press kunstverein hannover...remains of expo 2000 have been arranged into contemporary art...

Kunstverein Hannover Sophienstraße 2 D-30159 Hannover T: +49(0)511.16 99 278 -12 F: +49(0)511.16 99 278 - 278 [email protected] www.kunstverein-hannover.de

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Press Release »2000 Mensch. Natur. Twipsy.« (Humankind. Nature. Twipsy.) Henrike Naumann July 13 – August 25, 2019

Henrike Naumann’s (b. 1984) artistic practice takes German-German “reunification” and its consequences as its starting point. What happened after 1989, and how has identity been shaped since then? Using furniture that sometimes “says” more than many words, Naumann creates sets of the post-reunification era with all its trashy objects and “post-post-modernist” wall units made of shiny surfaces rather than solid materials. Within these sets, the artist screens films she has made since completing her scenography studies (Potsdam 2012) showing young adults who became radicalized with right-wing attitudes in these very surroundings, so to speak – like the triad of far-right German neo-Nazi terrorists who conspired in Naumann’s hometown of Zwickau. Naumann stumbled upon the figure of Birgit Breuel and consequently Expo 2000 – the international world’s fair in which Germany as a whole was presented for the first time in the context of its theme “Humankind, Nature, Technology” – while searching for images of the “Treuhand-Abwicklung” [Treuhand agency phase-out] that involved the privatizing of industry in the former East German states. Her research eventually led her to the EXPOSEEUM, which brings together countless leftover relics from the World Expo in Hanover including guest gifts, pavilion remains, thousands of tapes of video documenting all the events that visitors more or less remember. Henrike Naumann’s politically ambitious remembrance work has struck a powerful chord with the times, earning her an impressive media and exhibition presence in recent years. The exhibition at Kunstverein Hannover is her first to bring together two long lines of research and – with an extensive new staging of the EXPOSEEUM collection at the Kunstverein – the first to blend two institutions into a single social sculpture. An artist book will be published in cooperation with the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach.


Press Release Henrike Naumann *1984 in Zwickau, lives and works in Berlin

Education

2008 - 2012 Diploma, Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Set Design, DE 2006 - 2008 Diploma, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Stage and Costume Design, Dresden, DE

Solo Exhibitions

2019 »Henrike Naumann«, Belvedere 21, Vienna, AT(upcoming) »2000«, Kunstverein Hannover, DE (upcoming) »Urgesellschaft«, Chemnitz Open Space, DE (upcoming) »Ostalgie«, KOW, Berlin, DE

2018 »DDR Noir«, Galerie im Turm, Berlin, DE »2000«, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, DE

2016 »Intercouture«, Musée d’Art Contemporain et Multimédia, Kinshasa, CD »Aufbau Ost«, Galerie Wedding, Berlin, DE

2013 »Generation Loss«, FAK Zwickau, DE

Group Exhibitions

2019 »Possesions«, Galerie Stephanie Kelly, Dresden, DE »The Way We Are 1.0«, Weserburg, Bremen, DE »For Anyone but not for Everyone – Demokratie verhandeln«, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, DE

2018 »Because I live here«, MMK, Frankfurt, DE »Klassenverhältnisse – Phantoms of Perception«, Hamburger Kunstverein, DE »Volksfronten«, Steirischer Herbst, Graz, AT »Divided We Stand«, Busan Bienniale, KR »Eagles & Doves«, Kunsthalle Bratislava, SK »Requiem for a failed state«, Halle 14, Leipzig, DE »RIBOCA 1«, Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, LV

2017 5th Ghetto Biennale, Port-au-Prince, HT 3. Berliner Herbstsalon, Kronprinzenpalais, Berlin, DE »Gabber Nation«, Art Rotterdam, NL

2016 »wir / ihr / sie«, KV Leipzig, DE »Gabber Nation«, Kunsthuis SYB, Beetsterzwaag, NL »African Futures«, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, DE

2015 Ghetto Biennale, Port-au-Prince, HT Manhattan Bridge Projection, New York City, US »WIN / WIN«, Halle 14, Leipzig, DE »taz.lab15«, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, DE


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Maroc Artist Meeting, Dar Si Said, Marrakech, MA »The Secret Self«, Nest, Den Haag, NL

2014 »Wir sind alle Berliner«, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, DE »Atmosferas Latentes«, SAPS, Mexico-City, MX »Helium – Goldrausch« Projektraum Flutgraben, Berlin, DE »Correction Lines«, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, DE

2013 Impakt Festival, Utrecht, NL Jihlava Documentary Festival, CZ »Handlungsbereitschaft 4«, Blumenthalstr. Berlin, DE »Mapping Time«, European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, DE »Handlungsbereitschaft 3«, Motorenhalle Dresden, DE

2012 »Monitoring«, Dokfest Kassel, DE »Handlungsbereitschaft 2«, Kunstsæle Berlin, DE

