Deichtorhallen Exhibits
QUADRO and Now! Painting
in Germany Today
www.deichtorhallen.de/ausstellungen
Exhibition: Now until May 17
The Deichtorhallen were jammed on a
rainy night at the recent opening of new
exhibits on contemporary German paint-
ing. Dr. Dirk Luckow, general director
of Deichtorhallen Hamburg and cura-
tor of the exhibits, welcomed visitors to
explore the exhibitions Now! Painting
in Germany Today and Quadro, both of
which run until May 17.
The Deichtorhallen (Hall for Contempo-
rary Art) exhibits major contemporary
art and photography projects. Each is
conceived in collaboration with the art-
ists and is often in itself a spectacular to-
tal work of art. With around 3,800 square
meters of space, the Hall for Contempo-
rary Art offers the largest single
exhibition space for contemporary
art in Europe.
Now! Painting In Germany Today
is a collaboration with art mu-
seums in Bonn, Wiesbaden and
Chemnitz that endeavors to de-
termine the current status of the
medium of painting. The exhibit
consists of 150 works by nearly
200 artists in a cross-section of works
produced in Germany by young artists
who the museums see as the next gen-
eration of important painters. The first
of its kind since German reunification,
this exhibition seeks to provide as com-
prehensive an overview as possible of
contemporary painting in Germany. As
it does, it examines the relevance of the
genre.
Concurrent with but independent of
Now! Painting in Germany Today, the
Deichtorhallen present the QUADRO
project. Featuring works by women
painters Kerstin Brätsch, Kati Heck, Ste-
fanie Heinze and Laura Link, the exhi-
in the shadow of venus
at Museum am rotherbaum
As a non-technical per-
son, I was in awe of
her work. Many of the
markk-hamburg.de/in-the-shadow-of-venus
actors in this project
were people she met
Exhibition: Now until June 28
along the way. One of
the most interesting as-
pects was how people
became involved in
Lisa Reihana, detail in Pursuit of Venus [infected], 2015–17, Ultra HD
the project, reflecting
video, colour, 7.1 sound, 64 min. Image courtesy of the artist and New
today’s cultural com-
Zealand at Venice. With support of Creative New Zealand and NZ at
Venice Patrons and Partners.
munities. Recognized
for many years for her
The Aotearoa / New Zealand artist Lisa work, in 2014 she received an Arts Lau-
Reihana has quickly risen to becoming reate Award from the Arts Foundation
a star in the international art scene. Her of New Zealand. In 2016, she was nomi-
work focuses on the impact of colonial- nated for the biennial Walters Prize for in
ism in the Pacific, challenging us with Pursuit of Venus (infected) and represent-
her new works by looking closer at the ed New Zealand in the 2017 Venice Bien-
past, evaluating it with a new perspec- nale. Her artwork has been exhibited in
tive. This work is in the form of an in- museums around the world, and now in
credibly large contemporary art video Hamburg until June 28.
depicting scenes of a colonial history of
the Pacific region, integrating historical This video instillation represents a com-
facts with a new twist. Having taken 11 munication between Europeans and
years to complete, it is on a highly tech- indigenous peoples of Oceania. Past
nical level with a 64—minute Ultra HD misinterpretation and exploitation are
video. The projection of in Pursuit of Ve- confronted, challenging the viewer to
nus (infected) is 2.5 meters high and over want to understand what is happening in
10 meters long, with 1,500 digital layers these scenes. Reihana’s discovery of orig-
inal French wallpaper, depicting three
consisting of more than 3 trillion pixels.
bition may be
read as a re-
sponse to the
Deic htorha l-
len’s previous
show The Ear-
ly Years of the
Old Masters,
which
fea-
tured works Ina Gerken, Untiteld (After Laugther),
created early 2019. Acryl und Japanpapier auf
180 x 150 cm.
in the careers Polyesterleinwand.
Courtesy der Künstlerin. Foto: A. R.
of titans Georg
Baselitz, An-
selm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard
Richter. These men’s contributions to
post-war German painting can now be
compared with the work of contempo-
rary women painters. The QUADRO
women’s paintings feature striking figu-
rative, neo-surrealist and experimental
images that encourage viewers to con-
sider the formulas and symbols that art-
ists are using in 2020.
by Brenda B.
expeditions to the area between 1768 and
1779, covered dining room walls across
Europe and America, and this sparked
her imagination. She wanted to give the
colonial period new definition.
Alongside her installation are art objects
collected from a German expedition from
the early1900s. Many objects represented
were used by women, such as for weav-
ing or jewelry. Other pieces on display
are carved wooden figurines that were
incorrectly labelled for over a century.
These misinterpreted objects are now
correctly described, including their im-
portance to the community at the time. I
was surprised to find out that Germany’s
colonial history in Oceania had a larger
impact than previously acknowledged.
Germany possessed the largest amount
of Oceania artifacts in Europe, possibly
due to its control over the regions of
Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Solomon
Islands, Palau, The Federal States of Mi-
cronesia, Nauru, the Marshall Islands
and the Mariana islands until the end of
WW1.This exhibition is in Hamburg only
through June 28; I encourage you to go.
It is definitely worth a visit to MARKK!
by Shelly S.
www.awchamburg.org
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