ICAT at HFBK Hamburg

The large window of the ICAT showroom is brightly lit. The photographer took the picture from the street at night.

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ICAT - Institute for Contemporary Art & Transfer at HFBK Hamburg
AtelierHaus
Lerchenfeld 2a
22081 Hamburg

With the move into the new studio building, the former HFBK gallery gains exhibition space and possibilities. Even more, it is entering a process of conceptual change. The ICAT, founded in 2022, will bundle the research activities of the HFBK Hamburg and sustainably introduce artistic questions into current social discourses. As a center for critical art practice and theory, ICAT addresses a diverse audience with its events, exhibitions, workshops and publications to discover other forms of knowledge and cultural production.

In the new studio building, the gallery occupies two rooms on the first floor, which, with an exhibition area of almost 360 square meters, are significantly larger than the previous space on the 2nd floor of the main building. The technically better equipped and representative exhibition rooms allow for a variety of uses, and the central window on the long side opens the exhibition space to the street. As a generous display window, it allows a view into the art production and exhibition space. At the same time, the outside plays a visible role in all projects inside, resulting in interesting correspondences. "Between the inside of an art school and the outside there must be something, a membrane permeable in both directions. And this membrane can be the gallery. This means addressing the public even more strongly, inviting them to come to the university and perceive the exhibitions," says Martin Köttering.

Program

9 to 5 - A Question of Time

Opening: 12.12.2024, 7pm, ICAT of the HFBK
Duration of the exhibtion: 13.12.2024-26.1.2025

Contradictory expectations of time determine our everyday lives and also artistic production. We are expected to be mindful of ourselves and our own work, to slow down and at the same time remain productive and constantly develop something new. It is not uncommon for the working realities of young artists in particular to become entangled between the fixed structures of paid work and the fluid timetable of artistic endeavours.

What different perceptions and perspectives on time and temporality move artists in the environment of an art academy and what aesthetic questions develop from this? What artistic perspectives emerge on the current ambivalences of deceleration and productivity?

Six artistic positions question working conditions, time pressure, linearity and finiteness at the ICAT - Institute for Contemporary Art & Transfer of the HFBK Hamburg in the exhibition 9 to 5 - A Question of Time.

Participating artists: Eda Aslan & Nurgül Dursun, Luca Laurora, Nicholas Odhiambo Mboya, Tanja Nis-Hansen, Fion Pellacini, Asma ben Slama

The exhibtion is curated by Anne Meerpohl.
Here you find the whole programme.

The Elephant in the Room, in the Room the Elephant

Opening: 2.12.2024, 7:30pm, ICAT of the HFBK
Duration of the exhibition: 3.-13.12.2024

It is not unusual for artistic positions to relate to a problem. Formally, in terms of content, aesthetically, abstractly, theoretically, there are numerous ways of dealing with the request to work through a problem. An elephant in the room describes a problem that is not discussed directly and immediately. The metaphorical taking of space seemingly leaves no room for being overlooked and brings about a kind of collective not-seeing. How do artists dedicate themselves to such abstractly invisible, unspoken assumptions? How is a space filled both symbolically and physically? How do spaces and bodies relate to each other?

Participating artists:
Omid Arabbay, Alexis Brancaz, Michael Bremner, Anna de Courcy, Victoria Stigkjær, Jule Heinrich & Mie Mie Rygh Reianes, Jianan Ning, Raffaele Pola, Pia Pospischil, Charlie Spiegelfeld, Ko Sin Tung, Sudabe Yunesi

The project The Elephant in the Room - Sculpture Today consists of a symposium and this exhibition. Conceived by Prof Pia Stadtbäumer and Prof Martin Boyce.

The New Woman – How Female Artists and Designers shaped the Image of Modernism

While art academies did not open up to women until the Weimar Republic, artistic training for female students was usually possible earlier at arts and crafts schools, including the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg, the predecessor institution of the HFBK Hamburg. The exhibition brings together works by 14 former female students of the Kunstgewerbeschule Hamburg who seized this opportunity and were able to assert themselves as artists and designers at a time when this was not at all the norm.

Alma del’Aigle, Anni Albers, Marianne Amthor, Ruth Bessoudo, Elise Blumann, Jutta Bossard-Krull, Maya Chrusecz, Grete Gross, Elsbeth Köster, Alen Müller-Hellwig, Marlene Poelzig, Hildi Schmidt-Heins, Trude Petri Sophie Taeuber-Arp

The exhibtion is curated by Dr. Ina Jessen.

The exhibition is generously sponsored by the Hubertus Wald Stiftung.

Furthermore the exhibtion is accompanied by a digtal publication.