Awards / Fellowships / Residencies / Scholarships

2018 Residency scholarship, Tokyo Arts and Space, Tokyo, JP Residency scholarship, AIR Antwerpen, BE

2017 Global-Kulturaustauschstipendium, Senat Berlin, DE

2016 Projektförderung Senat Berlin, DE Residency scholarship, Goethe-Institut Kinshasa, CD Residency scholarship, Kunsthuis SYB, Beetsterzwaag, NL

2015 Deutsche Botschaft, Port-au-Prince, HAT Win / Win, Kulturstiftung Sachsen, DE Step Beyond Travel Grant, European Cultural Foundation

2015 MAM – Maroc Artist Meeting, Marrakech, MA

2014 Goldrausch Künstlerinnen-projekt, Berlin, DE

2013 Audience Award, Filmfest Dresden, DE Lichter Art Award (Shortlist), Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt, DE Expanded Media Award, Filmwinter Stuttgart, DE


Press Release Contact and Information Contact Olga Isaeva T +49 511.169927812 [email protected] Please feel free to visit our website for detailed information: www.kunstverein-hannover.de Kunstverein Hannover Sophienstraße 2 D-30159 Hannover Germany Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 12–7pm, Sunday 11am–7pm T +49 511 16992780 F +49 511 1699278278 [email protected] _______________

The exhibition is kindly supported by


Press Release Exhibition information Henrike Naumann’s exhibition “2000 – Humankind. Nature. Twipsy.” transforms Kunstverein Hannover into an ethnological museum. In a range of different spaces (including a museum shop, for example, or a bedroom for Twipsy, the Expo 2000 mascot) Naumann examines processes of demarcation in the supposedly familiar.

She puts everyday objects, furniture, and contemporary documents in relation to one another, creating spaces that sometimes say more than words ever could. The Expo 2000 in Hanover and the year 2000 serve as a historical hinge for the exhibition, associatively linking such seemingly disparate events as the effects of German-German unification, the resulting privatization of the East German economy, and the aesthetic impact of postmodernism.

Naumann has brought to the Kunstverein the EXPOSEEUM, an association that has archived countless relics and merchandising products from the world exposition in Hanover. These leftover remains of Expo 2000 have been arranged into contemporary art installation at the Kunstverein inspired by the EXPOSEEUM’s design.

Removed from their original context, the objects appear as mysterious signs of a recently bygone era or a remote region, as though displayed in a museum for ethnological artifacts. Naumann uses the model of a vanished city (Expo site), plush sculptures of a strange-looking being (Twipsy), and private furnishings to question how and with which metaphorical images people and nations present themselves. What is “local” and what is “foreign”? The artist combines exhibits from the EXPOSEEUM with furniture produced in West Germany in the 1990s, some of which was purchased especially for the exhibition from eBay classifieds in Hanover and the vicinity.

Henrike Naumann, born in Zwickau (GDR, 1984), first studied stage design in Dresden before going on to study scenography at the Babelsberg Film Academy. Her works often draw on her aesthetic experiences of the upheaval of the 1990s. One important impetus for Naumann’s artistic activity was the self-disclosure of the so-called “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) in 2011, whose members lived undiscovered in her hometown for years. Her artistic reappraisal has gained her significant attention as one of the most promising young artists working in the area of political art, as reflected in the numerous recent and upcoming exhibitions of her work. The exhibition at Kunstverein Hannover contains mostly new, site-specific installations created especially for the show.

Room 1 The first space visitors enter at the Kunstverein is a museum shop where numerous Expo 2000 brochures and advertising materials are lined up as if on a shop display. This spatial staging is an immediate glimpse at the artist’s working method. As a prelude to her exhibition, Naumann has created a careful selection of furnishings as a way of both welcoming visitors in a shop-like


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atmosphere and introducing them her work around memory: What did the Expo design look like, which symbols were used, what items were produced as a way of promoting the major event to households and thus to society with little things like stickers, caps, or sweaters? As a parallel to the Expo museum shop format, Naumann presents a critique of the Expo’s image as a cosmopolitan, tolerant, and investor-friendly Germany in the form of a film made in 1991.

Room 2 The next room after the supposed museum shop contains a monumental original model of the Expo grounds. It shows a detailed rendering of all the exhibition pavilions for the participating nations, the theme park, green areas, and its striking gondola lift as the main attraction. The exhibits speak to the dimensions of this world exhibition and explain what became of individual pavilions. Expo 2000 in Hanover was Germany’s first world exhibition. Held between June and October 2000, it featured 155 nations and 27 international organizations. A large number of pavilions were created to present participants’ national cultures and future visions. Like many major events (e.g. the Olympic Games or World Championships) the fair left a number of ruins, despite plans to eventually reuse pavilions to ensure the Expo’s stainability. Given the current “Fridays for Future” school strike protests and worsening climate disaster, the Expo site ruins can clearly be read as a material expression of the failure of Expo 2000’s vision. In a foreword to the Expo catalogue, Birgit Breuel explained the world exhibition’s motto “Humankind. Nature. Technology. – The Creation of a New World” as a vision of the future modelling responsible use of the Earth’s resources. The aim was to invite visitors from all over the world to Hanover for a vivid, visual, creative, and sensory presentation of proposed solutions to immanent problems of the 21st century.

