Die temporäre Ausstellung Über Grenzen, die ab 3. Oktober 2024 im Ethnologischen Museum + Museum für Asiatische Kunst im Humboldt Forum gezeigt wird, thematisiert die internationalen (kultur)politischen und künstlerischen Beziehungen der DDR mit befreundeten sozialistischen Staaten und deren Nachwirken in der Gegenwart.
Image above: Su-Ran Sichling Gelehrtensteine (1950), (1950), (1970), 2015 – Waschbeton, Terrazzo Nussholz,Messing,Holz, Gummi – Foto © Robert Vanis
Complementary to the annual focus of the Humboldt Forum Hin und weg. The Palace of the Republic is Present, conceived by the curator for modern and contemporary art at the Museum of Asian Art and the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin, Kerstin Pinther, the temporary exhibition Über Grenzen (Across Borders) opens up a differentiated spectrum in an interplay of artistic positions and archive materials: It ranges from the GDR’s official foreign cultural policy towards its friendly socialist states and liberation movements in Asia, Africa and the Americas to the (visual) politics of the international graphics exhibition Intergrafik and the migration stories and associated (post-)migrant cultures of remembrance and transformations after 1989. Socialist musical internationalism is represented by GDR radio and the Festival of Political Song and is based on the research project Second World Music: Latin America, East Germany, and the Sonic Circuitry of Socialism, which is based at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
Individual experiences and collective history are conveyed in the exhibition through artistic works and groups of works by Maithu Bùi, Seiichi Furuya, Mio Okido, Minh Duc Pham and Su-Ran Sichling. Collages and drawings by the artist Mio Okido touch on questions of cultural memory and sometimes conflicting memory practices in the GDR and FRG (further works by the artist can currently be seen in the special exhibition Mio Okido: Remembered Images, Imagined History(ies) – Japan, East Asia and Me at the Museum of Asian Art in the Humboldt Forum). The works of photographer Seiichi Furuya deal with the collapse of individual and collective events. Arranged in a loose hanging, he shows city shots and interior views of East Berlin from 1985 to 1987.
Su-Ran Sichling’s material-conscious works are an examination of demarcation and permeability, social standardisation and exclusion. Her Gelehrtensteine series is reminiscent of the East Asian tradition of naturally formed rocks as objects of contemplation, but was created using materials from East German post-war modernism. Minh Duc Pham and Maithu Bùi also utilise the connotation of materials in their works to reflect associations and references to the immigration history of contract workers from Vietnam and the conditions of their residence status. Loans from Hung The Cao’s collection refer to the informal textile labour of Vietnamese contract workers. Blick zu Nachbarn (Wiedervorlage), a textile work by Su-Ran Sichling created for Über Grenzen, addresses this migrant contribution to ‘alternative’ fashion histories in the GDR and links it to the state-sponsored work in the textile circles.
Kulturpolitische und internationale Austauschbeziehungen werden in einem dokumentarisch-archivarischen Modul zur Intergrafik dargestellt und können dort recherchiert werden. Die Intergrafik, die internationale Grafikausstellung, fand erstmals 1965 anlässlich des 20. Gedenktages zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges statt und wurde ab 1967 als Triennale vom Zentralvorstand des Verbandes Bildender Künstler ausgerichtet. Die Einladung von Künstler*innen und die Auswahl ihrer Werke für diese Ausstellung wurden als kultur- und außenpolitisches Instrument genutzt. Die Intergrafik bildete die komplexen Verflechtungen und Netzwerke einer globalen Kunstwelt ab, wobei keineswegs nur Werke mit politischen Inhalten gezeigt wurden. In West-Berlin ermöglichte erst Horizonte 79, das 1. Festival der Weltkulturen, eine Begegnung mit den Künsten des globalen Südens. Zur Ausstellung erscheint eine Broschüre, die als PDF ab dem 2. Oktober online verfügbar ist.
A temporary exhibition of the Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace and the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art of the National Museums in Berlin – Prussian Cultural Heritage in collaboration with the artists Maithu Bùi, Seiichi Furuya, Mio Okido, Minh Duc Pham and Su-Ran Sichling as well as Sydney Hutchinson (Humboldt University).
Transform yourselves! theme days from 3 to 6 October
From 3 to 6 October, the Humboldt Forum will be devoting itself to the months and years of transformation before and after 1989 under the title Transformiert euch! In debates, readings, performances and concerts, the building will be a place where the public can come together with prominent guests. The focus will be on concepts such as change, (over)demand, participation and the question: What is the future of a united and still divided Germany?
WHEN?
Opening: Presence of all participating artists and performance by Minh Duc Pham: Wednesday, 2 October 2024, 6 p.m.
Exhibition period: from Thursday, 3 October 2024
Opening hours: Wednesday – Monday, 10:30 – 18:30
WHERE?
Humboldt Forum
Schloßplatz 1
10178 Mitte Berlin
