Constanze Ruhm

Charim is happy to announce Constanze Ruhm’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. She will be showing newly produced work on film as well as a series of photographs.

Constanze Ruhm’s latest project - consisting of a 2-channel video installation, a series of posters and photographs as well as an edition of graphic works - forms the final part of a trilogy of installations. This trilogy was created between 2021-24 parallel to the production of the feature-length film È A QUESTO PUNTO CHE NASCE IL BISOGNO DI FARE STORIA, which premiered at FID Marseille in 2024, and also includes the two-channel installations LA STRADA (È ANCORA) PIÙ LUNGA (2021) and A SHARD IS A FRAGMENT OF A LIFE (2023). The final installment of this series, A WOMAN’S WORK IS NEVER DONE (THE CULTURE OF WOMEN FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HUMANITY), ties in with the themes of the previous works and completes the overall picture of the series.

The feature-length film È A QUESTO PUNTO CHE NASCE IL BISOGNO DI FARE STORIA takes various aspects of the life and work of Italian feminist and author Carla Lonzi as its starting point. Lonzi, a protagonist of the feminist revolts of the 1970s and 1980s, dedicated the last years of her life to researching a group of French proto-feminists of the 17th century known as “Les Précieuses”. After her premature death in 1982, the project remained unfinished. In 1992, the publication ARMANDE, SONO IO! appeared, documenting Lonzi’s notes, thoughts and sketches on the history of this protofeminist group.

… As long as history is “not over”, the gesture remains: as a ghost and a threat, as a reminder, a trace and a call to action. This exhibition tells of women’s experiences, their strategies of resistance and the writing and rewriting of history - and of the fact that “women’s work” can never be completed, it will never be done.

• excerpts from the exhibition text by Constanze Ruhm, October, 2024