Room 3 The carpet shape in the installation “2000” recalls the outline of Germany divided by walls into East and West Germany, or the former GDR and FRG. The small passage in the middle features memorabilia from Expo 2000. The first version of this installation was shown at Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach in the spring of 2018 and given its explicit reference to Hanover, it was already clear at that time that the installation would be transformed into an expanded exhibition here. The Expo 2000 theme appears again in the aisle between walls dividing East and West, this time in the form of a video installation in the ruins of a shop interior, Twipsy and an antique portrait of former Treuhand agency boss and Expo 2000 commissioner general Birgit Breuel. A gift from the United Arab Emirates, the picture shows Breuel against an oriental backdrop.

Visibly separated from each other by two walls are islands made of the patterned carpeting “Max” by Vorwerk, along with a number of living room furnishings including leather sofas, wardrobes with wavy mirrors on the front, monumental grandfather clocks, chairs in the shape of open hands, flokati rugs, trapezoidal side tables, pyramid-shaped showcases, and other objects for domestic interiors.


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Luxury furniture produced by Italian designers in the 1980s (then subsumed under the descriptor “Memphis”) was originally produced with wealthy clientele in mind and ultimately flooded newly-built furniture stores in eastern Germany, so that copied cheap variants eventually became ubiquitous in the living rooms of the 1990s. Though most East and West Germans had never heard of Memphis Design, the furniture suggested participation in wealth and alluded to the promise and expectation that consumer culture would enable East Germans to become an equal part of West German society. The actual need to deal with complex pasts was covered over with wallpaper from the “Junges Wohnen” series, a line of wallpaper products aimed at young people. Now that wallpaper is curling and being peeled away, bringing these unprocessed memories and experiences back out in the open.

After studying scenography, Henrike Naumann discovered how visual art can enable her to draw the audience directly into her spatial stagings as a way of explaining subject matter without knowledge of art history on the viewer’s part. The elements she uses work with experiences, evaluations, and prejudices; the artist harnesses the known and familiar to lure the viewer into her interiors. The filmic work “Triangular Stories” shows how young people radicalized themselves amid these postmodern furnishings with their utopian 1990s designs. Background for the work was the self-unmasking of the terrorist group “NSU” Zwickau, who lived there unchallenged between 2000 and 2011. Playing on picture tube televisions between a purple cowhide blanket and plywood furniture are films showing relaxed and exuberant young people experiencing their first drug and alcohol adventures on Ibiza; they are juxtaposed by another clique getting drunk on violent fantasies, surrounded by National Socialist symbols in a prefab building in Jena.

Room 4 EXPOSEEUM, a volunteer association on the Expo grounds, collects and presents the memories of this first and only world exhibition in Germany. Part of their exhibition has been transferred to the Kunstverein’s long skylit hall. All of the glass cases containing gifts from participating countries and miscellaneous documents pertaining to the event belong to the City of Hanover and are administered by the EXPOSEEUM, which is now being shifted into the contemporary art context. This context shift makes it possible to ask what remains of Expo 2000’s vision for the nation and the world. Henrike Naumann respectfully re-stages the EXPOSEEUM as a look back at the way Hanover presented the invited countries using the Expo’s aesthetics.

The artist refers to Hanover in her analysis of the German contemporary mentality since it is here that she found a way and means of dealing with the so-called Treuhandanstalt, or Treuhand agency, from an artistic perspective. In 1990 the Treuhand agency took over the task of introducing East Germany to a market economy through the rapid mass privatization of East German companies. Yet the mindset of people at that time—and idea of the capitalist market as a self-regulating, competitive mechanism that necessarily brings prosperity—led to an economic


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crisis and social unrest. The result was mass layoffs and plant closures in the East. The anticipated “blooming landscapes” that would lead to a rapid improvement of living conditions in East Germany, a hope also fuelled by West German politicians, was followed by immediate disappointment and frustration. That same year that the Treuhand agency was founded, Germany was named host of the world exhibition. Here Birgit Breuel is presented as an unusual and controversial figure who establishes the connection between the Treuhand agency and Expo 2000. The CDU party politician and Finance Minister for the State of Lower Saxony took over as President of the Treuhand agency (which decided the future of more than 8,400 companies) after the assassination of Detlev Rohwedder in 1991. Four years later, Breuel was appointed Commissioner General of Expo 2000 in Hanover.

