Is This as Good as it Gets? Annual program 2025–2026

For its 2025–26 program Kunstverein Hannover features a series of presentations under the shared title Is This as Good as it Gets?

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe has never gravitated away from its professed belief in stability at a greater speed than now. At the same time, what once seemed an appealing sense of proximity and global interconnectedness now returns as an uninvited and discomforting realization of strings of invisible dependencies that shape day-to-day lives across the world. History has not come to an end, nor does it repeat itself. It has been hacked and turbocharged. And while some try to salvage the ideas and values of democracies, we are all propelled into different futures. Perhaps the good times are gone already, or perhaps the present, indeed, is as good as it gets. Art offers a mode of reflection that does not rely solely on news cycles or analyses.   

Borrowing its title from a newly commissioned work by Ryan Gander, the annual program of Kunstverein Hannover follows its earlier edition “I hope this finds you well,” which examined post-pandemic notions of disease and healing as well as aspects of “wellbeing” and “wellness.” Is This as Good as it Gets? looks at the present from a number of different vantage points and through various eyes: from the ongoing wars, to the controversial world fair Expo2000, to Indigenous histories and struggles for sovereignty and environmental justice, to landscapes from eras that seem out-of-time and the timeless, incessant cycle of life.

February 1–March 30
Kateryna Lysovenko: Animals
Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk: In Absentia

The two parallel solo presentations by Ukrainian artists examine how the Russian war of aggression, which has now entered its fourth year, transformed the daily realities, perception, and resilience of its victims. Kateryna Lysovenko looks at how the division between humans and animals cuts across both popular tales and fables as well as imperialist strategies and propaganda. The filmmaker duo Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk follow the direct results of violence and war crimes: the kidnapping of children, the looting of museums, and the choice faced by many: between fight and flight.

As part of a cooperation between Stiftung Niedersachsen and Kunstverein Hannover, Kateryna Lysovenko was also commissioned to realize the 12th edition of a series called “Stufen zur Kunst”—for which she works in the eastern staircase of the historic Kuenstlerhaus built in 1856. Her monumental wall painting, titled Angel Folding the Sky, references Monique Wittig’s Virgile, non (1985) and a 12th-century Ukrainian fresco from the church of St. Cyril in Kyiv. The work is on view until February 1, 2026.

May 11–July 6
An Exhibition for Children (And Other People), curated by Jeremy Deller, invited by Christoph Platz-Gallus

Featuring work by, amongst others, Francis Alÿs, Ryan Gander, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Roman Ondak, Eva Rothschild, and David Shrigley. Originating with an invitation to Jeremy Deller to revisit his little-known performance piece for Hannover’s Expo2000—for which the artist commissioned a clown to stroll the grounds of the world fair that came to symbolize the peak of the now-faded vision of techno-optimism—the exhibition itself is an invitation to imagine the world with the trusting curiosity of a child.

July 31–August 10
Raven Chacon: Conductus

This major presentation of Raven Chacon, the first Native American artist to receive the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022, will feature a selection of his work and a live concert project. Chacon’s practice, unfolding between sound, video, performance, and sculpture, is informed by, among other influences, the values and musical traditions of the Diné (Navajo), and addresses environmental issues as well as Indigenous identity, sovereignty, and histories.     

August 30-October 26   
91. Herbstausstellung 

The traditional Fall Exhibition, the largest survey of the art scene in Lower Saxony and Bremen, is accompanied by the Kunstpreis der Sparkasse. The jury-based group show, this time in collaboration with Hannover’s Städtische Galerie KUBUS offers insight into the artistic production of the region since 1907. The open call for submissions will be available on the Kunstverein’s website in the spring.

November 29-March 1, 2026 
Teresa Solar Abboud: Self-Portrait as a Pregnant Woman

Self-Portrait as a Pregnant Woman marks Solar Abboud’s first solo exhibition in Germany, following presentations in Spain and Italy, including in the 2022 Venice Biennale. Kunstverein Hannover will host several of the artist’s sprawling yet fragile sculptures as well as new works. Many of her colorful, seemingly playful pieces conjure up a vision of a different universe inhabited by organisms that can be seen as hybrids of the biological and industrially-produced. On the other hand, they seem oddly familiar, governed by universal laws. For Self-Portrait as a Pregnant Woman Solar Abboud will explore that endless cycle of life, continuity of existence, and what is to come after us once we are gone. This, perhaps, is the ultimate answer to the question: “is this as good as it gets?”