The complete accompanying programme for the project can be found here.

we only see what looks at us

Opening: 18.4.2024, 6pm, ICAT of the HFBK Hamburg
Duration of the exhibition: 19.4.-8.5.2024

On the occasion of a new partnership with the School of Arts at the University of Haifa, the HFBK Hamburg is presenting an exhibition by artists Birgit Brandis, Sharon Poliakine and students. As part of an experimental workshop, they explore the diverse relationships and connections of artistic practice - between materials, themes, artists, the world around them and art itself. A network of diverse viewing positions and mutual resonances is negotiated and experienced in we only see what looks at us.

Opening
Welcome by Katharina Fegebank (Senator for Science and Second Mayor, BWFGB Hamburg), Dr Sonja Lahnstein-Kandel (Chairwoman of the Board of the German Sponsors' Association and member of the Supervisory Board of the University of Haifa), Prof Sharon Poliakine (Dean of the School of Art, University of Haifa) and Prof Martin Köttering (President, HFBK Hamburg)

Exhibition period
18 April to 8 May 2024
Open daily from 2 to 6 pm, closed on Mondays

Programme
April 18, 2024, 6 p.m.
Installing Identities: Jewish Experience in the Art of the 20th Century as a Case Study of Diasporism,
Lecture by Dr Osnat Zukerman Rechter followed by a discussion
moderated by Prof Dr Astrid Mania (HFBK Hamburg)

April 25, 2024, 5 p.m.
Guided tour and talk with Birgit Brandis and HFBK students

Think & Feel! Speak & Act!

Opening: 8.2.2024, 7pm, ICAT of the HFBK Hamburg
Duration of the exhibtion: 9.-11.2.24

What does it mean to produce art in times of multiple crises? How can visions for the future be created in the face of drastic geopolitical, ecological and social crises? And how can we use art to imagine new forms of exchange and togetherness? These questions are the focus of the exhibition THINK & FEEL! SPEAK & ACT!, which is a result of an open call.

On display are works by ten international Master's students from the HFBK who question body politics and modes of representation, examine the appearance of public space, scrutinise neoliberal processes and the production of value, test new forms of collectivity, break up Western-centric perspectives or deal with the resistive potential of fiction. The artists take a critical look at the world that surrounds them and show that not only the personal is political, but the political is highly personal.

Participating artists:
Emma Bombail, Carolina Lehan, Sasha Levkovich, Anqi Li, Leena Lübbe, Paula Hoffmann & Laura Mahnke, Lioba Kappel, Priyanka Sarkar, Julia Wolkenhauer, Yuan Yuan

The exhibition is curated by Nadine Droste. She is a curator and part of the artistic team of La Salle de bains in Lyon. From 2019-23 she was director of the Kunstverein in Bielefeld. The exhibition's assistant curator is Nikoloz Mamatsashvili.

Here you find the booklet of the exhibition.

Guided tour with the curator Nadine Droste und the artists:
Friday, 9 February, 2 p.m.

Coming of Age

Opening: 14.12.23, 7 pm, ICAT of the HFBK Hamburg
Duration of exhibition: 15.12.23 - 21.1.24

Thresholds, phases and periods permeate our understanding of the individual, society and history, often accompanied by a belief in progress. Probably the most ubiquitous example is the eponymous transition to adulthood, which has been an expression of manifold spiritual, cultural and legal conventions since antiquity. This is neither the first nor the last phase that structures human life.

The exhibition brings together eight artistic positions that deal with spaces and processes of search, change and failure. Turning away from a linear logic, the multimedia sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs and videos in their individual approaches often testify to moments of universality.

Artists: Karo Akpokiere, Keren Cytter, Simon Fujiwara, Vicente Hirmas, Saray Purto Hoffmann, Richard Magee, Tobias Zielony, Karla Zipfel

The exhibition was curated by Sjusanna Eremjan.

A comprehensive online publication has been created to accompany the exhibition. Concept, design and development by Karen Czock and Maja Redlin.

And Still I Rise

Opening: 27.9.23, 7 pm, ICAT of HFBK Hamburg
Duration of exhibition: 28.9. - 05.11.23, daily 2-6 pm, closed on mondays

With paintings, drawings, film and performance, the solo exhibition And Still I Rise presents the multifaceted work of the American artist Rajkamal Kahlon to the art audience in Hamburg for the first time. For over 20 years, Kahlon, who has been professor of painting at the HFBK Hamburg since 2021, has been interested in the connections between aesthetics and power, which are organized primarily through violence across historical and geographical borders. She examines ongoing consequences of colonial and ethnographic narratives. Kahlon's works have their starting point in historical photographs, books and archival materials, which she subjects to a process of disruption and transformation. The artist encounters the classifying and stereotyping representations that turn people into nameless, powerless and marginalized projection surfaces with beauty, humor and sensuality. With her artistic practice, Kahlon, who understands drawing and painting as a form of care work, resists this violent anonymization and attempts to restore humanity and individuality.

Curated by Rajkamal Kahlon and Sjusanna Eremjan.

Here you find the booklet of the exhibition.