Room 4a For Twipsy, the colorful Expo 2000 mascot, the artist designed a separate, adjacent apartment that is directly connected to the EXPOSEEUM staging. But who or what is Twipsy? In addition to his role as a marketing product with the outward appearance and inner ambivalence to appeal to potentially everyone in the world, Twipsy served as a symbol of a digital future in cyberspace. In order to lend Twipsy a biography, its creators developed a fictional story that bears the outlines of European colonialism in its narrative.

A boy from a city in the “Western world” gets to know Twipsy on a digital expedition in cyberspace. The boy takes Twipsy, who is described as naive, with him into the “real world” (catalogue: Twipsy sells, p. 1). In other words, a white boy discovers gullible native Twipsy in the dangerous jungle of the Internet and takes him into his world. Moreover, despite the absence of recognizable gender traits and an androgynous appearance, Twipsy was clearly identified as a male in the Expo marketing brochures.

With his charming look of something between human, .gif and “data carrier” (catalogue: Twipsy sells, p. 1), Twipsy functions as a mediator between the virtual and the real. His oversized hand was used not only to shake hands with the expected millions, but also to close deals. Brigit Breuel pursued business interests as well. According to Henrike Naumann, this is where we find an unexpected connection between Breuel and Twipsy: While many East Germans perceived the work of the Treuhand agency as a colonization of their living environment, the colonized Twipsy now lives lonely, stateless, and forgotten in the depths of historical archives.

Room 5 Besides the countless presents from guests, the EXPOSEEUM’s holdings also include journalistic coverage and television footage about Expo 2000 in the form of approximately 3000 digital Betacam cassettes, which will be made available to the public for the first time during the course of the exhibition. Visitors can watch the material from installed seating niches for unique insight into the archive and have an opportunity to delve into their own Expo 2000 memories via the


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television footage. Examples of material to be discovered include footage of sports events with interviews with famous race car drivers, recordings of individual national pavilions, concerts ranging from German pop songs to African sounds, rehearsals for the opening ceremony, and everything to do with the mascot Twipsy including his own TV series.

Room 6 A huge amount of effort went into presenting the world community with a new, modern, cosmopolitan, consumer- and technology-oriented image of Germany at the World Expo in Hanover ten years after unification.

And yet even in the 1990s, supporters of anti-Expo movements were already protesting this self-image and the Federal Republic of Germany’s affirmative representation. One such association, the Anti-Expo-AG, was founded at the University of Hanover almost simultaneous to the decision to hold the World Expo in Hanover. It took a critical look at the Expo’s content. At numerous weeks of organized actions and demonstrations around the opening, the group pointed out the continuing exploitation and destruction of nature, criticized the promotion of nuclear power and the privatization of public space, and noted the imperialist spirit in representations of the respective country pavilions. In 2001, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs stated in his final report on Expo 2000 that at a time of “xenophobic attacks,” the world exhibition had made an important contribution to the promotion of “tolerance towards foreigners.” Yet the Expo hadn’t even ended before the NSU committed the first in a series of murders, claiming the life of Nuremberg flower vender Enver Şimşek, a Turkish immigrant.

Henrike Naumann’s exhibition clearly shows how answers to the ecological, technical, and political questions raised at Expo 2000 still elude us today. Her media-spanning, border-crossing combination of artistic works with historical documents and issues attempts to open up new perspectives on seemingly unrelated themes. Naumann herself does provide any answers; instead she offers an associative and artistic look at long-lasting continuities, critically illuminated as relics of a supposedly bygone time.

Like no other artist of her generation, Naumann’s political approach succeeds in creating artistic spaces that raise questions about models of life and attitudes. She has created around ten new installations last year alone that can be seen at the MMK in Frankfurt, the Busan Biennale in Korea, in Chemnitz and Leipzig, with other forthcoming shows in Vienna (Belvedere 21), at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, and in her hometown of Zwickau. We will be delving further into Henrike Naumann’s questions and themes with a lecture on GDR art and in discussion events at a comprehensive symposium on the Expo grounds (see the attached program).


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»2000 Mensch. Natur. Twipsy.« (Humankind. Nature. Twipsy.) Henrike Naumann 13.07.–25.08.2019 Information and pictures for press purposes are available in the download section of our website: http://www.kunstverein-hannover.de/en/press Please note the particulars about the picture credits, otherwise the images cannot be reproduced for free. Permission must be granted for commercial purposes. We will gladly assist you in these matters.

Henrike Naumann »2000 – Mensch. Natur. Twipsy.«, 2019 Photo: Raimund Zakowski

Henrike Naumann »2000 – Mensch. Natur. Twipsy.«, 2019 Installation view Kunstverein Hannover Photo: Raimund Zakowski © 2019, Henrike Naumann and KOW




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