A Nail to Hang the Day On / Nina Porter: Sample Question / Nandi Loaf: Zirkus

A Nail to Hang the Day On 
June 5–September 22, 2026
 
Objects migrate. Don’t they? Bit by bit, possessions become abstract, and embedded within even the most basic household item is an emotional charge that anchors it to the lives of those who use it, far exceeding the functions of the object itself. Fantasy, memory, pain, or desire flow into the things people hold close, and the cold surfaces of a toaster or a chair get warmer over time. 
 
When the “everyday” no longer refers to a commonly shared experience, fixed by coordinates like labor and its rituals, even the most familiar objects can come to feel alien. Bearing the traces of that erosion, A Nail to Hang the Day On imagines a contemporary world where everyday objects, set adrift, generate a mutated and rewilded sense of place and belonging.
 
With:  
Georges Adéagbo, Stefano Arienti, Nairy Baghramian, Franco Bellucci, Beatrice Bonino, CrossLypka, Hanne Darboven, Nicolas Deshayes, Miho Dohi, Niloufar Emamifar, Laura Lamiel, Brianna Leatherbury, Timothy Lee Standring, Jac Leirner, Liliana Moro, Anna Oppermann, Stéphanie Saadé, Adrian Villar Rojas, Bri Williams 

Curated by Anthony Huberman and Milan Ther.


Nina Porter: Sample Question 
June 5–September 22, 2026
 
Sample Question marks the first institutional solo exhibition of Nina Porter and comprises new works commissioned by the Kunstverein in Hamburg. This recent body of work ruminates on matter in elemental and diminutive forms. Alongside a series of photographs—evoking portraits, the photographs capture a fragile process of becoming and so evade total recognition—bricks made of compressed ash are organised into clusters throughout the gallery, calling attention not only to the visual field of images, but also to inhabited space. Yet these material components of Porter’s practice channel toward something intangible, at once indexing time and accentuating the volume of a moment and all it has the potential to contain.

A series of five films will be screened on select Thursdays throughout the exhibition, referred to here as sample questions. A mix of artist moving image and narrative films, the sample questions are of varying lengths and constitute an additional module to the presentation: they are neither evening events nor a constant feature of the display, but instead a transitory and transient extension of the artist’s project. Porter writes: “Each film is needy (not demanding)—everything is variable—and that is a constant.” A full programme, including screening times and a list of works, will be published on kunstverein.de.  

Curated by Sarah Messerschmidt.

Sample Question is developed as part of the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026.


Nandi Loaf: Zirkus 
June 28, 2026–May 27, 2027
Hanne Darboven Stiftung
Am Burgberg 26
21079 Hamburg-Harburg  

The Kunstverein in Hamburg and the Hanne Darboven Foundation present Zirkus, an exhibition by Nandi Loaf. Infiltrating the historic villa as emulated malware, Loaf stages an immersive crepuscular happening—part performance, part social choreography, part staged seduction. For one evening, guests are invited into a shifting environment of image, movement, sound, and encounter that shrouds the signals of Darboven’s programmed afterlife on the grounds where she lived and worked, and where Loaf has been resident since February.

A new installation featuring works developed during the residency will remain on view until May 27, 2027.
Curated by Milan Ther and Sarah Messerschmidt.

Events
Curators’ tour of A Nail to Hang the Day On
with Anthony Huberman and Milan Ther
Thursday, June 4, 6pm

Curator’s tour of Nina Porter: Sample Question
with Sarah Messerschmidt
Friday, June 5, 2pm

Nandi Loaf: Zirkus and Summer Party
Saturday, June 27, 4pm
Hanne Darboven Foundation, Am Burgberg 26, 21079 Hamburg

Symposium at the Hanne Darboven Foundation
October 3, 11am
Am Burgberg 26, 21079 Hamburg