HAMBURG KUNSTHA
Mourning—on loss and
change
www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/mourning
Exhibition: Now until June 14
Anne Collier (1970), Woman Crying (Comic), #8, 2019, C-print, 126 x 150
cm, Courtesy of the artist, Anton Kern Gallery, New York; Galerie
Neu, Berlin; Gladstone Gallery,, Brussels; and The Modern Institute
/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glaslow
The exhibition Trauern von Verlust und Veränderung
(Mourning—on Loss and Change) confronts the way we ex-
perience loss, how we grieve and the way it affects each
of us. The diversity of the topic and the way it is dealt
with is reflected through contemporary international art-
works over two floors at the Hamburg Kunsthalle. Trau-
ern is the third exhibition to deal with taboo and border-
line issues, and was curated by Dr Brigitte Koelle.
A collaboration of 30 international artists from 15 coun-
tries present their cultural, social and political approach-
es on the topic of mourning, loss, and change. Every
depiction varies, as does the medium used: paintings, il-
lustration, sculptures, videos, photographs, installations,
slide projections, and sound.
The exhibition ranges from the miniature coffins of Kud-
joe Affutu from Ghana, to Andy Warhol’s iconic por-
trait “Jackie” (1964). The Japanese artist Seiichi Furuya
expresses the loss he had experienced after his wife’s
suicide with a swan song about the social and political
structure of the GDR. For the first time in Germany, the
serious yet poetic written works of Helen Cammock are
exhibited; Cammock was awarded the Turner Prize in
2019. The artist Khaled Barakeh’s series of altered photo-
graphs from the Syrian war shows a mourner holding a
lifeless body on his knees.
“We are not only showing here how diverse the repre-
sentation of grief can be,” says Koelle. Mourning is also
a very political question; after all, there is a hierarchy
of mourning: “[For whom] are we mourning? And for
whom not? There is always a valuation in that!” She ref-
erences the lack of compassion for the first AIDS victims
in the early 1980s. “How were homosexuals mourned
when the AIDS epidemic started and nobody really
knew what it was?”
by Jennifer L.
Dying to see an exhibition?
But feeling constrained by your little one? No
need to miss the shows everyone is talking about. Check out these regularly occurring weekday
morning museum tours in German:
Hamburger Kunsthalle Bucerius Kunstforum Baby Concert
Vater Mutter Kunst—tours in German
for parents with babies Mit Kunst und Kegel—tours in German
for parents with babies Sunday, March 15, 11-11:45am
Generally on first Tuesday of the
month from 11am—12pm Every other Thursday of the month from
10-11am Cost: 13€ for admission and tour Next dates: March 19, April 2, April 16,
May 7: Tour of David Hockney: Works
from the Tate Collection
32
In Hamburg
Cost: Adults 17€ or 30€ for two, babies
and kids free
Tickets: babykonzert.de/home/ham-
burg
Next dates: April 7: Tour of Mour-
ning: On Loss and Change and May
12 Tour of Max Beckmann: feminine-
masculine
Kultur Palast Hamburg, Kronensaal