Hiwa K: Moon Calendar

After the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, S.M.A.K., in Ghent, the Kunstverein Hannover is the second station of the extensive solo exhibition Moon Calendar of the Kurdish-Iraqi artist Hiwa K. In his videos and installations, the artist (*1975) reflects on collective occurrences and subjective narratives, on temporality in constant reference to history, and not least on flight and migration on the basis of his personal history. Moon Calendar is not only the title of one of the works in the exhibition but can also be seen as a culturally different but equivalent form of orientation in and navigation through the world.

In the exhibition’s eponymous video Moon Calendar (2007), Hiwa K can be seen dancing in a hall that is part of the Iraqi prison complex Amna Souraka while monitoring his heartbeat with the use of a stethoscope and transferring it, like a transcription, into flamenco dance steps on the floor. Thus with each beat and counter-beat of his heart, a process develops that reminds the artist of his positioning as well as timing within the crucial, context-laden surrounding space.

Besides presenting existing installations, all of which incorporate exemplary historical references and links—for instance the video Pre-Image (Blind as the Mother Tongue) (2017) shown in Athens during documenta 14, the new film Pin Down (2017) recently realized by de Appel Amsterdam, as well as earlier works such as For a Few Socks of Marbles (2012) and the sculptural installation It’s Spring and the Weather Is Great, So Let’s Close All Object Matters (2012), Hiwa K will create two expansive site-specific installations at the Kunstverein Hannover:

The complete arrangement of the sand sculptures What the Barbarians Did Not Do, Did the Barberini (first version 2012) will be presented for the first time in five different sizes and spread out monumentally. It makes formal reference to the Pantheon and in terms of content takes up its discourse on the ambivalent character of the material bronze—for the purpose of creating art and manufacturing weapons—and extends it geographically with the projection of videos featuring melted molds coming out of the fire at a foundry at the outskirts of Northern Iraq where war weapons are melted sown and reconfigured for another use.

Hiwa K has participated in group shows such as Manifesta 7, Trient (2008), La Triennale, Intense Proximity, Paris (2012), the Edgware Road Project at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2012), the Venice Biennale (2015), and documenta14, Kassel/Athens (2017). Before his exhibition at the S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2018), he had solo exhibitions at de Appel in Amsterdam (2017) and recently at the New Museum in New York (2018). In 2016, Hiwa K received the Schering Stiftung Art Award, which included an exhibition at KW Berlin in 2017, and he also won the Arnold Bode Prize within the context of documenta.

Director and curator: Kathleen Rahn

Press contact here

With the support of: The Ministry of Science and Culture of the State of Lower Saxony; Nord/LB Kulturstiftung; Gundlach, Meravis Real Estate Group. The Kunstverein receives ongoing support from the Cultural Office of the State Capital of Hannover.