GREY IS THE NEW PINK - Moments of Ageing

Who is old – where and when? Can we meet the ‘challenge of ageing’ optimistically? And what potential lies slumbering in the process of ageing?

Projections for global demographic trends are forecasting an increase in the world’s older population. The process of growing older is not just important for each individual, but has implications for the social and cultural spheres. Yet each generation ages differently. And when can we actually talk of someone as ‘old’ at all? Even if the visible biological ageing processes are the same the world over, each culture has its differences in defining ‘age’. There is no universally valid definition of when ‘old age’ starts. So who is old – where and when?

GREY IS THE NEW PINK presents diverse ideas and models of ‘age(ing)’ from the perspective of cultural studies and the visual arts, as well as personal and individual experience. Like fragments in a lifetime’s memories, the exhibition combines into an anthology of ageing the individual ways of dealing with such topics as lifestyle, love and sexuality, transmission of knowledge, longevity, illness, health, and death.

In the exhibition ‘age(ing)’ is explored internationally in photographs, videos, literature, drawings, as well as large-scale and multimedia installations and performances both in the work of scientists, artists and poets, as well as younger and older people from the general population. Numerous exhibits from the from the Weltkulturen Museum’s Africa, Americas, South East Asia, Oceania, Visual Anthropology collections  and the library broaden the view of the subject. With game consoles visitors can improve their brain functionality and get refreshed at the “Weltkulturen Water Bar”.

Curated by Alice Pawlik (curator Visual Anthropology, Weltkulturen Museum).

Participating artists: Ishola Akpo (*1983 CI/BJ), Ramy Al-Asheq (*1989 PS/SY/DE), Femi Amogunla (*1984 NG), Naama Attias (*1989 IL), Meret Buser (*1990 CH), Jess T. Dugan (*1986 US) and Vanessa Fabbre (*1978 US), André Günther/Albino (*1987 DE), Hartmut Jahn (*1955 DE), Günther Krabbenhöft (*1945 DE) and Britt Kanja (*1951 DE), Lars Krutak (*1971 US), Osborne Macharia (*1986 KE), Ninette Niemeyer (*1961 DE), Raymond Sagapolutele (*1971 WS/NZ), Patricia Thoma (*1977 DE), Karsten Thormaehlen (*1965 DE) and Jake Verzosa (*1979 PH) as well as participants in the open global “Call for Content”, students and elderly participants of the “textgestALTER” project as well as Jakob Gross, Roberta Mandoki and Annika Mayer from the project “Elderscapes”.

The accompanying catalogue includes new articles by Ramy Al Asheq, Stephanie Endter in conversation with Claudia Gaida and Silke Wagner, Julia Friedel in conversation with Ishola Akpo, Jaco Hoffman, Verena Keck, Helena Kiess in conversation with Günther Krabbenhöft and Britt Kanja, Lars Krutak, Ursula Lehr, Renate Lindner and Maria Reith-Deigert in conversation with Christina Niem, Alice Pawlik, Eva Ch. Raabe, Danilo Santos de Miranda and Christina Riscalla Madi, Eunike Sri Tyas Suci, Hilke Steinecke, Mona Suhrbier, participants of the „textgestALTER“ Workshops as well as numerous illustrations. It is published in German and English by Kerber Verlag. Here you can find more information.

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Admission Fee: €7 / reduced €3.50
Visitors aged 65 and above pay reduced admission to the exhibition GREY IS THE NEW PINK. Free admission: Children and young adults up to 18 years old. 

Weltkulturen Museum, Schaumainkai 29, 60594 Frankfurt, Germany


EXHIBITION HANDOUTS

• Official recipe book for the exhibition
• Dan Buettner, Ted Talk
• Call for Content
• Workshop textgestALTER
• Dan Buettner, Ted Talk, Other languages