In 1989, with two pistol shots fired into her installation Dialogue, Xiao Lu not only shattered a pane of glass but also broke the silence surrounding female autonomy in Chinese art. The work quickly became a symbol of resistance and is widely regarded as marking the beginning of a new feminist current in the Chinese avant-garde. This exhibition traces the artistic development of Xiao Lu, whose practice transforms deeply personal experience into a radical manifesto. Moving between vulnerability and anger, powerlessness and breakthrough, the works on view present a compelling testimony to female self-assertion.

In cooperation with the Institute for East Asian History at Heidelberg University