25.10.20, 15:30 - 17:00, Event

curator’s tour through the exhibitions

A guided tour by curator Noor Mertens.

14.11.20 – 11.4.21, Solo Exhibition

Patricia Esquivias - Cardón cardinal

Patricia Esquivias (Venezuela, 1979) creates her work from memories, anecdotes and conversations. In her video works, she narrates by herself while presenting documents, photos and objects in front of a steadily installed camera, avoiding any post-processing. In the spirit of storytelling, these are oral summaries that the artist has researched extensively and translated into conceptual maps and image archives. In addition, Patricia Esquivias creates objects in which she incorporates significant images, symbols and fragments from the cosmos of her stories, to then embed them in a spatial context with her video works.

A historical narrative is only as convincing and credible as its author. Esquivias' work is like looking into the thoughts of an artist whose works examine historical theories that have been filtered through an idiosyncratic, hilarious, and highly subjective belief system. This creates a new and fascinating form of fact-based, self-critical fiction. An important part of the work of the artist, who was born in Venezuela and now lives and works in Madrid and Guadalajara, is the relationship between the old and the new world with indirect commentaries on colonial history.

In her work, micro-stories mix in an apparently random way with big narratives and reveal the impossibility of telling stories in a linear, simple and objective manner. For the exhibition at Kunstverein Langenhagen she developed a new work in which Mexican cacti play a leading role. “Cardón cardinal” is the story of the giant cactus that was unearthed in the Mexican desert on the occasion of the Expo92 World Exhibition and flown to Seville by plane. It is still standing there today, slowly but surely drying up. Without presenting her own interpretation, Patricia Esquivias tells this story, which on the one hand refers to colonial practices, but on the other hand also illustrates how, after a (large or small) representative spectacle has subsided, responsibilities can be blurred, buried or pushed aside...

19.1.21, Talk

Artist Talk - Patricia Esquivias (in englisch)

Accompanying the exhibition Cardón Cardinal, we will talk to Patricia Esquivias about her work, her working-methods and her project for the Kunstverein. The online artist talk is going to take place on January 19 at 7 p.m. in english language only. To register for the conversation, send a message to: mail@kunstverein-langenhagen.de You are welcome to send us your questions for the artist. We will try to incorporate them in the talk!

24.2.21, Talk

online Leseklub: Siri Hustvedt - Keine Konkurrenz

24.3.21, 19:00, Talk

Nearby Professions #14: Historian

As part of this series of talks, in which experts from related subject areas are invited to speak about their work, this time a historian will be our guest at the Kunstverein.

8.4.21, The Verein

A new director for Kunstverein Langenhagen

We are pleased to welcome Sebastian Stein as the new director of the Kunstverein! Sebastian Stein will take up the position from June 2021 and is expected to present his exhibition program from autumn 2021 onwards. With his institutional and curatorial concept he convinced the jury and prevailed against 27 competitors. The jury consisted of the members of the board and the advisory board of the Kunstverein, supplemented by two external positions, namely Heinrich Dietz, director of Kunstverein Freiburg and Juliane Schickedanz, co-director, together with Anna Jehle, of Kunsthalle Osnabrück. Sebastian Stein succeeds Noor Mertens, who is moving to Kunstmuseum Bochum. She has headed the Kunstverein since 2017 and has received both local and international attention for her innovative program.

As the new director of the Kunstverein, Sebastian Stein would like to address the question of what an art institution can be in the crisis-ridden present at the beginning of the 21st century. “The programm could focus on joint research, self-questioning, self-insecurity and trips. The whole thing rather in a group mode. And of course the question of what role art and aesthetic practice could play in this - and which one rather not, is part of my focus." He will pursue the successful education program of the Kunstverein, which he has helped shape since 2019.

A long time ago, Sebastian Stein (* 1977) studied ethnology, sociology and French. After stays in France and Belgium, he lived for some time in Munich, where he was part of the Lothringer13_Laden committee. Since then he has mainly been active in self-organized contexts in the art field, e.g. as part of NO FUTURE complex and together with Stephan Janitzky as editor of the biannual magazine MUSS STERBEN. In 2015/2016 he was the artistic director of the M.1 of the Arthur Boskamp Foundation in Hohenlockstedt near Hamburg. Since 2017 he has been running the ruine HQ in Hanover as a self-appointed assistant. Sebastian Stein has been working freelance for the Kunstverein Langenhagen since 2019, where he is responsible for the conception and implementation of the educational program.

