Harvard

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

INFOS

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

Foreign Agent

Lecture Performance
18. Mai 2024
Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum, Georgien.

War Studies

Tbilisi, Georgien, 17. Mai 2024

ᵈᵉSeit Beginn diesen Jahres bin ich Stipendiatin im Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung 2024/25. In den kommenden zwei Jahren werde ich mich mit dem Thema Kunst und Krieg auseinandersetzen und im interdisziplinären Dialog meine Arbeitsweise weiterentwickeln. Ich gehe in dem Projekt davon aus, dass politische Systeme und Ideenwelten wie Sozialismus, Kapitalismus oder Faschismus eigene künstlerische Ausdrucksformen in Bezug auf Kunst und Krieg hervorgebracht haben, die (vom Wohnzimmer über den Schützengraben bis zum Museum) unsere Gegenwarten prägen. Ich führe verschiedene Themen zusammen, mit denen ich mich seit mehreren Jahren auseinandersetze und die ich für relevant für das Verständnis der Gegenwart halte und unumgänglich für die Imagination von Zukunft. Neben der Recherche und der Arbeit mit Wissenschaftler_innen werde ich meine künstlerische Forschung in Form von Vorträgen, Diskussionen, Performances, Interventionen und Ausstellung öffentlich machen. Im Folgenden eine Auswahl meiner geplanten öffentlichen Veranstaltungen im Frühling.

ᵉⁿSince the beginning of this year, I am a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Program 2024/25. Over the next two years, I will examin the topic Art and War further develop my artistic practice in an interdisciplinary dialogue. In this project, I assume that political orders and their believe systems such as socialism, capitalism, or fascism have produced their own artistic forms of expression in relation to art and war, which (from the living room to the trench to the museum) characterise our present. I bring together various themes that I have been dealing with for several years and that I consider relevant for understanding the present and essential for imagining the future. In addition to this research and work with academics, I will be making my artistic research public in the form of lectures, discussions, performances, interventions and exhibitions. Below is a selection of my planned public events in spring.

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist 85f475fd-70c7-c906-df67-6641e1326173-1024x847.jpg

Foreign Agent – Lecture Performance in Tbilisi, Georgia

18. Mai 2024

Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum (TPMM)
Stamba D Block, 14 M. Kostava St.
Tbilisi, Georgien

Opening of the exhibition Evrovizion
17.00 Lecture Performance Foreign Agent by Henrike Naumann

ᵉⁿOn the occasion of the opening of the ifa-exhibition Evrovizion in Tbilisi, Georgia I will present my new lecture performance Foreign Agent, produced for this moment in Georgian history.

ᵈᵉAnlässlich der Ausstellungseröffnung der ifa-Ausstellung Evrovizion in Tiflis, Georgien, präsentiere ich meine neue Lecture Performance Foreign Agent, die ich für diesen Moment der georgischen Geschichte produziert habe.

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist 93c51eaa-f85c-9809-f447-51b014f83ee9-1024x766.png

Culture Wars in Times of Real Wars – Lecture Zürich

24. Mai 2024 09.30 – 22.00
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Ausstellungsstrasse 60, Zürich

ᵈᵉSymposium – Zentrum Künste und Kulturtheorie (ZKK) der Universität Zürich (UZH) und Zürcher Kunsthochschule (ZHdK)

ᵉⁿSymposium – Inaugurating the New Center for Arts and Cultural Theory (ZKK) of University of Zurich (UZH) and Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)

14.00 – 16.00 Cuture Wars in Times of Real Wars
Lecture Henrike Naumann and conversation with Sandra Frimmel

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist edc41bfa-5f17-5c30-3883-57e6721d3429.jpg

Breathe Screening – Kyiv Perennial – Symposium “Völkerfreundschaft”

ᵈᵉWas bleibt von der Völkerfreundschaft?
ᵉⁿWhat remains of the “friendship between peoples”?
A symposium of the Prater Gallery, curated and organized by Lena Prents and Antonina Stebur

Saturday, 01. June 2024 11.00 – 19.00
Stadtwerkstatt, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 11, 10178 Berlin + ngbk

19.00 – 20.00 Screening Breathe by Henrike Naumann / SI_Process
with a conversation between Henrike Naumann and Vasyl Cherepanyn

ᵉⁿI am very excited to show the video documentation of our performance Breathe from last year’s Kyiv Biennial in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. It will mark the end of this promising symposium on “Völkerfreundschaft” at ngbk on Alexanderplatz.