Imagining Health 2

Opening: 31.5.23, 6 pm, ICAT of HFBK Hamburg
Duration of exhibition: 01. - 18.6.23, daily 2-6 pm, closed on mondays

Imagining Health 2 is the continuation of a multi-year artistic and scientific research project between the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK) and the Centre for the Study of Health, Ethics and Society (CHES) of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Hamburg (UHH), which points to the intersections and potentials of mutual enrichment of disciplines that are supposedly difficult to reconcile. The ten projects developed specifically for the exhibition deal with the mental, physical and structural dimensions of health from an artistic perspective. In a broad range of content and form, they negotiate questions of injury, healing and change. Whether based on their own bodies, personal experiences or socio-historical developments, the artists share a critical and analytical view of the present.

The participating artists are Kyle Egret, Matthis Frickhœffer, Benjamin Janzen, Leo Elia, Jori Kehn, Sebastian Kommer, Andrea Laušević, Flora Fee Mayrhofer, Christiane Mudra, Juan Ricaurte-Riveros, Lea van Hall, Faun Vium.

The positions were selected on the basis of an internal open call by a jury consisting of Prof. Angela Bulloch and Prof. Dr. Hanne Loreck from the HFBK Hamburg and Prof. Dr. Ulf Schmidt and Dr. James Farley from the CHES of the UHH.

The exhibition was curated by Sjusanna Eremjan.

Situation\Condition\Position

Opening: Thursday, April 20, 2023, 6 p.m.

Duration: from April 21 to May 14, 2023

Artistic practice is always dependent on and shaped by the conditions in which it can unfold. The conflicts and crises worldwide, triggered by wars, repressive regimes or environmental catastrophes, influence and threaten artists and shape their artistic work both on a formal and content-related level. Global, local and individual contexts interplay and are closely interwoven. In this field of tension, artistic strategies assert and (trans)form themselves and articulate an important perspective on social conflict zones. How does art reflect the conditions under which it is created? How do contexts of global and local conflicts become visible in artistic production? What are the perspectives and positions that emerge against the background of these examinations?

Based on these questions, the group exhibition Situation\Condition\Position brings together eleven international artistic positions that take a very personal look at the sociopolitical conditions surrounding them. They deal with mechanisms of oppression and violence that have grown historically and are deeply rooted in our present. Their research-based, documentary, and participatory approaches not only create visibility of crises, but make them physically tangible.

With works by: Benyamin Bakhshi, Kyle Egret, Saba Emadabadi, Chung-hsien Ho, Rahel grote Lambers, Filipe Lippe, Mahjong Friends, Laura Mahnke, Monika Orpik, Daniel Suárez, Sudabe Yunesi.

Curated by Sjusanna Eremjan in collaboration with Stefan Aue.

relate to... Master-Studierende der HFBK im ICAT

Opening: 9. February 2023, 7 p.m.
Duration: 10. - 12. February 2023

Die Ausstellung basiert auf einem Open Call an die Masterstudierenden der HFBK. Im Fokus stand die Frage nach den Möglichkeiten über die Kunst mit der Welt in Verbindung zu treten. Kunst ist eng mit Wahrnehmung, Perspektive und Subjektivität verbunden. Sie hat sie das Potenzial, Zugang zu bisher Ungesehenem zu schaffen, Wahrnehmung zu schärfen und zu verändern. Ein Kunstwerk darf und kann die Welt im besten Sinne des Wortes auf den Kopf stellen und darüber neue Perspektiven eröffnen.

Die ausgewählten Arbeiten nutzen ästhetische Strategien, um soziopolitische ebenso wie persönliche Erfahrungen zum Ausdruck zu bringen oder Strukturen offenzulegen und zu unterwandern. Sie treten in Kommunikation zu den Besuchenden, ohne eindeutige Botschaften zu artikulieren. Die produktive Uneindeutigkeit der Kunst steht im Zentrum der Ausstellung.

with works by: Ngozi Schommers, Lennart Mink Weber, Sara Malie Mikkelsen, Kenneth Lin, Belia Brückner, Maxime Chabal, Annika Grabold, Johannes Kuczera

Kuratiert von Tobias Peper, Künstlerischer Leiter des Kunstvereins Harburger Bahnhof

Selbst und Zweck

Eröffnung: 15. Dezember 2022, 19 Uhr
Ausstellungsdauer: 16. Dezember 2022 - 22. Januar 2023,

Allen voran in Zeiten der Krise spielt das Politische eine bedeutende Rolle in der Kunst. Ob als selbst oder von außen auferlegte Erwartungshaltung gesellschaftspolitisch relevant zu sein, als Verschreibung an oder bewusste Abgrenzung von einer Verantwortung. Besonders seit dem frühen 20. Jahrhundert waren nicht zuletzt in Reaktion auf die Entwicklungen der Zeit, wiederholt Phasen verstärkter Politisierung zu beobachten.