14.4.21, Talk

Online Reading Club: Catherine Poulain - Die Seefahrerin

30.4.21 – 25.7.21, Group Exhibition

Temporary Heimatmuseum

New and existing works by Aurélie Ferruel & Florentine Guédon, Viola Yeşiltaç, Salim Bayri, Julia Schmid, Hartmut El Kurdi and Beni Bischof are presented alongside objects from the city archive Langenhagen and interventions by pupils from the IGS Langenhagen.

In early summer 2021 Kunstverein Langenhagen will transform into a temporary often emphasize specific aspects of a certain demographic). With the exhibition Temporary Heimatmuseum, we ask what a local history museum can be and, related to that, how the term Heimat is used. Instead of looking to emphasise what is innate in our local population, we examine the very diversity innate within it.

During migration houses and homes are often abandoned. Does this mean that the particular thing called Heimat {the collection of characteristics like culture, language, neighbourhood, relationships of a certain area} is also lost irretrievably? Or, can Heimat be a flexible concept with the feeling of “being at home” not tied to any specific geographical or familial bonds but more to other factors such as security, the possibility for exchange, personal development and so on? Within this exhibition project we work with the hypothesis that Heimat is not something static with the danger of getting lost, but instead something dynamic, with the potential to be further developed or completely reinvented.

In Germany, the term Heimat - and therefore identity - is not only used in a problematic way by populist right wing parties - “Everyone who wants to sustain Heimat, elects the AfD” - it also has its role in moderate political discourse. Think for example of the “Leitkulturdebatte”, beginning in the year 2000 with statements made by Friedrich Merz against multiculturalism. This debate focused on the difference between assimilation and integration as well as majorities and minorities. In the exhibition Temporary Heimatmuseum we want to respond to current debates as well as historical experiences such as the so-called “Heimatvertreibung” {the case of German expellees} during and after the second world war. In these times Hanover was a sanctuary for many displaced people (a census from 1955 reports one in four people had a fugitive background). Langenhagen itself actually grew for a large part due to different migration and fugitive movements. Still today local associations and groups dealing with the topics of involuntary migration and Heimat meet regularly. There was even the ambition to establish a Heimatmuseum in Langenhagen. An extensive collection consisting of more than 500 objects was gathered; objects that were deemed valuable, telling, typical or representative of Langenhagen by people from Langenhagen. These ambitions were never realised and the collection was eventually transferred to the city archive where it remains to this day. However, the working group ‘The whole of Langenhagen is a museum’ has became active in 2011. Since then, they have published their research on memorable locations, buildings and stories on more than 70 signposts within the city.

We have invited various artists to create new pieces especially for the exhibition and others to show already existing works. Some of the artists are (or have been) located in the Hanover region, some live and work in other places and contexts. Several objects from the city archive collection also feature in the exhibition. Throughout the duration of the show pupils from the IGS Langenhagen will intervene in the exhibition with their own ideas and objects (as part of the art education project ‘Where is heimat?’).

As Kunstverein, our question to those we invited was not to orient themselves only to Langenhagen or to develop works that deal specifically with the local context, history and peculiarities of this German city. Instead, in their work, the participating artists deal in a variety of ways with understandings of Heimat and identity. They do this by using archetypes and questioning local symbols, kitsch and clichés. They also deal with what is considered strange and unwanted. In their various works, immigration is taken up as a continuous movement in which the own and the foreign are constantly redefined.

Due to the current situation and the unplannability of events, event dates are currently only announced at short notice via our digital channels (newsletter, Facebook, Instagram).

