Annual program 2021

Kunstverein Braunschweig realizes new commissions by international artists across its two sites–Villa Salve Hospes and Remise. Throughout 2021, the Kunstverein will present six exhibitions in varied formats, accompanied by publications, online resources, and an extensive public program of artist talks, lectures, and performances. 

Carolyn Lazard
April 24-July 4, 2021

In their artistic work, Carolyn Lazard questions the idealization of health and productivity by establishing “radical possibilities of incapacity” (Lazard) as a practice to rethink conventional understandings of time and labour. As a central approach to their solo exhibition, Lazard inverts Kunstverein Braunschweig’s lack of accessibility by implementing a long-term spatial intervention that fundamentally changes how audiences can navigate the space. A new film piece and a publication will be launched in line with these thoughts.

Karrabing Film Collective and Rory Pilgrim
April 24-July 4, 2021

The dual exhibition by Karrabing Film Collective and Rory Pilgrim combines existing and newly produced works by the artists to create a sprawling and immersive ecosystem of film, accompanied by installations, drawings, posters, and sound works. Evolving around methods and forms of community building and environmental challenges, the artists speculate about future models of inclusive cohabitation. Structured by the rhythm of the tides, the show will constantly change over time.

Raqs Media Collective
July 24-October 17

Raqs Media Collective is based in New Delhi, where it was founded in 1992, and is considered to be one of the most dynamic ensembles working within international contemporary art. Presently, they are reflecting on the continuing turbulence of their city, where challenges to sovereign power are nurtured on a daily basis.

Raqs Media Collective’s forthcoming work at Braunschweig is built around an axis based on the confrontation between laughter and authority. It extends their curiosity about Till Eulenspiegel, an apocryphal medieval comic figure from Braunschweig, into a meta-gesture that is an action, an attitude, and a call to gather. The work, connecting the rooms of Villa Salve Hospes, is an itinerary of subversive tropes from many histories and traditions of East and West. It constitutes a fulcrum for possibilities of gathering, and a vector for the cheerful contagion of high spirits.

Meisterschüler_Innen Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig
October 30-November 14, 2021      

Kunstverein Braunschweig presents this year’s postgraduate degree exhibition featuring works by graduates of the Braunschweig University of Arts Meisterschüler_innen program.

Hank Schmidt in der Beek
December 4, 2021-February 26, 2022 

The artist Hank Schmidt in der Beek’s works are responses and retorts to the traditional history of art, and especially the history of painting, delivered with a healthy dose of irony. In large scale series of works or collages, Schmidt in der Beek cites well-known motifs from the art historical canon, combining them freely and creating entirely new relations and contexts. His uninhibited perspective and playful way of dealing with those works which one might describe as having written art history produce a sense of humour and lightness; a move that liberates from the burden of gravitas.

Living House (wt)
December 4, 2021-February 26, 2022

The Living House (wt) is a group show and an investigation into domestic environments and the fluid transitions between those and the human body. Referencing architectural utopias by Friedrich Kiesler as well as phenomenological theories, the participating artists explore the in-difference of public and private, outside and inside, and their culminations on the façade of the houses or the skin of the human bodies. Starting from the Remise building, the group show will spread over the adjacent garden area. 

Curatorial Team: Jule Hillgärtner, Director / Nele Kaczmarek, Curator / Hendrike Nagel, Assistant Curator