MoMA turns street postures into a show about bodies in public
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has opened a photography exhibition about how people sit, stand and take up space in public. Taking Back Our Space: Photographic Perspectives runs from 20 September to 2 May 2027, according to The Art Newspaper. It puts one historic photo project in conversation with new work by seven artists.
The starting point is Marianne Wex, a German photographer who lived from 1937 to 2020. Between 1972 and 1977, she photographed people on the streets of Hamburg, paying close attention to arms, legs, heads, hands and feet. Her method was simple. Watch, frame tightly, compare.
Wex built those pictures into a work called Let's Take Back Our Space: 'Female' and 'Male' Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures. Body language here means posture and gesture, the small choices about where to put your limbs. The longer title refers to social rules that taught women and men to carry themselves differently. MoMA in New York acquired that work in 2018.
The new exhibition responds directly to Wex. It brings together Nona Faustine, Martine Gutierrez, Joiri Minaya, Yuki Kihara, Wendy Red Star, K8 Hardy and Paulina Olowska. Each artist works with photography, a medium that uses light to fix an image, and each looks at the body in shared space.
The show was organised by Roxana Marcoci, acting chief curator of photography at MoMA. That job means leading decisions on what photographs the museum collects and displays. The Art Newspaper described the project as a look at body politics in public spaces, a phrase that covers who feels free, safe and noticed outside the home.
MoMA keeps a collection page for Wex and describes Let's Take Back Our Space as a sweeping work of visual sociology MoMA. Visual sociology means studying society through images rather than through text or statistics. The museum lists Wex as a West German artist, a reminder of the name used for the country where she made the work.
What makes this stand out for a general visitor is how easy it is to test. Look at the hands. Look at who spreads out and who tucks in. You can try it on your next bus or park bench, and the comparison stays with you.
