In 2024, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Bremen Women Artists’ Association, Petra Fiebig visited GEDOK fellow artists at their workplaces. Guided by the central question, “How to survive as a female artist?”, she interviewed them about life decisions, economic conditions, and the challenges of artistic work. In Fiebig’s installation – presented at the GAK and composed of digitally recorded routes, photographs, drawings, and notes from conversations at the GAK – only a fraction of these interviews. To share the knowledge contained within them and to draw attention to often overlooked realities, a publication is now being released that makes structural challenges visible and provides autobiographical insights into the artists’ lives, working methods, and strategies.
How to survive as a female artist
Petra Fiebig in conversation with
Elfin Açar & Edeltraut Rath, Monika B. Beyer, Sophia Bizer, Marion Bösen, Susanne Bollenhagen, Kirsten Brünjes & Manuela Weichenrieder, Claudia Christoffel & Pia van Nuland, D.O.C.H. Julia Dambuk, Karin Demuth & Carolin Klapp, Hanna Döring & Annemarie Strümpfler, Evita Emersleben & Svenja Wetzenstein, Marikke Heinz-Hoek, Emese Kazár, Sirma Kekeç, Sabine Schellhorn, Gertrud Schleising, Marina Schulze & Sabine Wewer
Edited by Annette Hans / GAK Bremen 2026
Design: Franzi Bauer
Flap paperback, 11.7 x 16.5 cm, 304 pages, 25 color illustrations
The event is part of the program of the research field “living +/- exhibiting,” a collaboration between the Institute for Art History – Film Studies – Art Education at the University of Bremen and the Mariann Steegmann Institute. Art & Gender (Director: Kathrin Heinz).