"HOMELAND"

Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück 2017

Curated by Christian Oxenius

40 Artists, 4 venues, 17 countries in dialogue over the theme “Homeland”. Originally conceived as a parallel event to the 5th Çanakkale Biennial, the city of Osnabrück invites to the two-monthly “Çanakkale Art Walk 2017: Homeland”. The group show, curated by Christian Oxenius in cooperation with CABININ - Çanakkale Biennale Initiative. Four contemporary art institutions will come together on the 6th of June for the common opening of the exhibition: Kunsthalle Osnabrück, the Museumsquartier (Felix-Nussbaum-Haus/ Kulturgeschichtliches Museum), the Bund Bildender Künstler Osnabrück (BBK) and the Gesellschaft für zeitgenössische Kunst e.V.

The exhibition concept - A brief statement by Christian Oxenius

I connect the concept of Homeland with the warmth of a known language. The feeling of slowly rolling into a known city with a train at the end of a long journey. The sight of a familiar mountain, tree or person. However Homeland is not only a concept nested within the realm of memories. We produce and reproduce homeland(s) wherever we go. It is, in this, a trace of our own thoughts, of ourselves. Those elements that remind us of home are not external to us, nor are they immutable. We create territories around us, these are systems of control of forces we deem irrational. And yet we are ruled by the same irrationality, we are always part of a homeland and part of the “other”. By understanding and accepting this duality we accept the mirroring effect brought about by the term “homeland”. In the same way the works presented in Homeland allow us to recall memories as well as develop our own thoughts, expand new territories in which we can mirror our own ideas, thoughts, fears and worries. The works presented in the exhibition are a mapping of this term, a construction of the unconscious that follows and accepts different views, concepts and understandings of the term, set against a wider set of myths and discourses that have determined “Homeland” as a key element of nation and nation-states within a logic of enlightenment. The exhibition thus represents a space and time to reflect on the inadequacy and flaws of the concept as much as it does reflect each individual sensitivity towards it.

Participating artists:

Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Halil Altindere, Zehra Arslan, Jakob and Manila Bartnik, Cana Bilir-Meier, Hera Büyüktasçiyan, Aissa Deebi, Ahmet Elhan, Köken Ergun, Petra Fiebig, Jeanno Gaussi, Jakob Gautel, Aikaterini Gegisian, Ghazel, JR, Jun-Ichiro Ishii, Ahmet Kavas, Katerina Kuznetcowa und Alexander Edisherov, Stefan Tchernboc, Kalliopi Lemos, Ali Mirhabi, Boris Mikhailov, Eleni Mylonas, Felix Nussbaum, Maria Otte, Julie Roch-Cuerrier, Margit Ruset und Christine Vennemann, Joanna Schulte, Soheila Sokhanvari, Veit Stratmann, Panos Tsagaris, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Viron Erol Vert, Roberto Voorbij.