– materials from the health movement of West Berlin during the 1970s and 1980s

Advancement Awards Exhibition

Artists:

Feministische Gesundheitsrecherchegruppe

Practices of Radical Health Care presents research on the health movement of West Berlin in an exhibition, in workshops, events and a publication. A number of radical health institutions emerged at the intersection of feminism and the squatting scene: The Feminist Women*‘s Health Center (FFGZ), the anti-psychiatric information center and HeileHaus (healing house), all of which continue to offer alternative health services even today. Feminist health initiatives organized vaginal self-examinations, self-help groups and autonomous counseling, and fought for the legalization of abortion. The health movement challenged the dominating patriarchal medical view, particularly in gynecology, as well as the concept of health underlying the established medical system. The health movement politicized illness as a societal space of disruption and resistance.

In Practices of Radical Health Care the Feminist Health Care Research Group develops displays and collages that bring together conversations about the health movement, its visual materials, documents and publications in subjective arrangements. In this way the research group traces the health movement’s educational potential and instructive moments. Practices of Radical Health Care emphasizes the movement’s demands for physical and psychological self-determination, mutual forms of care, social acceptance for psychological diversity and self-empowering perspectives in the health system.

Since 2016 the Feminist Health Care Research Group has been researching the health movement, meeting with protagonists, visiting initiatives and collecting documents.
It aims to retrieve and re-activate self-empowering and feminist practices of medical self-determination.

The Feminist Health Care Research Group (Julia Bonn, Alice Münch, Inga Zimprich) develops artistic perspectives on health. It explores methods of working in groups, offers workshops, issues zines and develops a growing research library.

The Feminist Health Care Research Group received the Advancement Award 2017/2018 by Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung.

Practices of Radical Health Care is supported by
Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, M.1 Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung, Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt, Gerda-Weiler-Stiftung für feministische Forschung, Bildungswerkstätten der LSV Berlin

Events

2018

28. October 15 h Guided tour through the exhibition
11–15 h Walking tour in the Aukrug Nature Park and remedy production Workshop with Jacqueline Strauer, pharmacist and alternative practitioner
27. October 11–18 h Sick Time, Crip Time, Caring Time – Workshop and zine presentation with Feminist Healthcare Research Group and Sickness Affinity Group
30. September 16 h Artist Talk with Guests from the Health Movement
15:30 h Guided tour through the exhibition with the Feminist Health Care Research Group
29. September 16 h Exhibition opening and guided tour: Practices of Radical Health Care