ᵈᵉIch freue mich sehr, die Videodokumentation unserer Performance Breathe von der letzten Kyiv Biennale in Iwano-Frankiwsk, Ukraine zu zeigen. Sie bildet den Abschluss dieses spannenden Symposiums zum Thema „Völkerfreundschaft“ im ngbk am Alexanderplatz.

INFOS

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist 72cb68f4-2c96-4f7f-b9a1-8b5126e3661e-714x1024.png

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist e3fdbe14-a3a4-9179-36ec-556ab2388131-1024x759.jpg

Lecture – Schloss Augustusburg Chemnitz

Lecture Henrike Naumann – Augustusburg 1933–1945
Mittwoch, 29. Mai 2024 18.30
Schloss Augustusburg
Schloss 1, 09573 Augustusburg, Sachsen

ᵈᵉAusgehend von meiner Arbeit Ruinenwert (2019), der Ausstellung Einstürzende Reichsbauten (2021) und meiner Intervention in die Ausstellung Die Reise der Bilder (2024) spreche ich im Rahmen der Veranstaltungsreihe “Augustusburg 1933–1945” in einem Vortrag über die Möglichkeiten der zeitgenössischen künstlerischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Nationalsozialismus.

ᵉⁿBased on my work Ruinenwert (2019), the exhibition Einstürzende Reichsbauten (2021) and, most recently, my intervention in the exhibition Die Reise der Bilder (2024), I will talk about the possibilities of contemporary artistic engagement with National Socialism in my lecture as part of the event series “Augustusburg 1933-1945”.

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist 16d908ea-6e2e-70c3-b057-31b6c1638f9e.jpg

Gegenromantik – Talk mit Kito Nedo in Greifswald

Freitag, 31. Mai 2024 18.00
Spielhalle KUNST
Mühlenstraße 27/28
17489 Greifswald

ᵈᵉGespräch über das kritische Potenzial von Kunst und des Schreibens über Kunst, über die (Ohn-)Macht der Kritik und Auseinandersetzungen am Rand des Kunst-Ereignisses – und mittendrin.

ᵉⁿTalk about the critical potential of art and writing about art, about the power(lessness) of criticism and debates on the fringes of the art event – and right in the middle of it.

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist 17a01208-8b14-8f17-3544-fe3b9f16a28f.jpg

Triadisches Ballett im Wohnzimmer – Schlemmer-Meisterhaus Dessau

ᵈᵉDauerhafte Möbelinstallation von Henrike Naumann im Wohnzimmer des Schlemmer-Meisterhaus Dessau.

Opening Samstag 01. Juni 2024 11.00
Meisterhaus Muche / Schlemmer
Ebertallee 65/67, 06846 Dessau-Roßlau

Mich interessierte: was wäre, wenn die Figuren aus Schlemmers Triadischem Ballett hundert Jahre nach der Uraufführung 1922 ein Meisterhaus in Dessau beziehen würden? Wie würden sie sich einrichten? Würden sie die Renovierungen aus der DDR-Zeit übernehmen? Mit welchen Möbeln würden sie sich wohlfühlen? Würden sie auf eBay Kleinanzeigen in Dessau fündig werden? Als Beitrag zum Projekt Gracious Hosts bin ich in die Rolle der Innenarchitektin für die Figuren des Triadischen Ballets geschlüpft. Für die künstlerische Ausstattung bezog ich meine Inspiration aus der originalen Farbwandgestaltung, aus den Ergänzungen aus DDR-Zeiten und aus der Alltagsästhetik der Dessauer*innen, wie sie sich auf eBay Kleinanzeigen darstellt.

ᵉⁿPermanent furniture installation by Henrike Naumann in the living room of the Schlemmer-Meisterhaus Dessau.

I was interested: what if the characters from Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet were to move into a master house in Dessau one hundred years, after the premiere in 1922? How would they settle in? Would they adopt the renovations from the GDR era? What furniture would they feel comfortable with? Would they find what they were looking for on eBay classifieds in Dessau? As a contribution to the Gracious Hosts project, I slipped into the role of interior designer for the characters of the Triadic Ballet. For the artistic interior design, I drew my inspiration from the original colour wall design, from the additions from the GDR era and from the everyday aesthetics of the people of Dessau as they appear on eBay classifieds.

