Nan Goldin and Rineke Dijkstra are presented in Berlin with two exhibitions, highlighting their ability in representing humanity with immediacy and intimacy.
Nan Goldin and Rineke Dijkstra are rightfully considered two of the most acclaimed artists of our time. They share a stunning ability in representing the humanity they are surrounded by. But, most of all, they both are good at creating a unique imagery to represent it.
Both of them use video and photography as their media. Definitely interesting is the choice of Nan Goldin to go back to her primary technique: slideshows. She presented all of her pictures at Neue Nationalgalerie in this format. The architect Hala Wardé created six unique buildings for the occasion of this retrospective tour.
Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Nan Goldin.
Nan Goldin is mainly known for her first iconic piece, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is an ongoing collection of images that summarizes her whole practice. One after the other, we see herself and her friends, going through their paths in life. They go from moments of love to parties, from addiction to daily events.
The artist also added in this series some pictures of herself after being beaten by her boyfriend at the time. During that period, this issue was as disturbing but not as recognized as now. The artist had the bravery to talk about it without fear nonetheless. A hero of our time comes to mind, Gisèle Pelicot. She reminded us that any form of violence against women needs to switch its shame to the other side.
Rineke Dijkstra.
Rineke Dijkstra approached a very specific moment in the life of some women, with her iconic series New Mothers (1994). She directly confronts us with the impact of motherhood, capturing three women just after giving birth. Almost naked, with their newborn in their arms, these women show all the strength behind such an intense experience. Yet they bear the marks of their recent labor.
Interestingly, the artist paired this series with another one, Bullfighters. In this project, she photographed some forcados, Portuguese bullfighters. They are covered in a different type of blood than the women they face in the exhibition space. This series gives a suggestive insight about a ritualistic form of violence. It also suggests its mental and physical impact on these young men.
Identities, Realized or Unfulfilled.
Nan Goldin.
A touching homage to her sister, Barbara Holly Goldin, is the piece Sisters, Saints and Sibyls. Nan’s sister unfortunately had a difficult life. Her family institutionalized her as a teenager and she ended up taking her own life. The artist decided to tell this traumatic loss, that shaped her life, in this stunning series of slideshows.
Barbara’s story is paired with the one of Saint Barbara, a Christian martyr. In a similar way her father misunderstood, imprisoned and killed her. Their shared narrative becomes a way to speak about all the women who are mistreated or not understood.
Rineke Dijkstra.
Nan Goldin‘s series are a continuous work in progress. In a similar way, Rineke Dijkstra followed the lives of many people throughout her practice as well. Instantly touching is her project with Almerisa. Almerisa was a six years old Bosnian girl. The artist met her while working on a commission at a refugee hostel in the Netherlands. From that moment on, they met almost every two years to realize a portrait. Her series brilliantly depicts how this little girl became a confident strong woman through the years.
A similar yet completely different change is visible in the series Olivier. Dijkstra followed the choice of this boy to enroll in the French Foreign Legion. Especially striking are the pictures of him one hour before and after enrolling. He is already a different person. The influence of his environment is visible through the years as well. His journey through the military ranks thus becomes a way to think about our concepts of masculinity, identity and power.
The Wisdom of Children.
“Children are born knowing everything and as they become socialized, they forget it”.
Nan Goldin always had a fascination for childhood and this sentence of hers summarize her conception of it. Through Fire Leap (2010-2022), she focuses her lenses on portraying her friends’ children through the years. She depicts them as they develop their identities. These portraits make us think about how much the adult world impacts them. With it, she wishes for them to freely express themselves and resist any societal pressure.
Dijkstra does something very similar with her stunning piece I see a woman crying. This three-channel video observes a group of students on the task of describing the painting Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso. One quickly notices how they are not yet influenced by preconceived concepts or any knowledge of art. They talk about their own feelings and experiences the best they can. With this work, she underlines how much wisdom and sensitivity is already there at such a young age.
Another stunning project she did on children is Parks. It consists in a series of portraits of children and teenagers taken in different parks around Europe. The artist became intrigued by the contrast between these children and the urban jungles surrounding them. She therefore created powerful portraits of them, in their inner struggle between insecurity and confidence.
The Other Side was a queer bar in Boston. There, Nan Goldin and many of her friends spent their time during the 70s. Goldin gives its name to another artwork of hers, where she homages the people belonging to the community. Many of them were pioneers in paving the way towards acceptance, in a time of big social stigma and discrimination. This artwork becomes a way to express this love, and it’s a stunning document of tenderness, expression and friendship.
“From the first night at The Other Side I came to life. I fell in love with one of the queens and within a few months moved in with them. Completely devoted to my friends, they became my world. Part of my worship of them involved photographing them. I wanted to pay homage, to show them how beautiful they were”.
Rineke Dijkstra had a deep interest in the club scene as well, and created two video pieces to document it. She installed a white booth close to two clubs: The Buzz Club in Liverpool and The Mystery World in Zaandam. She then invited the young attenders of the club to chill in it during their breaks between their dancing session.
No rules, just being themselves in front of the camera. The result is stunning. These young people fully express themselves, whether with shyness or confidence. They keep on dancing, smoking and drinking, some of them continue to make out in front of the camera.
Our Take.
Going through these two exhibitions, one remains touched and astonished by the power hidden in their representation of humanity. NanGoldin and RinekeDijkstra tell stories belonging to a past that feels very close. They give a voice to people who are not always recognized or considered.
Goldin decided to do that again in recent time. She used her stage at the opening of her exhibition in Berlin to talk about the genocide happening in Gaza. They ask for justice, remember the lost ones and root for the new generations to come.
“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.”
Simone de Beauvoir, The Coming of Age, 1970
We come home with a deeper comprehension of ourselves. We remember we are a part of a totality that has always claimed freedom, love and expression. Something we should never forget.
Beatrice Sacco is a journalist, specialized in visual arts. She works for The Columbist, B’SPOQUE and others, and has written features for magazines like Ocula, Artpil and KEYI Magazine. She also does interviews with artists and art workers, more recently with Wim Wenders.
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