Die Gruppenausstellung „Selbst und Zweck“ vereint sechs künstlerische Positionen, die sich mit Rissen und Brüchen der Gegenwart beschäftigen. Die zum Teil eigens für die Ausstellung entwickelten Arbeiten zeichnen sich durch eine formale und thematische Vielfalt aus. Präsentiert werden multimediale Skulpturen, Installationen und Malereien. Neben forschenden Vorgehensweisen, die sich konkreten gesellschaftspolitischen Fragen widmen, finden sich Ansätze, die das Spannungsfeld von Kunst und Gesellschaft auf einer abstrakten Ebene behandeln. Sie widmen sich Themen und Mechanismen von Macht und Widerstand, Fürsorge und Identität aus gleichermaßen politischen wie poetischen Perspektiven.

Beteiligte Künstler*innen: Anne Meerpohl, Katja Pilipenko, Merlin Reichart, Ngozi Schommers, Sung Tieu, Leyla Yenirce

Kuratiert von Sjusanna Eremjan

Irgendwas ist immer

Eröffnung: 28. September, 19 Uhr
Ausstellungsdauer: 29.9.-23.10.22, Di-So 14-18 Uhr

Mit einer Reihe von Sitzelementen, Tischen und Leuchten, darunter Klassiker wie Chair_ONE (2004) und die mobile Leuchte Mayday (1999) gibt die Einzelausstellung Irgendwas ist immer einen Ausblick auf das vielseitige Werk des Designers und HFBK-Professors Konstantin Grcic (*1965). Neben industriell gefertigten Objekten sind auch Entwicklungsmodelle zu sehen.

Für die Ausstellung greift Grcic auf Mobiliar der Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK) zurück, welches er zu Displays für die von ihm gestalteten Objekte umfunktioniert. Beschmiert, getaggt und zerkratzt sind die längst ausgedienten Schränke, Tischplatten und Böcke materielle Zeugnisse der Geschichte in dem diesjährig eröffneten ICAT - Institute for Contemporary Art & Transfer der HFBK Hamburg.

Diese Zusammenführung veranschaulicht die zunehmende Relevanz von Szenografie in dem nunmehr 30-jährigen Schaffen von Grcic. Vor allem aber ist sie Ausdruck der sorgfältigen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Raum und der Sensibilität für die von Zufall, Experiment und Prozesshaftigkeit ausgehenden Potentiale.

Nach einer Lehre zum Möbelschreiner an der John Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Wood studierte Konstantin Grcic Design am Royal College of Art in London. Mit dem Büro Konstantin Grcic Design arbeitet er von Berlin aus in verschiedenen Feldern die von Industrie-, Möbel- und Ausstellungsdesign bis hin zu Kollaborationen in Architektur und Mode reichen. Seine Entwürfe wurden vielfach mit internationalen Preisen ausgezeichnet und sind in den Sammlungen der wichtigsten Designmuseen weltweit vertreten. Konstantin Grcic ist seit 2020 Professor für Industriedesign an der HFBK Hamburg.

Approaching the Unknown

Eröffnung: 2. September 2022, 18 Uhr
Ausstellungszeitraum: 3.-15. September 2022, täglich 14-18 Uhr, montags geschlossen

Approaching the Unknown zeigt neun künstlerische Positionen, die sich mit den Themen Erforschung, Umbruch und Transformation beschäftigen. Ausgangspunkt der Ausstellung sind von der NASA aufgenommene Deltaformationen auf dem Mars. Mit der Mündung in neue Räume infolge fortwährender Ab- und Verlagerungen, ist das Delta grundlegende Metapher des gleichnamigen Kollektivs.

In der zweiten gemeinsamen Ausstellung nehmen die Künstler*innen den roten Planeten, der seit der Antike Gegenstand der Faszination und Forschung ist, zum Anlass eine Reihe von Fragen an das Unbekannte zu stellen. In den skulpturalen, filmischen und installativen Arbeiten setzen sie sich unter anderem mit physikalischen Kräften, sozialen Strukturen und dem Verhältnis von Mensch und Natur auseinander. Dabei spielen Prozesse der Simulation, Adaption und Spekulation eine tragende Rolle. Neben der Neugier ist den künstlerischen Positionen der Glaube an einen aus der Beschäftigung mit dem Unbekannten resultierenden Erkenntnisgewinn für die gegenwärtige und künftige Lebensrealität gemein.

Beteiligte Künstler*innen: Jessica Arseneau, Juan Pablo Gaviria Bedoya, Anneliese Greve, Jaewon Kim, Fritz Lehmann, Jakob Limmer, Snow Paik, Hara Shin, Siri Wirtensohn

Kuratiert von Sjusanna Eremjan

Imagining Health 1

Opening: July 21, 2022, 6 p.m., Gallery of the HFBK.
Exhibition period: July 22-August 3, 2022, daily 2-6 p.m., closed on Mondays
Finissage: August 3, 2022, 6 p.m., Gallery of the HFBK. At a reception, visitors* will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with the artists

The Hamburg University of Fine Arts cordially invites you to the opening of "Imagining Health I", an exhibition series in cooperation with the "Centre for the Study of Health, Ethics and Society" of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Hamburg.