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist ac07d88a-fc3e-2b2c-f844-7d3df67c651f.png

Demokratie. Wählen! Nicht schießen! Ausstellung in Zwickau

Eröffnung 07. Juni 2024
Ausstellung 11. Juni. – 01. November 2024
Freunde Aktueller Kunst Zwickau
Hauptstraße 60-62
08056 Zwickau

ᵈᵉGruppenausstellung zu Kurt Tucholskys Gedicht Absage (1920). Mit einem Beitrag von mir mit dem Titel Koka Kola Freiheit (2024).

ᵉⁿGroup exhibition on Kurt Tucholsky’s poem Absage (1920). With my contribution Koka Kola Freiheit (2024).

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist 306b9118-6e21-d4b5-1f70-e5782612b004-723x1024.png

Innere Sicherheit. Eine Intervention
Mauer-Mahnmal im Deutschen Bundestag

Opening Mittwoch 12. Juni 2024 18.00
12. Juni – 29. September 2024
Mauer-Mahnmal im Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus
Zugang über die Spree-Uferpromenade
Schiffbauerdamm, 10117 Berlin

www.kunst-im-bundestag.de

ᵈᵉIn diesem Jahr wird das Grundgesetz 75 Jahre alt. Der Kunstbeirat des Deutschen Bundestages hat die Künstlerin Henrike Naumann eingeladen, im Mauer-Mahnmal im Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus eine Ausstellung zu realisieren, deren gedanklicher Ausgangspunkt das Grundgesetz in seiner ersten Fassung aus dem Jahr 1949 ist – nicht nur in der Bundesrepublik, sondern auch in der DDR, die fast zeitgleich eine Verfassung verabschiedete.

Henrike Naumann entschied sich dazu, entlang der ehemaligen Hinterlandmauer zwei Arbeiten miteinander in Beziehung zu setzen: Die Möbelinstallation Das Reich (2017) thematisiert die Reichsbürgerbewegung und deren Verweigerung, den Einigungsvertrag zwischen DDR und Bundesrepublik anzuerkennen, weil – so hatte es das Grundgesetz 1949 festgeschrieben – kein Friedensvertrag geschlossen worden war. Im Weltbild der Reichsbürger besteht das Deutsche Reich deshalb weiter fort, sie verstehen sich als “indigenes Volk” in einem besetzten Land und rüsten sich für einen Tag X, an dem das Deutsche Reich nach gewonnenem Kampf wiederauferstehen wird. In der Multimediainstallation Tag X (2019) verschwimmen die zeitlichen Bezüge zwischen 1989 und einer Zukunft, in der es auf dem Alexanderplatz zu einem politischen Umsturz kam. Wurde der Sozialismus besiegt oder mit einer rechten Revolution ein neuer Staat errichtet?

Naumanns Arbeiten zum Einigungsvertrag und zur Friedlichen Revolution 1989, aber auch zur Reichsideologie und Utopien eines rechten Systemumsturzes verdichten sich in dem zerteilten Raum zu einem herausfordernden Diskussionsangebot und zeigen ihre verstörende Aktualität.

Innere Sicherheit. An Intervention
Wall memorial in the German Bundestag

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.

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist 6b41e2bb-3b07-f58e-2723-708baa1f2496.png

ᵈᵉHenrike Naumann ist Stipendiatin des Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung 2024/25. Künstlerische Forschung beauftragt durch das Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung.

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, eBay, Shaza Musa, Olesia Saiienko, Harald Hauswald, Violetta Walkobinger, Torsten Rütz, Tuan Do Duc, eBay Kleinanzeigen, Inga Selck

What comes after Postmodernism?

Lecture at Bundeskunsthalle Bonn in November 2023.
Link to the German translation.

Re-Education – SculptureCenter New York

H E N R I K E N A U M A N N
R E – E D U C A T I O N

22. September 2022 – 27. Februar 2023
SculptureCenter
44–19 Purves Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
INFOS