This project is supported by:

*Die Region Hannover

*Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung

*Sparkasse Hannover

*Botschaft des Königreichs der Niederlande

*Bureau des arts plastiques des Institut français Deutschland und des französischen Kulturministeriums

*Pro Helvetia

The education project is supported by:

*Fonds „Miteinander – Gemeinsam für Integration“ der Region Hannover

*VGH Stiftung

Planned events:

*Nearby professions #15: Entrümpeler

*Several artist conversations

*Pre-negotiations with Beatrice von Bismarck

*Series of Film evenings in cooperation with Kino im Sprengel

*Wo ist Heimat? – Education project with pupils of IGS Langenhagen

*Bulletin #13

*Performance by Aurélie Ferruel and Florentine Guédon

2.6.21 – 25.7.21, The Verein

COVID-19 information for visitors

13.6.21 – 18.7.21, Solo Exhibition

Square Peg Round Hole

Where: Chapel at Eichenpark Langenhagen, close to Stadtparkallee 31

‘Square Peg Round Hole’ is a multichannel sound installation which draws on historical and contemporary sources and reflects the resonances and the sonic iconography, of the chapel in the Eichenpark in Langenhagen.

The chapel was a later addition to an asylum, originally founded in 1862, a so-called “Idiot Institution” and the first educational establishment in the kingdom of Hannover for children with a variety of learning disabilities and other conditions. The founding of this institution was part of a widespread change in attitudes towards disabilities and mental illness throughout Europe. Differently abled people were no longer locked up in cages, or believed to be possessed by the devil or seen as replacements for children stolen away by fairies. Instead they began to be viewed as potentially productive members of society. The education they received focused on activating all the senses and developing communication and language alongside useful personal and productive skills such as gardening, animal husbandry and sewing.     With the help of sounds from a variety of sources including words from poets Adrienne Rich and Anne Sexton; folklorists the Brothers Grimm, journalist Ulrike Meinhof and French doctor and educationalist Édouard Séguin, ‘Square Peg Round Hole’ moves between local and European contexts and German and English spoken word. It invites the listener to open their senses in the present and to engage with this rich and potent history through sound and space.

Cathy Lane is an artist, composer and academic. She works primarily in sound, combining oral history, archival recordings, spoken word and environmental recordings to investigate histories, environments, our collective and individual memories and the forces that shape them. She is inspired by places or themes which are rooted in every day experience and particularly interested in ‘hidden histories’ and historical amnesia and how this can be investigated from a feminist perspective through the medium of composed sound. She has been collaborating with filmmakers, textile artists and choreographers and presented her kompositions, multi-channel-installations and performances all over the world. Lane has been publishing an extensive amount of Publications , including ‘Playing with Words: The Spoken Word in Artistic Practice’ (RGAP, 2008). An anthology of works from forty contemporary sound artists and composers who use words as their material and inspiration. Books with Angus Carlyle include ‘In the Field’ (Uniformbooks, 2013), a collection of interviews with eighteen contemporary sound artists who use field recording in their work and ‘On Listening’ (2013) a collection of commissioned essays about some of the ways in which listening is used in disciplines including anthropology, community activism, bioacoustics, conflict mediation and religious studies, music, ethnomusicology and field recording. Her most recent publication, ‘Sound Arts Now’ has been published by Uniformbooks in March 2021.

Find out more about Cathy Lane on her Website: www.cathylane.co.uk

‘Square Peg Round Hole’ is part of the soundart festival IntraRegionale 2021. Already in 2015, ten cultural Institutions from the region of Hannover have been collaborating for a large-scale Landart-exhibition. The project presented ten works from ten international contemporary artists on ten different sites all across the region. The Kunstverein Langenhagen, with Ursula Schöndeling as director, has been participating with the contribution of the artist Victor López González, who installed his work at the Wietzepark in Langenhagen. In 2021 another cooperation and large-scale exhibition is taking place. This time with a focus on Soundart. Just as in 2015, the artworks created in 2021 will be site-specific.

Find out more about the IntraRegionale, the contributing artist and the venues here: www.intraregionale.org

Opening times: Mi-Fr: 12 noon - 5 pm Sa-So: 2 pm -7 pm

entrance is free

The Programm of the Kunstvereins is supported by the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony.

18.6.21, 19:00, Talk

Online-Artist talk with Viola Yeşiltaç, Julia Schmid und Hartmut El Kurdi

19.6.21, 10:00 - 15:00, The Verein

Sound workshop for children - canceled !

22.6.21, 19:30, Talk

Online reading club: Louise Glück, Averno

3.7.21, 11:00 - 20:00, Event

The the way in is the way out - symposium

5.7.21 – 31.8.21, Event

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