Within the framework of a call for entries, nine works developed specifically for the project and dealing with the mental, physical and structural dimensions of health were selected by a jury.

The participating artists* are Anna Bochkova, Maxime Chabal, Matthis Frickhœffer & Sebastian Kommer, Sanja Henning, Kristina Kröger & Lazar Stojić, Lena Kunz, Millie Schwier, Julian Slagman, Samuel Witt.

The jury was composed of: Dr. James Farley, Prof. Martin Köttering, Prof. Annika Larsson and Prof. Dr. Ulf Schmidt.

The exhibition was curated by Sjusanna Eremjan.

Exhibition by Amna Elhassan

Opening: Thu, July 7, 2022, 7 p.m. (as part of the Graduate Show)
Exhibition period: July 8 - 17, 2022 (daily except Mondays, 2 -6 p.m.)

Amna Elhassan (* 1988, Khartoum, Sudan) is currently a guest lecturer within the Art School Alliance at the HFBK Hamburg. Her artistic work explores perceptions of the female body in the public and private spheres, drawing on a variety of media including printmaking and painting. Her recent exhibitions included: Egypt Int'l Art Fair in Cairo; Afriart Gallery in Kampala, Uganda; Journées d'Art Contemporain de Carthage JACC, Tunis or National Museum of Sudan, Khartoum among others.

The exhibition was curated by Sjusanna Eremjan.

Finkenwerder Art Prize 2022

Exhibition: June 2-25, 2022
Opening: June 1, 2022, 6 p.m.

This year's Finkenwerder Art Prize is awarded to US artist Renée Green. HFBK graduate Frieda Toranzo Jaeger receives the HFBK Hamburg's Finkenwerder Förderpreis.

The exhibition was curated by Sjusanna Eremjan.

A sculpture of a small elephant that functions as a climbing frame in a park in Hamburg

Der Elefant im (öffentlichen) Raum Hamburg

The Elephant in The Room – Sculpture today

The two-day symposium on December 2 and 3, 2024, is dedicated to current issues and developments in the field of sculpture. It will be accompanied by an exhibition at the HFBK Hamburg's ICAT.

The filled auditorium at the opening of the 2024/25 academic year; photo: Tim Albrecht

Autumn program for everyone

The start of the winter semester at the HFBK Hamburg is accompanied by an extensive program of events including performances, screenings, exhibitions and book presentations.

Exhibition view on the occasion of Hiscox Art Prize 2024; photo: Tim Albrecht

Hiscox Art Prize 2024

The HFBK Hamburg cordially invites to the award ceremony of the Hiscox Art Prize 2024 and to the opening of the exhibition with the nominated artists.

The cinema in the new film house, Finkenau 42; photo: Tim Albrecht

Opening of the 2024/25 semester centred on the new film house

After six decades of outstanding film education at the HFBK Hamburg, we will celebrate the opening of the new film house on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 with the start of the academic year. We will also introduce the new professors and welcome the new students.

"The New Woman - How Female Artists and Designers shaped the Image of Modernism", graphic by Liudmila Savelyeva, Karla Krey, Amira Mostafa (Klasse Digitale Grafik)

The New Woman

The exhibition "The New Woman - How Female Artists and Designers Shaped the Image of Modernism" presents more than 50 works by 14 selected female artists and designers who studied at the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg, the predecessor institution of the HFBK, from 1907 onwards. At a time when women were still denied access to many other art academies.

Matthis Frickhœffer in his installation "Framing Electric Dreams" (with Sebastian Kommer) as part of the exhibition "Imaging Health I" 2022 at the ICAT of the HFBK Hamburg; photo: Tim Albrecht

Doing a PhD at the HFBK Hamburg

The HFBK Hamburg is the first art academy in Germany to offer a PhD in Art Practice. At the start of the programme, we are looking for artistic doctoral projects that deal with changing health concepts and the diverse social transformation processes from an artistic perspective. Apply now!

Fade-in of the Hannah Arendt sequence from the conversation with Günter Gaus at the start of the conversation between Juliane Rebentisch and Natan Sznaider in the auditorium of the HFBK Hamburg on 7 June 2024; photo: Maximilian Glas

Summer of theory

The past semester was filled with lectures, discussions, panels and talks. Here we offer a brief look back at the summer of Theory 2024 with the lecture series "Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism in Art", the project "Archives of the Body - The Body of Archiving" as well as the talks with Natan Sznaider.

