Sofie Muller

Sofie Muller shows her newest work, her very first video-installation Barbara, in which she questions the limits of communication, religion and sexuality. As an engaged female artist, she links the burning of a 19th century wooden and polychromed sculpture of St. Barbara to current international women-rights. Hagiographically St. Barbara stands for the martyress who -hidden in a tower and bound to solitude with the only support of her Bible- finally got executed; her emancipated way of living and her personal choice of religion didn\'t correspond to her father\'s wishes nor to the ruling society she lived in. Sofie Muller uses the re-baptizing of Barbara with fire as a metaphor for the tortures she had to endure centuries ago for the only reason that she was living the life of a woman she wasn\'t allowed to be. Thus, through focusing on the martyrdom of St. Barbara Muller requests the viewer\'s attention to the un-equal position of women worldwide and to the hegemonic domination of religion.