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until 03.07. | #3360ARTatBerlin | KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art presents from 6th March 2022 the group exhibition Landscapes of Belonging at Maschinenhaus M1 / M1 VideoSpace.
Participating artists:
Pia Ârĸê, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Ewa Einhorn & Jeuno JE Kim, Birit Haarla & Katja Haarla & Outi Pieski, Julie Edel Hardenberg, Hanni Kamaly, Lap-See Lam, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Fatima Moallim, Hans Rosenström, Sara Rönnbäck, Elsa Salonen, Magnús Sigurðarson, Erika Stöckel, Lada Suomenrinne.
The term “colonisation” is usually associated with dependency relations and mechanisms of oppression of the North towards the global South. Decolonisation processes in Northern Europe, on the other hand, play a much smaller role in the public consciousness, although the indigenous Sámi people in Fennoscandia – on Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish territory – and those of the Inuit on Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), colonised by Denmark, are still struggling for belonging and self-determination today. Iceland, which was subjugated by Norway and Denmark, also fought for its independence until the middle of the 20th century.
The group exhibition Landscapes of Belonging at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art takes up these processes and shows works by artists from the European North whose themes are aspects of belonging and communal shaping of locality in the sense of a lived experience. How can location be rethought, what role does the local environment play, and who has the rights and opportunities to participate in the social and cultural shaping of spaces? Can locality be the basis for a social design in which everyone works together?
The participating artists negotiate these fundamental questions in a variety of media and with reference to their – often cross-border – biographical life paths. The works address aspects of colonial and repressive history: forced Christianisation and suppression of local belief systems, the establishment of sedentarism as a norm, the measurement and control of bodies and the prohibition of cultural practices and communities. At the same time, the artists in the exhibition develop hybrid spaces in which belonging to different cultures finds expression. The questioning of the self or the relationship to nature as a place of spirituality are also negotiated in the exhibition.
The starting point of the exhibition is the iconic video work Arctic Hysteria by the artist Pia Ârĸê, a pioneer in the examination of Danish-Greenlandic colonial history, who died in 2007 at the age of only 48. Ârĸê addressed both Western notions of “Greenland” and narratives from the places of her childhood that were missing from official history books, and critically examined notions of so-called “primitive art” and “Eskimo originality”.
The exhibition is curated by: Kathrin Becker and Christine Nippe.
With the kind support of the Finnish Institute in Germany and the Royal Norwegian Embassy Berlin.
Exhibition dates: Sunday, 6th March – Friday, 3rd July 2022
to the exhibition venue
Image caption: Ewa Einhorn & Jeuno JE Kim, Sex & Taxes, 2015, Animationsfilm / Animated film, 12 Min. / 12 min., Filmstill / Film still, © Einhorn / Kim.
Exhibition Landscapes of Belonging – KINDL Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
