Rebecca Horn Retrospective at Haus der Kunst in Munich

Haus der Kunst in Munich presents a comprehensive retrospective of Rebecca Horn (born 1944 in Michelstadt), a key figure in feminist body art since the 1960s. The exhibition traces her career from early body extensions using feathers, horns, and fans to mechanical installations that replace human presence with autonomous machines. Horn, who considers herself primarily a choreographer, explores movement, dance, and the body's relationship to environment. Her works from the 1970s include performances and short films studying bodily extension and constraint, influenced by Bruce Nauman. Since the 1980s, she has created machine-installations she calls 'melancholy actors,' which produce art without humans, reflecting on technological drift and the decentering of humanity. Notable works include 'The Tower of the Nameless' (1994), addressing war and displacement, and 'Circle for Broken Landscape' (1997), inspired by Foucault's pendulum, critiquing humanity's attempt to measure nature. Her films, starting in the 1970s, feature surreal, tragicomic narratives set in confined spaces, referencing Buster Keaton and 'Last Tango in Paris.' The show also connects her to techno-feminist ideas of Donna Haraway and the iconography of Paul Delvaux.