbjørn Rødland, Thomas Ruff, RuPaul, August Sander, Viviane Sassen, Max Scheler, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Lorna Simpson, Annegret Soltau, John Stezaker, Tabboo! Hank Willis Thomas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Marie Tomanova, Tunga, Danielle Udogaranya, Dorothea von der Osten, William Wegman, Tom Wood, Yatreda, Leyla Yenirce, Sheung Yiu

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