Situation\Condition\Position

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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.

"The works show artistic strategies of not being afraid taking up the struggle to develop a position especially under the conditions of crisis and conflict", the jury explained its selection, which can only offer an excerpt of the topics dealt with at the university. Vulnerable and reproachful, powerless but also utopian: in addition to the diversity of content and form, the different attitudes and motivations of the artists are particularly characteristic for the exhibition.

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.

Abstracts to the individual positions

Works and inin our repositorium.

Jury

The positions were selected on the basis of an internal open call by a jury consisting of visiting professors from the HFBK: Reza Afisina and Iswanto Hartono (DAAD Guest Professors), Lada Nakonechna (Guest Lecturer as part of the programme “Science Bridge for Ukraine”), and Gilly Karjevsky (Guest Professor of Social Design).

Dates

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

Duration: from April 21 to May 14, 2023, daily 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. except Mondays.

Location: ICAT at HFBK, Lerchenfeld 2A, 22081 Hamburg.

Contact

Sjusanna Eremjan
Phone: +49 40 42 89 89-214
Mail:sjusanna.eremjan@hfbk.hamburg.de

Cemile Sahin, ROAD RUNNER, 2025, installation view at Esther Schipper, Berlin; photo: © Andrea Rossetti, Courtesy of Cemile Sahin and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul

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View into the auditorium of HFBK Hamburg; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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Opening of the Graduate Show 2025; photo: Sinje Hasheider

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Pablo Torres Gómez, Earths's Ears, 2025; photo: Pablo Torres Gómez

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Maria Ignatenko, false movements, 2024, work in progress; Filmstill

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

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Open Call: Redesign Democracy - Reimagine Voting; graphic design: Konrad Renner

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Blick in die von Nadine Droste kuratierte Ausstellung von Master-Studierenden im ICAT der HFBK Hamburg zur Jahresausstellung 2024 (im Vordergrund die Arbeit von Paula Hoffmann und Laura Mahnke); photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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Many people stand in front of a wall with portrait photographs

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

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

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

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

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Detail: Installation by Mark Morris; photo: Tim Albrecht

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

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

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Work by Franziska Koepsel at Annual Exhibition 2024; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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photo: Tim Albrecht

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photo: Miriam Schmidt / HFBK

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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

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

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

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

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Grafik: Nele Willert, Dennise Salinas

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Katja Pilipenko

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Alltagsrealität oder Klischee?; photo: Tim Albrecht

HFBK Graduate Survey

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