"Under the title Snake Charming, Ani Schulze presents new drawings, a site-specific wall mural, sculptures, and a video work in her first exhibition at the gallery.

Groups of people during leisure time: In her watercolors and textile works, Schulze depicts figures engaged in various activities: picnicking, hunting, bathing – tussling? The scenes seem familiar yet unsettling. References can be found in Western art history: Paul Sérusier’s Femmes à la source (around 1899), Gustave Courbet’s Les Baigneuses (1853), and Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (originally Le bain, 1863). What underlies all these French classics is the male gaze on the female. Schulze uses these role models and turns them upside down: her hybrid figures are emancipated, strong, and independent. They assert themselves in the image space and do not need confirmation from outside. Female characters from the history of art are joined by Roman history and Greek mythology, among them augurs and danaids."

MIRIAM BETTIN
Excerpt of the exhibition text