Lecture A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN by Nikola Röthemeyer

»A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.« (Virginia Woolf „A Room of One’s Own“)

“In 1928 the British writer Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was asked to hold a lecture on „Women and Fiction“ at two of the first Universities in Cambridge founded exclusively for female students. Resulting from these lectures, her Essay „A Room of One’s Own“ was published in 1929, which gained a lot of recognition during her lifetime and became one of the most important statements in the feminist movement. In 2018 the German Parliament asked 19 contemporary female artists to create a work on the occasion of „100 years of women’s suffrage“ in Germany. Resulting from this commission, Nikola Röthemeyer created her work „Room No 1 (Wolf)“ as the initial work in her series „A Room of One’s Own“ in reference to Virginia Woolf. In her lecture at bai, Nikola Röthemeyer will give an insight in the realization of this work, exemplary for her artistic practice and conception, as well as a selection of earlier projects.

Nikola Röthemeyer’s artistic focus lies on exploring the medium of drawing. She works in thematic series, which she presents as murals or drawn installations. She is interested in pictorial worlds, which dissolve the boundaries between objective reality and magic realism, offering reference to everyday life. The female figures within this world are often involved in ritualized occupations, acting as archaic representatives for different generations and cultures. Her drawings result from a processual search. While creating a piece of work, she goes through a complex system of working phases, including research, staging models in the studio and developing an archive of »search-drawings«. Within her working process, time is as essential as paper, graphite and coloured pencil.” (Text by courtesy of Nikola Röthemeyer)

Drawings by Nikola Röthemeyer have been presented in individual and group exhibitions in museums and art venues across Germany and abroad, including the German Parliament, Salzburger Kunstverein, Kunsthalle Ravensburg, The Model in Sligo/Ireland, Krefelder Kunstverein, Magazin4 at Bregenzer Kunstverein as well as national and international galleries. Her work is part of the German Bundestag collection in Berlin, the Columbus Art Foundation in Ravensburg and numerous private collections. Nikola Röthemeyer (*1972 in Braunschweig) lives and works in Berlin since 1998. She graduated in visual communication from Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin and was a master student in the drawing class of Nanne Meyer.

More information on the NIKOLA RÖTHEMEYER Website.