Detail: Installation by Mark Morris; photo: Tim Albrecht

Graduate Show 2024 - Letting Go

From 12 to 14 July 2024 (2 - 8 p.m.), more than 160 graduates from the 2023/24 academic year will be showing their final artistic works in a comprehensive exhibition at the HFBK Hamburg. In addition, all graduation films will be presented in the new cinema hall of the Filmhaus at Finkenau 42 as part of Final Cut.

Julia Scher, Territorium, 2024, installationview at ICAT of HFBK Hamburg; photo: Tim Albrecht

Finkenwerder Art Prize 2024

The US artist Julia Scher will receive the Finkenwerder Art Prize 2024, while Anna Stüdeli, who studied sculpture at the HFBK Hamburg, will be honoured with the Finkenwerder Grant from the HFBK.

Archives of the Body - The Body in Archiving

With a symposium, an exhibition, a film programme and a digital publication, the research project conceived by Prof. Hanne Loreck and Vanessa Gravenor examines the "archive" as a form of order with regard to the human body. Which body archives and discourses have become established? What potentials for political-aesthetic resistance and activism could and can emerge?

Sharon Poliakine, Untitled, 2023, oil on canvas, detail

New partnership with the School of Arts at the University of Haifa

On the occasion of a new partnership with the School of Arts at the University of Haifa, the HFBK Hamburg is presenting an exhibition by the artists Birgit Brandis, Sharon Poliakine and HFBK students.

photo: Ronja Lotz

Exhibition recommendations

Numerous exhibitions with HFBK participation are currently on display. We present a small selection and invite you to visit the exhibitions during the term break.

Visitors of the annual exhibition 2024; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

Annual Exhibition 2024 at the HFBK Hamburg

From February 9 -11, 2024 (daily 2-8 pm) the students of HFBK Hamburg present their artistic productions from the past year. In addition, the exhibition »Think & Feel! Speak & Act!« curated by Nadine Droste, as well as the presentation of exchange students from Goldsmiths, University of London, can be seen at ICAT.

Examination of the submitted portfolios

How to apply: study at HFBK Hamburg

The application period for studying at the HFBK Hamburg runs from 1 February to 5 March 2024, 4 p.m. All important information can be found here.

photo: Tim Albrecht

(Ex)Changes of / in Art

There's a lot going on at the HFBK Hamburg at the end of the year: exhibitions at ICAT, the ASA students' Open Studios in Karolinenstraße, performances in the Extended Library and lectures in the Aula Wartenau.

Extended Libraries

Knowledge is now accessible from anywhere, at any time. In such a scenario, what role(s) can libraries still play? How can they support not only as knowledge archives but also as facilitators of artistic knowledge production? As an example, we present library projects by students and alumni, as well as our new knowledge space: the Extended Library.

And Still I Rise

For over 20 years, US artist Rajkamal Kahlon has been interested in the connections between aesthetics and power, which are organized across historical and geographical boundaries, primarily through violence. With this solo exhibition, the HFBK Hamburg presents the versatile work of the professor of painting and drawing to the Hamburg art public for the first time.

photo: Lukes Engelhardt

No Tracking. No Paywall.

Just Premium Content! The (missing) summer offers the ideal opportunity to catch up on what has been missed. In our media library, faculty, students and alumni share knowledge and discussions with us - both emotional moments and controversial discourses. Through podcasts and videos, they contribute to current debates and address important topics that are currently in focus.

Let's talk about language

There are currently around 350 international students studying at the HFBK Hamburg, who speak 55 different languages - at least these are the official languages of their countries of origin. A quarter of the teaching staff have an international background. And the trend is rising. But how do we deal productively with the multilingualism of university members in everyday life? What ways of communication can be found? The current Lerchenfeld issue looks at creative solutions for dealing with multilingualism and lets numerous former international students have their say.

photo: Miriam Schmidt / HFBK

Graduate Show 2023: Unfinished Business

From July 13 to 16, 2023, 165 Bachelor's and Master's graduates of the class of 2022/23 will present their final projects from all areas of study. Under the title Final Cut, all graduation films will be shown on a big screen in the auditorium of the HFBK Hamburg.

A disguised man with sunglasses holds a star-shaped sign for the camera. It says "Suckle". The picture is taken in black and white.

photo: Honey-Suckle Company

Let`s work together

Collectives are booming in the art world. And they have been for several decades. For the start of the summer semester 2023, the new issue of the Lerchenfeld Magazine is dedicated to the topic of collective practice in art, presents selected collectives, and also explores the dangers and problems of collective working.

Jahresausstellung 2023, Arbeit von Toni Mosebach / Nora Strömer; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

Annual Exhibition 2023 at HFBK Hamburg

From February 10-12, students from all departments will present their artistic works at Lerchenfeld 2, Wartenau 15 and AtelierHaus, Lerchenfeld 2a. At ICAT, Tobias Peper, Artistic Director of the Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, curates an exhibition with HFBK master students. Also 10 exchange students from Goldsmiths, University of London will show their work there.

