German Angst
September 20 – November 2, 2008
Opening: Friday, September 19, 7pm
Chausseestraße 128/129
10115 Berlin Germany
German Angst
Hartmut Bitomsky, Nils Bökamp / Sebastian Heidinger, KP Brehmer, Eduard Constantin, Antje Engelmann, Amir Fattal, Hans Haacke, Edgar Hilsenrath, Thomas Hirschhorn, Käthe Kruse, Oliver Marchart, Andreas Slominski, Marlene Streeruwitz, Lawrence Weiner / Peter Gordon
Curated by Marius Babias
Germany’s ‘national sovereignty’, acquired with reunification in 1990, becomes the starting point for artistic, filmic and literary examinations of the ‘nation’s’ self-image today. Artists, filmmakers and writers from Germany and abroad are invited to address the ‘normalization’ of German-German history, an endeavor that sketches out a transcultural image of Germany, one that moves beyond a self-purification of its history.
The contributions slot together to form a circuit of historical reflections, quotidian observations and biographic narration.The exhibition consists of different settings of display: a cinematic room (Bitomsky, Bökamp/Heiddinger) and video installations ( Constantin, Engelmann, Fattal, Streeruwitz), a literary display of information (Hilsenrath) and extra materials as well as a solo show (KP Brehmer). Contemporary contributions (Hirschhorn, Kruse, Slominski) are completed by historical works (Haacke, Weiner).
What developments of German society are noticeable when revisiting these positions today? How has Germany’s new confidence changed the ways of coping with the past since 1990? The exhibition, together with an extensive programme focusing primarily on developments in Berlin and its surroundings, opens up a political space for artistic and social struggle.
Book series “n.b.k. Discourse”
“Hegemonie im Kunstfeld. Die documenta-Ausstellungen dX, D11, d12 und die Politik der Biennalisierung” by Oliver Marchart, philosopher and Professor at Lucerne University’s Department of Sociology, will be published with the occasion of the exhibition by the Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne.
Oliver Marchart turns a provocative analytical gaze on the last three documenta exhibitions. Taking the theories of Antonio Gramsci and Ernesto Laclau/Chantal Mouffe as his point of departure, he depicts museums and biennales as national and global hegemonic machines, reproducing dominant bourgeois culture while also making it vulnerable. Marchart traces out a shift in the canon of politics, post-colonial theory and education (D11) and describes the institutional struggles related to their power to define this shift (dX) and an attempt to revert it (d12).
Programme
Thursday, September 25, 7pm
Enamoured of German Language
Talk with Edgar Hilsenrath (author) and Volker Dittrich (editor)
Sunday, September 28, 3pm
German Gedenken: Berlin-Mitte
Guided tour with Felix Fiedler (art historian) and Sophie Goltz (Communication/Education n.b.k.)
Thursday, October 2, 7pm
Deutschland-Trilogie
Scenes from Deutschlandbilder (GER 1984), Reichsautobahn (GER 1986), Der VW-Komplex (GER 1990)
Presented by Hartmut Bitomsky (filmmaker) and Marius Babias (director n.b.k.)
Thursday, October 9, 7pm
Drifter (GER 2007, 80 min), Lichtenberg (GER 2007, 11 min)
Screening and talk with Nils Bökamp (producer) and Sebastian Heidinger (filmmaker)
Saturday, October 11, 10am
German Gedenken: Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen
Guided tour with Ralph Gabriel (historian of architecture) and Sophie Goltz
Thursday, October 23, 7pm
Hegemonie im Kunstfeld. Die documenta-Ausstellungen dX, D11, d12 und die Politik der Biennalisierung (Hegemony in the Field of Art. The dX, D11, d12 documenta exhibitions and biennalisation policy)
Lecture by Oliver Marchart (philosopher)
Sunday, November 2, 8pm
Käthe Kruse / Die Tödliche Doris
Concert and performance
Opening hours
Exhibition
Tuesday-Sunday, 12am – 6pm
Thursday, 12am – 8pm
Video-Forum/Artothek
Tuesday/Thursday, 2 – 8pm
Wednesday/Friday, 2 – 6pm
Contact
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k.
Chausseestraße 128/129
10115 Berlin Germany
T +49 30 2807020
F +49 30 2807019
E nbk@nbk.org
Supported by
