Annegret Soltau VATERSUCHE

Annegret Soltau is among the most significant feminist artists of the present day. Since the 1970s, she has explored questions of personal and social identity, reflecting on her position as a woman within the construct of her own family.

Like an endlessly extended drawer of a filing cabinet, the 69 sheets of the work Vatersuche (Search for the Father) unfold into the space. The series summarizes the story of Annegret Soltau’s search for her father, whom she never met. Although the topic was never discussed within her family, the question of her father’s identity has preoccupied her throughout her life. Early on, she began collecting information about him. From her mother she learned only his name and received a single photograph showing him. In 1988, Soltau contacted an official tracing agency for the first time. Since then, she has made repeated and varied attempts to learn more about her father. Confronted with countless disheartening letters of response, she decided in 2003 to transform the collected material into an artistic work—one that continues to this day. For this piece, Soltau uses various self-portraits, from which she tears out her facial area, and then sews the collected documents into the vacant space using needle and thread.

In contrast, the exhibition presents for the first time ever the series Tagesdiagramme (Daily Diagrams) — 58 individual sheets that the artist created in 1977 over the course of twelve months, like a visual diary, using felt-tip pens, watercolor, and a typewriter on simple DIN A4 paper. Precisely because the Daily Diagrams show no direct physicality, they count among the artist’s most intimate works. Unlike the works Soltau created for public display, these pieces allow a glimpse behind the façade of the complex system that is Annegret Soltau.

In them, the artist openly sketches her own emotional states and moods, as well as her relationships with others. With the Daily Diagrams, Soltau undertakes a form of daily phenomenological self-analysis. The Daily Diagrams were created in parallel with the work complex Pregnant (Schwanger), first addressing her desire to have a child and later accompanying her pregnancy. Annegret Soltau is among the first female artists of the 20th century to make pregnancy a central theme of her work—with the political intention of proving that a woman can be both an artist and a mother. Today, she is celebrated as a pioneer of the feminist avant-garde.

Both series invite visitors to explore them sheet by sheet—like an artist’s book extending into the space.

Since 2016, under the direction of Julia Reichelt, M.A., the Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt has established itself as an innovative exhibition venue of national importance. It connects art, science, and urban society, utilizes both interior and exterior spaces, and offers a diverse program of interdisciplinary formats and art education.