Renate Bühn very often puts many months or even, years of thought and research into her installations and objects, which undergo a contextual shift and gain renewed complexity in each and every place they are shown. Looking closely at hidden realities is a fundamental aspect both of her social work and her artistic practice as well as the driving force behind them.
In her work – the Lavabo and pin series – Bühn addresses cases of sexual abuse perpetrated in the Catholic Church and its institutions. Since 2012, she has engaged in researched in order to find the appropriate artistic means to apprehend not only the dimensions and multifaceted nature of this crime but also the efforts made by the Church, not least by the Vatican, to protect those who perpetrate it.
“Every case of abuse and likewise every instance of someone closing his or her eyes to the issue, of looking the other way, of denying, covering up or belittling it, is a pinprick in the flesh of the victim-survivor as well as in the flesh of the family, of the church and of society.” Renate Bühn
“Renate Bühn has been there herself. She knows only too well how it feels to be a victim-survivor when silence reigns in a family that knows what is going on and when ill deeds go unpunished. “The perpetrator lived until his death with a family that was in the know.” These are the words she speaks into the mike before the assembled guests at the opening of her exhibition at the Konkordien [Church] in Mannheim – and her words have an echo, just as her artworks do.”
Angela Boll, Mannheimer Morgen 10.03.2014