SculptureCenter is pleased to announce Henrike Naumann: Re-Education, the first exhibition in the United States by Berlin-based artist Henrike Naumann.
Naumann’s installations of furniture and design objects are composed as scenes that ask pressing and enduring questions: What is the relationship between design and ideology? How should one read the politics of design? Inflected by her own formative years growing up in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and then a unified Germany, Naumann’s work often considers the social transformations initiated by Western consumer capitalism as it reached former socialist states and ideas of the “good life” that have arisen globally (if unevenly). Naumann contends with the many side effects visible today: Millennial bourgeois consumerism, socioeconomic discontent, antagonistic orientations to political power, and virulent extremism. Her installations function as case studies in lingering cultural moments, unresolved kitchen table politics, and design’s capacity to reconcile or reignite the past — positioning the viewer as both a captive in an oppressive system of global production and a free agent of consumer taste.
At SculptureCenter, Naumann has developed a museum-scaled display of dozens of furnishings and domestic items staged in a critical parody of the dubious “horseshoe theory.” The “horseshoe theory” was developed in Germany in the 1930s and revived in the 1990s both to establish the parameters of the political center and to treat far left and far right extremisms as equivalent threats to its order – as if they were the two ends of a horseshoe bending away from the middle and out of control at the same rate. Naumann’s exhibition rejects such superficial and misleading categorizations of centers and extremes by conducting an idiosyncratic survey of rural sensibilities in American interior design, from faux-bois chairs to the farmhouse doors of the suburban cul-du-sac. Looking at the United States as an interested outsider, Naumann’s work uses found objects to test received ideas and expectations of the democratic “West,” as well as the fraught idealism and amnesia expressed in the norms of certain rustic contemporary design principles. Well-suited for an age that is both hyper-aware of niche political identifications and wary of misreading aesthetic cues, Naumann’s work prompts viewers to engage in a conspiratorial questioning about the deeper natures of the objects that define our daily lives: is there such a thing as a libertarian sofa, a far-left stool, or a neconservative armchair, and are they sold in different stores?

Naumann’s exhibition references two phenomena: first, the deployment of anti-fascist “re-education” programs developed by Allied Forces to reestablish a footing for democracy in West Germany after World War II; and second, the later, implicit, self-“re-education” after 1989 of those living in former socialist states, such as Naumann’s native East Germany. For Naumann’s post-1989 generation, “re-education” happened through an imported, American pop culture (Naumann cites The Flintstones as a touchstone) and increased consumer agency – in essence, the GDR entering Western history through retail and media. The exhibition also includes a survey of more than ten video works by Naumann made between 2012 and 2022.
Reframing dormant Cold War-era geopolitical conditions, Naumann’s project opens a new consciousness of how we live among the ruins of twentieth century ideologies that were exported and reimported by U.S. power over the last several decades — now especially visible to a generation born just as the Cold War drew to a close. With deadpan humor, Naumann’s exhibition considers how current and subsequent generations “re-educate” themselves by participating in an ever-changing economy, conforming to aspirational design conventions, or, conversely, lurching toward the fringes as a supposed political “center” expands and contracts under different conditions and across time.

Henrike Naumann: Re-Education is curated by Kyle Dancewicz, Deputy Director, SculptureCenter, with Christopher Aque, Exhibition & Program Manager. Project Curatorial Assistant: Leo Cocar.

Supported by LEAP. Additional support for Henrike Naumann: Re-Education is provided by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. and Goethe-Institut New York.

Special thanks to Materials for the Arts (MFTA).

Leadership support of SculptureCenter’s exhibitions and programs is provided by Carol Bove, Lee Elliott and Robert K. Elliott, Richard Chang, Jill and Peter Kraus, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Barbara and Andrew Gundlach, Jacques Louis Vidal, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Eleanor Heyman Propp, Libby and Adrian Ellis, Candy and Michael Barasch, Sanford Biggers, Jane Hait and Justin Beal, and Amy and Sean Lyons.

Photos:
President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin at the White House horseshoe pitch, Washington, D.C, 1992. Photo: David Ake/Getty Images
Henrike Naumann: Re-Education, Bone chair (Savannah, Georgia)

Thank You For Bringing My Work Back Home

2000 in Gropius Bau Berlin

Thursday, 04.08.2022 17.00—19.30
Gropius Bau, 2nd floor
Free admission with pre-registration
INFOS

This lecture by Valeria Schiller and the following conversation between her and Henrike Naumann, who will join online, discuss the cultural-historical connections and parallels between Kyiv and Berlin in context of the division between East and West, and the position of artistic practices and cultural work in times of war. Shown at PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, when Russia invaded Ukraine, 2000 was recently evacuated and brought to the Gropius Bau. The conversation will unfold surrounded by the pieces of the installation.

Please register by the day before the event with your full name via events@gropiusbau.de.

Connecting historical contexts of East and West Europe with the recent journey of the installation 2000 of Henrike Naumann, Valeria Schiller will give a lecture about the role of cultural work and archiving contemporary art in and from Ukraine. Afterwards she will engage in conversation with Henrike Naumann, who joins online from New York. The conversation is moderated by Zippora Elders, Head of Curatorial Department & Outreach at the Gropius Bau.

This event deals with themes related to the war in Ukraine, violence and displacement.

