Not Fully Human, Not Human at All

Program:
Artists Guided Tour & Talk
October 24, 3–4pm

Online Assembly
November 3, 5–8pm, Session I
Online over Zoom

Online Assembly
November 10, 5–7pm, Session II
Online over Zoom

Online Assembly
November 17, 5–7pm, Session III
Online over Zoom

Online Assembly
November 24, 5pm–7am, Session IV
Online over Zoom

Screening
November 26, 6:30–8pm, Pedro Neves Marques - A Mordida

Screening
January 14, 6:30–8pm, Pedro Neves Marques - A Mordida

The Kunstverein in Hamburg is delighted to present the group exhibition Not Fully Human, Not Human at All. We cordially invite you to our soft-opening on October 24, 12-8pm.

Featuring: Saddie Choua, Valentina Desideri / Denise Ferreira da Silva / Arely Amaut, Nilbar Güreş, Ibro Hasanović, Jelena Jureša, Doruntina Kastrati, Kaltrina Krasniqi, Pedro Neves Marques, Christian Nyampeta, Daniela Ortiz, Monira Al Qadiri, Lala Raščić, Kengné Téguia.

Not Fully Human, Not Human at All takes its name from Donna Haraway’s essay Ecce Homo, Ain’t (Ar’n’t) I a Woman, and Inappropriate/d Others, a text which challenges the “universal” claims of Enlightenment Humanism in order to propose conditions of what she calls “non-generic” collective humanity. In this text, Haraway refers to Hortense Spillers’ description of the levels of dehumanization and of the lack of any legal subjectivity that the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, especially enslaved woman in the United States, were subjected to.

The group exhibition looks into processes of dehumanization that have been taking place in Europe. Dehumanization is generally understood as the degradation of human life, performed by human beings upon one another. A number of recent occurrences have led to stricter policies of immigration, new forms of nationalism, limits on universal access to healthcare, neo-liberal pressure on state economic policies, the erosion of rights for foreign workers, and the consecration of what defines Europe historically, culturally and geographically. These occurrences are coexistent with an implicit reevaluation of who decides who is considered human at all. For this exhibition, the European colonial and imperial history offers both the geographic and conceptual framework for reflecting on the dehumanization that characterizes many of the activities that humans have been doing in the name of “humanity” within and beyond its borders.

You can find the continuously updated additional program on our social media channels and on our website.

Online Assembly - Not Fully Human, Not Human at All
A month of discursive programs

The Online Assembly runs the whole November and is available live on Zoom every Tuesday. It will be archived on the website of the Kunstverein in Hamburg. The access is free.

The Online Assembly will gather all artists, all project partners and key figures to converse about different aspects of the discourse of dehumanization such as border control, structural racism, migration, colonial legacy, as well as about healing and caring practices as rehumanizing processes. All events will be held in English. Each event is followed by a moderated public online discussion. 

With among others: Francisco Godoy Vega, Nina Möntmann, Jelena Petrović, Nora Sternfeld, all project partners and participating artists.

Curators: Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Bettina Steinbrügge

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with KADIST, and an adaptation will be presented in Paris in 2021.

The exhibition is kindly supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

Cooperation Partners: Bruno Leitão, Monica de Miranda, HANGAR (Lisbon, Portugal),
Donjetë Murati, Ares Shporta, Lumbardhi (Prizren, Kosovo), João Mourão, & Luís Silva, (Kunsthalle Lissabon), Emilie Villez, KADIST (Paris), Pieternel Vermoortel, Netwerk (Aalst, Belgium)