HDGDL

2022

installation

Religion - a doctrine that has accompanied mankind for centuries and has become an essential building block for our cultures. For a long time it offered the only explanation for everything inexplicable, organized social coexistence and created a community. What is left of it today? We have scientific explanations for the origin of the world and the existence of human beings. We know the triggers for floods, storms, illness and death. We no longer have to believe in a punishing God who reminds us of our sins. We have laws that regulate our coexistence; Psychologists who take care of our problems, we don't need anyone to hear our confessions. With this trend of secularization at all levels of society, Christian communities in Germany have steadily fewer members. However, a decline in religious belief does not mean that people lose faith altogether. Even in a modern society, people are still looking for the meaning of life and for answers to those questions that need to be answered in order to find support. Answers you just have to believe hard enough. But what replaced religious belief? The installation HDGDL invites you to a thought experiment, to spend a visit to the exhibition looking around at an exaggerated version of our society that has long since replaced its religious beliefs with something else: belief in love. Surrounded by plush benches and a baptismal font carried by swans, an altar forms the center of the installation. Trashy photo collages that quote eight paintings from art history refer to different forms of love and thereby question the usual narratives of couple romance.

FOREIGN BODY

2022

artist book

This concise word consisting of the terms “foreign“ and “body“ can describe a wide spectrum of topics from flight over discrimination to the sexualization of the bodies of female read persons.
For a year and a half we showed exhibitions in our project space TANKE e. V. that dealt with individual topics of this generic term. In addition, we collected artistic contributions to five chapters via an open call. I curated the chapter “Sex and Gender”.
The result of these one and a half years is a joint research project that can be understood as a visual testimony of time.

Curated by: Simon Schirmer, Mel Wilken, Endric Merker, Svenja Landsiedel, Sofia Baronner
Layout: Simon Schirmer, Mel Wilken, Gesa Krieter, Max Heinemann

Happy Cow

2021

exhibition view

If you believe the food industry, the cow is probably the happiest farm animal in the world. The happycow exhibition explores the narrative of the happy cow and the linchpin of its agricultural popularity; the udder. It invites visitors to question the romanticized view of a cow's life and confronts them with the absurdity of dairy farming.

200,000

2021

installation
200 posters, each 29,7cm x 42cm

This photo of Kim Hak-sun was taken on August 4, 1991 at a press conference where she became the first woman to publicly testify about her life as a former ianfu. Inanfu is a Japanese term euphemistically translated as "comfort women" and refers to biologically female people mainly from Korea but also from other Asian countries who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese military in "comfort stations" during World War II became. 2,000 posters, each with 100 photos, show Kim Hak-sun 200,000 times and are a symbolic reminder of the 200,000 people affected, who are usually estimated as the average number in literature. Visitors to the group exhibition “13 Percent”, in which the works were shown, were asked to take as many posters as they wanted from the pile and post them around the city.

The Values ​​of Finding Things

2021

Paper on motorized stand
29.7cm x 4000cm
Installation at Kunstverein Langenhagen

There is a folded piece of paper on the floor; the wind blowing between the pages reveals that it has been written on. Someone lost it. It could be a letter. Maybe an important clue. The anonymous report of a hostage situation? Stand, unfold, read, know? Maybe it's just a shopping list. Or something private. Erotic Poems? Carry on, forget, never know?
The Langenhagen city park becomes my experimental field. Objects that seem lost on sidewalks and a silent observer in the distance documenting every struggle with your conscience. Do you take the bracelet with you? Do you read the note? Will you call me?
The result of the observation runs in an endless loop of four meters of paper.

Squab Squad

2020

clay
each 15cm × 15cm × 20cm

One day I saw a dead pigeon which looked so bizarre as it lay on the ground with its legs straight up, head to the side in a perfect square angle, a tiny blood puddle under its head. It re­minded me of dramatic tv crime scenes. What happens when animals die? Is it possible, that while we sleep, there are little detective squads investigating the deaths of fellow members of their species?

The Bullshit is Real

2020

multi channel movie, 6:20min

For the art film „the bullshit is real“ I created the character „The Walrus“. The beginning of my research about walruses also marked the beginning of my love for these extraordinary animals. I found more and more fascinating facts about the strikingly social, intelligent, and gentle beings. And I found a terrifying docu­mentary. “Our Planet” shows scenes of the mass extinction of hundreds of walruses. In 2017, more than 100,000 walruses gathered on a rocky coast in northern Russia. Scientists belie­ve they gathered there, because the pack ice that had carried them in the past when they needed to recover from their di­ves, had melted. Since the flat part of the coast did not offer enough space for all walruses, the animals climbed up the 80 meter high rocks. After their rest, they had to go back into the sea to get food again, but the way was blocked by their conspecifics. As a consequence, they tried to climb down the extremely steep cliffs. Hundreds fell into their deaths. After ab­out 4.04 seconds of free fall from a height of 80 meters, they hit the ground at a speed of 39.63 m/s. Walruses weigh an average of 1000kg.

TANKE

2018

art project space

In 2018 Josephine Altmeyer and I founded the art project space TANKE. In May 2019, TANKE opened in a former butcher's shop in southern Hanover. Since then, a team of six freelance artists and students has been working there, regularly clearing their studios for events that address socially relevant issues. The TANKE offers a platform for young artists and opens the dialogue for their political concerns to all age groups. It sees itself as a place of networking and has set itself the task of giving everyone access to art and the opportunity to participate.
web: www.tanke-hannover.de