Symposium: Controversy over documenta fifteen

With this symposium on documenta fifteen on the 1st and 2nd of February, the HFBK Hamburg aims to analyze the background and context, foster dialogue between different viewpoints, and enable a debate that explicitly addresses anti-Semitism in the field of art. The symposium offers space for divergent positions and aims to open up perspectives for the present and future of exhibition making.

ASA Open Studios winter semester 2021/22; photo: Marie-Theres Böhmker

The best is saved until last

At the end of the year, once again there will be numerous exhibitions and events with an HFBK context. We have compiled some of them here. You will also find a short preview of two lectures of the professionalization program in January.

Non-Knowledge, Laughter and the Moving Image, Grafik: Leon Lothschütz

Festival and Symposium: Non-Knowledge, Laughter and the Moving Image

As the final part of the artistic research project, the festival and symposium invite you to screenings, performances, talks, and discussions that explore the potential of the moving images and the (human and non-human) body to overturn our habitual course and change the dominant order of things.

Solo exhibition by Konstantin Grcic

From September 29 to October 23, 2022, Konstantin Grcic (Professor of Industrial Design) will be showing a room-sized installation at ICAT - Institute for Contemporary Art & Transfer at the HFBK Hamburg consisting of objects designed by him and existing, newly assembled objects. At the same time, the space he designed for workshops, seminars and office workstations in the AtelierHaus will be put into operation.

Amna Elhassan, Tea Lady, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

Art and war

"Every artist is a human being". This statement by Martin Kippenberger, which is as true as it is existentialist (in an ironic rephrasing of the well-known Beuys quote), gets to the heart of the matter in many ways. On the one hand, it reminds us not to look away, to be (artistically) active and to raise our voices. At the same time, it is an exhortation to help those who are in need. And that is a lot of people at the moment, among them many artists. That is why it is important for art institutions to discuss not only art, but also politics.

Merlin Reichert, Die Alltäglichkeit des Untergangs, Installation in der Galerie der HFBK; photo: Tim Albrecht

Graduate Show 2022: We’ve Only Just Begun

From July 8 to 10, 2022, more than 160 Bachelor’s and Master’s graduates of the class of 2021/22 will present their final projects from all majors. Under the title Final Cut, all graduation films will be shown on a big screen in the auditorium of the HFBK Hamburg. At the same time, the exhibition of the Sudanese guest lecturer Amna Elhassan can be seen in the HFBK gallery in the Atelierhaus.

Grafik: Nele Willert, Dennise Salinas

June is full of art and theory

It has been a long time since there has been so much on offer: a three-day congress on the visuality of the Internet brings together international web designers; the research collective freethought discusses the role of infrastructures; and the symposium marking the farewell of professor Michaela Ott takes up central questions of her research work.

Renée Green. ED/HF, 2017. Film still. Courtesy of the artist, Free Agent Media, Bortolami Gallery, New York, and Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne/Munich.

Finkenwerder Art Prize 2022

The Finkenwerder Art Prize, initiated in 1999 by the Kulturkreis Finkenwerder e.V., has undergone a realignment: As a new partner, the HFBK Hamburg is expanding the prize to include the aspect of promoting young artists and, starting in 2022, will host the exhibition of the award winners in the HFBK Gallery. This year's Finkenwerder Art Prize will be awarded to the US artist Renée Green. HFBK graduate Frieda Toranzo Jaeger receives the Finkenwerder Art Prize for recent graduates.

Amanda F. Koch-Nielsen, Motherslugger; photo: Lukas Engelhardt

Nachhaltigkeit im Kontext von Kunst und Kunsthochschule

Im Bewusstsein einer ausstehenden fundamentalen gesellschaftlichen Transformation und der nicht unwesentlichen Schrittmacherfunktion, die einem Ort der künstlerischen Forschung und Produktion hierbei womöglich zukommt, hat sich die HFBK Hamburg auf den Weg gemacht, das Thema strategisch wie konkret pragmatisch für die Hochschule zu entwickeln. Denn wer, wenn nicht die Künstler*innen sind in ihrer täglichen Arbeit damit befasst, das Gegebene zu hinterfragen, genau hinzuschauen, neue Möglichkeiten, wie die Welt sein könnte, zu erkennen und durchzuspielen, einem anderen Wissen Gestalt zu geben

New studio in the row of houses at Lerchenfeld, in the background the building of Fritz Schumacher; photo: Tim Albrecht

Raum für die Kunst

After more than 40 years of intensive effort, a long-cherished dream is becoming reality for the HFBK Hamburg. With the newly opened studio building, the main areas of study Painting/Drawing, Sculpture and Time-Related Media will finally have the urgently needed studio space for Master's students. It simply needs space for their own ideas, for thinking, for art production, exhibitions and as a depot.

