Harvard
Written on 11. September 2024
Harvard, Cambridge (USA), 11. September 2024
Ossification– Lecture Performance
ᵉⁿAt the opening of the exhibition Made in Germany? at the Busch-Reisinger Museum (Harvard Art Museums), I will speak in depth about my work on view, Ostalgie, and take the audience on a journey through German history and the political present, while providing an overview of my practice over the past 12 years, relating East Germany to contemporary US politics. The title is a reference to sociologist Steffen Mau’s latest book, Unequally United. The work Ostalgie is the starting point for a tour of East German complexes and complexities, and an invitation to join the archaeological dig for prehistoric bones among the ruins of socialism.
Henrike Naumann – Ossification
Lecture Performance
12. September 2024 6pm–7.30pm
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
USA
INFOS
Ostalgie – Installation
September 13, 2024 – January 5, 2025
Special Exhibitions Gallery, University Research Gallery
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
USA
ᵉⁿPart of the exhibition Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation.
Excerpt from the exhibition text:
Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation takes an unprecedented look at German art since 1980. Featuring artists from different generations and diverse backgrounds, the exhibition complicates notions of German identity, especially the idea of ethnic and cultural homogeneity. In fact, the country is second only to the United States as a destination for immigrants from around the world. […] As the pointedly interrogative title suggests, Made in Germany? asks, rather than offers ready answers to, the question of who or what represents Germany today.
Lectures online
I – What comes after Postmodernism?
Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, 2023
II – Foreign Agent
Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum, Georgia, 2024
III – Breathe
Screening and Conversation with Vasyl Cherepanyn, Berlin, 2024
Hard Style
ᵉⁿThe project Hard Style by the artist Henrike Naumann deals with her grandfather Karl Heinz Jakob’s mural The Mechanization of Agriculture. Created in 1960 for the city council of Karl-Marx-Stadt, it was covered with drywall in 2002. It will be uncovered again for the Pochen Biennale – in a performance in the Chemnitz Stadthalle with Chem Valley Line Dance e.V. and the hardstyle jumpers de Nischlhupper. In the Wirkbau, the mural will be repainted by Leipzig artist Susanne Rische and completed by the people of Chemnitz.
Performance Hard Style
26. September 2024 17.00
Stadthalle Chemnitz, Theaterstr. 3, 09111 Chemnitz
Installation Hard Style
26. September – 20. Oktober 2024
Wirkbau Chemnitz, Annaberger Str. 73, 09111 Chemnitz
INFOS
CONCEPTS
Book Launch
Henrike Naumann in conversation with Bakri Bakhit, Bierke Verlag, Berlin.
Sonntag, 29. September 2024 17.00
Mauer-Mahnmal im Deutschen Bundestag
Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus
Zugang über die Spree-Uferpromenade
Schiffbauerdamm
10117 Berlin
ᵉⁿFor Henrike Naumann, a new work always begins with a concept paper. These CONCEPTS, which develop from project ideas and her in-depth research, serve as a critical and discursive basis for her work before they become sculptures, installations and artistic interventions. Conceived by Naumann as an artist’s book, the folder made of mirror-polished stainless steel sheet brings together almost 100 concepts in her own words, with around 400 images, ranging from the beginnings of her practice to the most recent installations. With many unrealized or never published project papers, CONCEPTS also developed into a rare record and documentation of her critical thinking, writing and working practice.
Supported by the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn an the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
www.bierke.de
Innere Sicherheit. An Intervention
Wall Memorial in the German Bundestag
ᵉⁿFinissage Sunday 29. September 2024
11 – 17 Uhr exhibition is open – last day!
17 Uhr book release CONCEPTS
Mauer-Mahnmal im Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus
Zugang über die Spree-Uferpromenade
Schiffbauerdamm, 10117 Berlin
INFOS
ᵉⁿThis year marks the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law. The Art Advisory Council of the German Bundestag has invited the artist Henrike Naumann to realize an exhibition in the Wall Memorial in the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, whose conceptual starting point is the Basic Law in its first version from 1949 – not only in the Federal Republic, but also in the GDR, which passed a constitution at almost the same time.