Art historian, curator, and art critic Valeria Schiller has been based in Berlin since March 2022. From 2016 to 2018, she worked in the archive of the PinchukArtCentre’s Research Platform in Kyiv. 2019 she was a Junior Curator of the PinchukArtCentre and a Curatorial Team Member at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre. Since 2019, she has been teaching art history at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts.

Henrike Naumann was born in Zwickau, GDR and lives and works in Berlin. She reflects socio-political phenomena on the level of interior design and domestic space and explores antagonistic political beliefs through the ambivalent aesthetics of personal taste. Growing up in Eastern Germany, Naumann experienced Neo-Nazis as a predominant youth culture in the 1990s. Therefore, she is interested in the mechanisms of radicalization and its links to personal experience.

Back Home: Artistic Practices, Cultural Work and the War in Ukraine is curated by Zippora Elders and Julia Grosse, with the support of Leonie Schmiese, Lijuan Klassen and Sarah Crowe.

The Museum of Trance

Ghetto Biennale / Atis Rezistans
documenta fifteen Kassel, 2022

We propose the Museum of Trance as a fictional institution that explores the sonic culture phenomenon of the 90ies German music genre Trance. Built around the organ, the central instrument of worship ceremonies, the work, combines structural elements of ethnographic historicization and museology of cultural formations. St. Kunigundis is located in the immediate vicinity of the legendary club ,Stammheim’ (1996), which was called ,Aufschwung Ost’ until 1994. In the church, the techno beats could be heard during Sunday services. The trance organ connects these different spiritual spheres – as if the beats were still blasting.

Bastian Hagedorn / Henrike Naumann

Texts on Ghetto Biennale

PDF for the exhibition at St. Kunigundis Kassel with infos on all works

Film “The Sculptors of Grand Rue” by Leah Gordon

Website Ghetto Biennale

Website Atis Rezistans

Catalogue Ghetto Biennale

Texts on documenta / NS history

Hito Steyerl: Context is everything, except when it comes to Germany (deutsche Version)

Jörg Heiser: “Contested Histories”: on Documenta 15

Nanne Buurman: Northern Gothic: Werner Haftmann’s German Lessons, or A Ghost (Hi)Story of Abstraction

Nanne Buurman: d is for democracy? documenta and the Politics of abstraction between Aryanization and Americanization

Projects on documenta / NS history

Kyiv

My work ‚2000‘ had a special meaning in the Ukrainian context, as the work about the divided Germany was read by the audience as a metaphor of the divided Ukraine.

I am one of the few artists who up until the beginning of the invasion had shows in both Kyiv and Moscow. Working in both places and meeting people there gave me an understanding of the situation and the problems to come. Without doing these shows this exchange wouldn’t have been possible.

And this exchange with the audience is why I do what I do.

Yesterday was supposed to be the last day of our show in Kyiv. But since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24th the museum has been barricaded.

The show in Moscow needs to close now.

I do shows for the audience. And my audience in Ukraine is being killed right now. This is where the possibilities of art end for me.

Don’t be fooled by the aesthetics

In 2017 I created the work ‚Das Reich‘ for Gorki’s Herbstsalon. With the installation, composed of furniture, objects and video, I tried to find a visual language to speak about the self-proclaimed ‚Reichsbürger‘ (citizens of the German Reich), who deny the legitimacy of the Federal Republic of Germany and claim that the German Reich is still in power. In the work I created the dystopian image that the Reichsbürger had taken over the Kronprinzenpalais Unter den Linden, and installed their emergency Reich government with furniture there, arranged in a cultic formation resembling Stonehenge.

During these last days, while seeing the millions of photos from the Capitol coup, I had to think a lot about this work. Not only because the aesthetics of it matched the work in detail, but because of the problems in dealing with a political movement whose aesthetics might be thought of as ‚weird‘. What I have realized is that it is difficult to convince people of the danger of people and movements, when their looks and self-staging seem weird, funny and laughable. While what they are producing in society is dangerous and a threat beyond our imagination. In the case of the ‚Reichsbürger‘, it is a racist, white-supremacist and violent hate-movement of conspiracy theorists, that during the pandemic gained more and more supporters throughout Germany. Don’t be fooled by the aesthetics.

2000 in Gropius Bau Berlin

Ghetto Biennale / Atis Rezistansdocumenta fifteen Kassel, 2022

Texts on Ghetto Biennale

Texts on documenta / NS history

Projects on documenta / NS history

Ghetto Biennale / Atis Rezistans
documenta fifteen Kassel, 2022