Martha Szymkowiak / Emilia Bongilaj, Installation “Mmh”; photo: Tim Albrecht

Annual Exhibition 2022 at the HFBK

After last year's digital edition, the 2022 annual exhibition at the HFBK Hamburg will once again take place with an audience. From 11-13 February, students from all departments will present their artistic work in the building at Lerchenfeld, Wartenau 15 and the newly opened Atelierhaus.

Annette Wehrmann, photography from the series Blumensprengungen, 1991-95; photo: Ort des Gegen e.V., VG-Bild Kunst Bonn

Conference: Counter-Monuments and Para-Monuments.

The international conference at HFBK Hamburg on December 2-4, 2021 – jointly conceived by Nora Sternfeld and Michaela Melián –, is dedicated to the history of artistic counter-monuments and forms of protest, discusses aesthetics of memory and historical manifestations in public space, and asks about para-monuments for the present.

23 Fragen des Institutional Questionaire, grafisch umgesetzt von Ran Altamirano auf den Türgläsern der HFBK Hamburg zur Jahresausstellung 2021; photo: Charlotte Spiegelfeld

Diversity

Who speaks? Who paints which motif? Who is shown, who is not? Questions of identity politics play an important role in art and thus also at the HFBK Hamburg. In the current issue, the university's own Lerchenfeld magazine highlights university structures as well as student initiatives that deal with diversity and identity.

photo: Klaus Frahm

Summer Break

The HFBK Hamburg is in the lecture-free period, many students and teachers are on summer vacation, art institutions have summer break. This is a good opportunity to read and see a variety of things:

ASA Open Studio 2019, Karolinenstraße 2a, Haus 5; photo: Matthew Muir

Live und in Farbe: die ASA Open Studios im Juni 2021

Since 2010, the HFBK has organised the international exchange programme Art School Alliance. It enables HFBK students to spend a semester abroad at renowned partner universities and, vice versa, invites international art students to the HFBK. At the end of their stay in Hamburg, the students exhibit their work in the Open Studios in Karolinenstraße, which are now open again to the art-interested public.

Studiengruppe Prof. Dr. Anja Steidinger, Was animiert uns?, 2021, Mediathek der HFBK Hamburg, Filmstill

Unlearning: Wartenau Assemblies

The art education professors Nora Sternfeld and Anja Steidinger initiated the format "Wartenau Assemblies". It oscillates between art, education, research and activism. Complementing this open space for action, there is now a dedicated website that accompanies the discourses, conversations and events.

Ausstellungsansicht "Schule der Folgenlosigkeit. Übungen für ein anderes Leben" im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; photo: Maximilian Schwarzmann

School of No Consequences

Everyone is talking about consequences: The consequences of climate change, the Corona pandemic or digitalization. Friedrich von Borries (professor of design theory), on the other hand, is dedicated to consequence-free design. In “School of No Consequences. Exercises for a New Life” at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, he links collection objects with a "self-learning room" set up especially for the exhibition in such a way that a new perspective on "sustainability" emerges and supposedly universally valid ideas of a "proper life" are questioned.

Annual Exhibition 2021 at the HFBK

Annual exhibition a bit different: From February 12- 14, 2021 students at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, together with their professors, had developed a variety of presentations on different communication channels. The formats ranged from streamed live performances to video programs, radio broadcasts, a telephone hotline, online conferences, and a web store for editions. In addition, isolated interventions could be discovered in the outdoor space of the HFBK and in the city.

Katja Pilipenko

Semestereröffnung und Hiscox-Preisverleihung 2020

On the evening of November 4, the HFBK celebrated the opening of the academic year 2020/21 as well as the awarding of the Hiscox Art Prize in a livestream - offline with enough distance and yet together online.

Exhibition Transparencies with works by Elena Crijnen, Annika Faescke, Svenja Frank, Francis Kussatz, Anne Meerpohl, Elisa Nessler, Julia Nordholz, Florentine Pahl, Cristina Rüesch, Janka Schubert, Wiebke Schwarzhans, Rosa Thiemer, Lea van Hall. Organized by Prof. Verena Issel and Fabian Hesse; photo: Screenshot

Teaching Art Online at the HFBK

How the university brings together its artistic interdisciplinary study structure with digital formats and their possibilities.

Alltagsrealität oder Klischee?; photo: Tim Albrecht

HFBK Graduate Survey

Studying art - and what comes next? The clichéd images stand their ground: Those who have studied art either become taxi drivers, work in a bar or marry rich. But only very few people could really live from art – especially in times of global crises. The HFBK Hamburg wanted to know more about this and commissioned the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg to conduct a broad-based survey of its graduates from the last 15 years.

Ausstellung Social Design, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Teilansicht; photo: MKG Hamburg

How political is Social Design?

Social Design, as its own claim is often formulated, wants to address social grievances and ideally change them. Therefore, it sees itself as critical of society – and at the same time optimizes the existing. So what is the political dimension of Social Design – is it a motor for change or does it contribute to stabilizing and normalizing existing injustices?