Petra Bauer
Katinka Bock
Slawomir Elsner
Shahram Entekhabi
Harun Farocki
Andreas Fogarasi
Ingo Gerken
Raphael Grisey
Falk Haberkorn
Sven Johne
Lise Harlev
Farida Heuck
Susan Hiller
Thomas Locher
Marisa Maza
Johannes Raether
Treibstoff
Johannes Blank
Florian Wust
Jun Yang
A critical look at contemporary global phenomena like the retrogressive search for national values and symbols as well as the longing for a collective creation of meaning. Twenty artists have been invited whose work utilizes the field of conflict known as cultural identity as a productive gap, observes the overlapping of national fictions with everyday life, and identifies the instability of traditional, national, and cultural classifications.
Artists:
Petra Bauer, Katinka Bock, Slawomir Elsner, Shahram Entekhabi, Harun
Farocki, Andreas Fogarasi, Ingo Gerken, Raphael Grisey, Falk Haberkorn/Sven
Johne, Lise Harlev, Farida Heuck, Susan Hiller, Thomas Locher, Marisa Maza,
Johannes Raether, Treibstoff/Johannes Blank, Florian Wust, Jun Yang
The exhibition This land is my land takes a critical look at contemporary
global phenomena like the retrogressive search for national values and
symbols as well as the longing for a collective creation of meaning. This land is my land thus presents artistic projects that take Germany as an
example to ascertain that national identity is not a fixed entity but a
complex, heterogeneous, contradictory, and modifiable construction.
The idea of “nation" is produced and played out by different interest
groups. This implies diverse inclusion and exclusion mechanisms: so-called
strangers have to adapt to the culture’s national order. In reality,
however, Germany is a globalized immigration country in which the notion of
an established national order seems outdated. Nations today are hybrid
creations composed of various ever-changing cultural, social, and ethnic
groups. National cultural identity is subject to an unfinished process.
Nevertheless, Germany’s “majority society" requires migrants to assimilate
to an indefinable German culture (catchphrase: integration courses) or its
idea of multi-culti degrades the ethnically diverse to folklore (e.g.,
Carnival of Cultures, Tropical Islands, and similar undertakings).
This land is my land intends to identify the workings of the mechanisms of
inclusion and exclusion as well as the power structures of definition, break
down well-worn patterns of thought regarding national self-sufficiency, and
sensitize people for subtly diversified points of view. Artists have been
invited whose work utilizes the field of conflict known as cultural identity
as a productive gap, observes the overlapping of national fictions with
everyday life, and identifies the instability of traditional, national, and
cultural classifications. The artists examine the rituals, emblems, and
codes of national self-representation (Fogarasi, Heuck, Locher, Yang), go
looking for traces of identity in Germany (Haberkorn/Johne, Hiller, Grisey,
Wust), reflect multiple identity by taking up self-images of migrant youth
(Bock, Maza) or imagining role-plays (Blank/rentagerman, Entekhabi, Elsner,
Gerken, Harlev), and analyze the role of the media in constructing images of
others and oneself (Bauer, Farocki, Raether).
Accompanying the exhibition will be a daily film program in Projektraum 1 at
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (program: Sabine Winkler) and a weekly evening
program with discussions and lectures at Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende
Kunst (NGBK).
The exhibition is a project by the NGBK group This land is my land (Dorothee
Bienert, Shahram Entekhabi, Marisa Maza, Marina Sorbello, Antje Weitzel,
Sabine Winkler) in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Nurnberg, where it took
place from May 18 to July 3, 2006. Conceived by Dorothee Bienert, Marina
Sorbello, and Antje Weitzel, This land is my land will be shown in an
expanded form in the rooms of NGBK and the Projektraum 1 at Kunstraum
Kreuzberg/Bethanien in Berlin, whom we thank for their support.
A brochure and a catalogue accompanying the exhibition are published by NGBK
(ISBN: 3-938515-05-8). Brochure and catalogue at the exhibition venue Eur
12,-; sold in bookshops for Eur 16,-
Image: Nana Petzet, Endurvinnslustoth nei takk! (Recyclinghof nein danke), Installation, 1998
Discussions at the NGBK, 7 p.m.
2. November:
"Wem gehort Che Guevara? Der Nazis neue Kleider", with Ulli Jentsch/APABIZ
(Berlin)
9. November:
"Black Deutschland", film presentation with director Oliver Hardt
(Frankfurt)
16. November:
"Die kolonialen Muster des deutschen Integrationsregimes", with Kien Nghi Ha
and Markus Schmitz (Berlin)
23. November:
"Zuhause. Erzahlungen von deutschen Koreanerinnen", book presentation with
Sun-ju Choi (Berlin) and guests.
Film and Video Program in the Projektraum 1 of the Kunstraum
Kreuzberg/Bethanien
Daily screenings at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Film directors:
Thomas Arslan, Hatice Ayten, Aysun Bademsoy, Peter Braatz alias Harry Rag,
Marie Ulrike Callenius, Neco Celic, Yola L. Grimm, Dirk Hilbert, Nicolas
Jacob, Heike Tamara Ludwig, Min-Lay Nahrstedt, Eren Onsoz, Pavel Schnabel,
Shelly Silver, Andreas Voigt, Christoph Wermke, Michael Wurfel, Manuel
Zimmer
Media partner: Freitag, Jungle World, Zitty
Opening of the exhibition on 27 October, 7 p.m.
NGBK Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst
Oranienstr. 25 - Berlin
tel. 030 6165130
http://www.ngbk.de
Hours: daily 12.00-18.30
Projektraum 1 Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2 - Berlin
tel. 030 90298-1455
http://www.kunstraumkreuzberg.de
Hours: daily 12.00 - 19.00