The exhibition Magical Women showcases artistic works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that explore these themes, often from a feminist perspective. This is partly because the feminine image plays a central role in the conception of magic and the occult. The fascination with figures such as witches, seers, and high priestesses is evident in a variety of cultures and has shaped ideas for thousands of years. At the same time, it evokes both positive and negative associations, ranging from witch hunts and the nineteenth-century spiritualism movement to current trends that hark back to nature mythologies or occultism. These images of women serve as projection screens for misogynistic demonization, thereby establishing and stabilizing patriarchal social norms and structures.

The artists featured in the exhibition engage with these ambivalent images of the magical and the feminine, shifting their meanings and reclaiming the authority to interpret them. Their works highlight the instability of social orders, rules, and norms by provoking questions about identity, subverting established evaluation patterns, and offering alternatives. In doing so, they address topics such as body and gender politics, the attribution of character traits, female sexuality, and moments of identification. The prejudiced field of magic provides an exciting arena in which to dissolve narratives and boundaries in art and ask questions: Which stories are being negotiated, and how are they being reinterpreted through the female gaze? How do artists use their multiperspectival, intersectional biographies, as well as the blending of belief systems, to challenge societies and the related power relations?

MAGICAL WOMEN

26 October 2025 to 22. February 2026