21 February 2021

Correction on 8 March: The exhibtion is on view until 3rd October 2021.

'Begehbare Gedanken' (Walkable Thoughts) exhibition series at Ferdinandeum Innsbruck presents works by painter Elde Steeg addressing gender equality, pay gap

In our days, it's common knowledge that gender equality is crucial for solving problems in our world. But it was a long way before this was realized and turned slowly into practice. In general, it can be said that the less equal people are treated in a culture, the worse the economic and political situation of a country or region in sum is. Austria's Equal Pay Day is for example today on 21st February. It's a flexible date which is calculated by the country's division of the international 'Business and Professional Women' network from the pay gap between men and women. Currently, women earn 14.3 percent less than men or in other words, women's work was in 2021 until today uncompensated. Last year, Equal Pay Day was the 25th February. In 2009, it was 16th April (source: equal-pay-day.at).

Painter Elde Steeg (born as Elfriede Stegemeyer 1908 in Berlin, died 1988) promoted gender equality in art in a letter from 1976 in relation to a series of exhibitions under the title 'Frauen zeigen' ('women show') with a call for becoming aware that the human being is made up of two creative halves and that the whole human being is needed to cope with today's problems.

"… damit unsere mitwelt einsieht, dass der mensch aus zwei schöpferischen hälften besteht, und zur bewältigung der heutigen probleme eben der ganze mensch gehört." (Source: Excerpt from a letter by Elde Steeg, 1976. Media release on occasion of the exhibition at Ferdinandeum.)

From 19 February until 3 March 3 October, the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum presents in the exhibition series 'Begehbare Gedanken' (Walkable Thoughts) 'Elde Steeg. ‚Die Frauen machen die Brötchen'' (in the meaning of 'Women bring home the bacon') in relation to societal issues especially with view on the situation of women.

Image: Insight into the collection presentation "Elde Steeg. ‚Die Frauen machen die Brötchen'", 19 February - 3 March 3 October 2021 at the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck. © TLM, Foto: Johannes Plattner.