Critical Distance. Body Politics and Displacement in the Work of Mona Hatoum
Saturday, Oct 29, 2022, 2 pm
With Marius Babias (Director Neuer Berliner Kunstverein), Sam Bardaouil (Director Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin), Kathrin Becker (Artistic Director KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art), Tamar Garb (Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art, University College London), Natasha Ginwala (Associate Curator Gropius Bau, Berlin), Mona Hatoum (Artist, London), Polly Staple (Curator and Director of Collection, British Art, Tate, London)
Held in conjunction with the survey exhibition of the work of Mona Hatoum, this international symposium offers insight into the artist’s oeuvre. With her interest in articulating concerns through a reductive approach and abstract language, Hatoum is considered a prominent representative of Postminimalism, taking the visual code of Minimal Art and deconstructing or expanding it in a targeted manner.
By transforming everyday objects and materials in an unexpected way and linking her presentations to feminist discourses and body politics, Hatoum broadens the notion of sculpture from questions of materiality to critical thinking. Her long engagement with themes of exclusion and exile, changing notions of gender and race, and, not least, the body itself, provides new perspectives on contemporary debates and current political discourse. The symposium will deal with the notion of sculpture’s engagement in sociopolitical perspectives, the development of sculpture in an increasingly digital age, new attitudes towards the body and the uncertain and precarious conditions of our world.
Schedule
2 pm
Opening: Kathrin Becker (Artistic Director, KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst), Marius Babias (Director, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein)
Artist presentation by Mona Hatoum (Artist, London)
4 pm
Panel discussion with Sam Bardaouil (Director, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin), Tamar Garb (Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art, University College London), Polly Staple (Curator and Director of Collection, British Art at Tate, London), moderation: Natasha Ginwala (Associate Curator at Large, Gropius Bau, Berlin)
Participants
Sam Bardaouil
Sam Bardaouil has been the director of Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, together with Till Fellrath, since 2022.
Tamar Garb
Tamar Garb is Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art, University College London.
Natasha Ginwala
Natasha Ginwala is Associate Curator at Large at Gropius Bau, Berlin; the Director of Colomboscope, Colombo, and co-curated the 13th Gwangju Biennale (2021, with Defne Ayas).
Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum lives and works in London and has kept a second home in Berlin since her DAAD scholarship in 2003/2004.
Polly Staple
Polly Staple is a curator and Director of Collection, British Art at Tate, London, where she leads the development of the National Collection of British art, managing the research and acquisition of works from 1500 to the present day.
The three-part exhibition Mona Hatoum is on view at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (September 15 – November 13, 2022), Georg Kolbe Museum (September 15, 2022 – January 8, 2023), and KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art (September 18, 2022 – May 29, 2023).
Curators: Marius Babias, Kathrin Becker, Julia Wallner
