Suzanne Lacy: Uncertain Futures
n.b.k., Berlin, 2025
For the project Uncertain Futures, Lacy worked with Manchester Art Gallery, university academics, an advisory group, and more than 100 women in Manchester, UK, from 2019 to 2024 to develop interviews, workshops, and presentations examining the inequalities faced by women over 50 in relation to work and unemployment.
n.b.k. presented Uncertain Futures for the first time in Germany, where women over 50 face similar structural disadvantages to those in the UK. These include sexism, discrimination based on social status, origin, or illness, unpaid and unequally distributed care work, the gender pay gap, and poverty in old age, all of which are omnipresent. This is exemplified in Her Uncertain Futures (2024), a 3-channel video installation by Suzanne Lacy that serves as a summary of the project, bringing together a range of stories that highlight experiences of intersectional disadvantage. In the video, the artist weaves together excerpts from interviews conducted as part of the project, recited in a theater hall by members of the project team, particularly the advisory group. Their collective voices and shared experiences testify to the universality of discrimination against women, while also highlighting the potential of networking and collective resistance.
The film is accompanied by a group photo of the 100 women, displayed in the entrance area of the n.b.k. Showroom. The research team around Suzanne Lacy also authored a manifesto advocating for long-term improvements in the lives of women over 50 and produced a documentary film that provides insights into the development and execution of the research project. The manifesto is available here and the documentary can be seen here.
Curated by Michaela Richter.
Images by Jens Ziehe. Courtesy of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)