Klassenverhältnisse - Phantoms of Perception / FORT: Night Shift

Panel
October 26, 5–6pm
Didier Eribon in conversation with Hanna Klimpe and Benjamin Fellmann 

Artist talk
October 27, 3–4pm
With Ariel Reichmann, Sven Johne and Benedikte Bjerre, u.a. 

Artist talk
November 13, 7–8pm
With Katie Holten 

Panel
November 20, 7–9pm
Gespenster in Europa. Alternativen für ein anderes Zusammenleben 
Warburg-Haus Hamburg 

The Kunstverein in Hamburg is delighted to present the group exhibition Klassenverhältnisse - Phantoms of Perception and the solo exhibition Night Shift by FORT. We cordially invite you to our opening on October 26, 7pm.

Klassenverhältnisse - Phantoms of Perception
With Neïl Beloufa, Benedikte Bjerre, Monica Bonvicini, Harun Farocki / Antje Ehmann, Jan Peter Hammer, Thomas Hirschhorn, Katie Holten, Sven Johne, Los Carpinteros, Henrike Naumann, Driss Ouadahi, Sigmar Polke, Ariel Reichman, Joe Scanlan, Andrzej Steinbach, Jean-Marie Straub / Danièle Huillet, Anna Witt, Tobias Zielony

The starting point of the group exhibition Klassenverhältnisse is the eponymous film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet from 1984, an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel fragment The Missing Person that tells the story of the social rise and fall of young Karl Roßmann. In the film, the plot begins in Hamburg, and all other scenes that are set in America were also shot here. Phantoms of Perception refers to how artists assume perspectives that persons normally wouldn’t. In the complexly constructed image spaces of Klassenverhältnisse, the camera angle rarely corresponds with our usual viewing habits. The artworks of the show equally provide a view to aspects of coexistence that often lie beyond conscious perception. They are interested in current problems related to the illusion of a classless society. The exhibition looks behind the mechanisms with which artists in the field of contemporary art expand our space of perception and to the social realities with which they confront us there, examining the phantoms that are currently concerning our society: power relations, causes of a reinvigorated populism, and the apparently spreading fear of social and economic decline.

The exhibition is curated by Bettina Steinbrügge, Benjamin Fellmann and Tobias Peper.

The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Rudolf Augstein Stiftung and Pro Helvetia, Schweizer Kulturstiftung and Danish Arts Foundation.

FORT
Night Shift

The FORT collective, Alberta Niemann (*1982 in Bremen) and Jenny Kropp (*1978 in Frankfurt am Main), creates subtle other-worldly scenes in their works. Wavering between poetic, humorous and eerie moments, FORT’s installations often play with the feeling of emptiness and abandonment. The two artists use adapted everyday objects that open up a field of tension between recognition and disconcertment in the exhibition space. In Night Shift, FORT deal with the themes of night and darkness. The rooms on the ground floor of the Kunstverein are illuminated only by the artworks themselves. The title has a twofold meaning: On the one hand, the period of work during the night and thus the appropriation of a time of day that was once reserved for peace and quiet. Only with the invention of electric light in the 19th century did it become possible to utilize the night in the frame of industrialization for productivity, but also for entertainment. On the other hand, the title plays with the words “night” and “shift” and thus marks a space of transition between the rationality of day and the magic of darkness imbued with longings and dreams.

The exhibition is curated by Tobias Peper.

The exhibition is a coproduction with Casino Luxembourg and is made possible by the friendly support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the CORA Art Foundation under the umbrella of the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung and the Leinemann-Stiftung für Bildung und Kunst.