Henrike Naumann decided to place two works in relation to each other along the former Hinterlandmauer: The furniture installation Das Reich (2017) focusses on the Reich Citizens’ Movement and its refusal to recognize the unification treaty between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany because – as the Basic Law stipulated in 1949 – no peace treaty had been concluded. In the world view of the Reich Citizens, the German Reich therefore continues to exist; they see themselves as an “indigenous people” in an occupied country and are preparing for a Day X, when the German Reich will rise again after a victorious battle. In the multimedia installation Tag X (2019), the temporal references between 1989 and a future in which there was a political upheaval on Alexanderplatz become blurred. Was socialism defeated or was a new state established with a far-right revolution?
Naumann’s works on the Unification Treaty and the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, but also on the ideology of the Reich and utopias of a far-right system overthrow, condense in the fragmented space into a challenging offer for discussion and demonstrate their disturbing topicality.
Guerly Laurent (1983 – 2024)
ᵉⁿWe were devastated to hear that our friend, original member of the Museum of Trance and sculptor Guerly Laurent was killed in Port-au-Prince in August 2024. When we first arrived in Haiti, Guerly immediately took us under his wing, showing us around his city, inviting us to his home in Cité Soleil, and helping us build the Museum of Trance. Without him, the whole project would have been unthinkable. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to meet him and to show one of his works at SAVVY Contemporary in 2016. However, it was impossible for us to bring him to Europe because of the Western border regimes that essentially imprison most Haitians. Guerly was part of a movement of working-class Haitian artists who are most affected by gang violence and the ignorance of the West. Haiti is more than its rich history and the land of the first black revolution, it is a place where people struggle to survive every day. Guerly, we will never forget you!
Guerly Laurent (1983 – 2024)
ᵈᵉWir trauern um unseren Freund, Gründungsmitglied des Museums of Trance und Bildhauer Guerly Laurent, der im August 2024 in Port-au-Prince getötet wurde. Als wir in Haiti ankamen, nahm uns Guerly sofort unter seine Fittiche, zeigte uns seine Stadt, lud uns in sein Haus in Cité Soleil ein und half uns beim Aufbau des Museums of Trance. Ohne ihn wäre das ganze Projekt nicht denkbar gewesen. Wir sind dankbar, dass wir ihn kennenlernen durften und eines seiner Werke 2016 bei SAVVY Contemporary zeigen konnten. Allerdings war es uns aufgrund der westlichen Grenzregime, die die meisten Haitianer in ihrem eigenen Land gefangen halten, nicht möglich, ihn nach Europa zu bringen. Guerly war Teil einer Bewegung haitianischer Künstler aus der Arbeiterklasse, die heute am stärksten von Bandengewalt und der Ignoranz des Westens betroffen sind. Haiti ist mehr als seine Geschichte und das Land der ersten schwarzen Revolution, es ist ein Ort, an dem die Menschen jeden Tag ums Überleben kämpfen. Guerly, wir werden dich nie vergessen!
Guerly Laurent (1983 – 2024)
ᵏʳᵉʸᵒˡNou te devaste lè nou te tande zanmi nou an, manm orijinal Mize Trance a ak eskiltè Guerly Laurent te touye nan Pòtoprens nan mwa Out 2024. Lè nou te rive an Ayiti, Guerly imedyatman pran nou anba zèl li, li montre nou alantou. vil li a, envite nou lakay li nan Site Solèy, epi ede nou bati Mize Trance. San li, tout pwojè a t ap pa ka panse. Nou rekonesan dèske nou te gen opòtinite rankontre l epi montre youn nan travay li yo nan SAVVY Contemporary an 2016. Sepandan, li te enposib pou nou mennen l ann Ewòp akoz rejim fwontyè oksidantal yo ki esansyèlman mete pi fò Ayisyen nan prizon. Guerly te fè pati yon mouvman atis ouvriye ayisyen ki pi afekte pa vyolans gang ak inyorans Lwès la. Ayiti pi plis pase istwa rich li ak peyi premye revolisyon nwa a, se yon kote moun ap lite pou yo siviv chak jou. Guerly, nou pap janm bliye w!
Film about Guerly Laurent by Alberto Danelli
ᵉⁿHenrike Naumann is a fellow at the Berlin Artistic Research Program 2024/25. Artistic Research commissioned by the Berlin Artistic Research Program.
INFOS
Photos
Henrike Naumann, Clemens Villinger, Bastian Geza Aschoff, Sebastian Eggler, Ghetto Biennale