Hope is Maybe
Michael Haerteis at Kunst Verorten initiated this art project in collaboration with Jesuit Refu-gee Service in Munich. Based on interviews with asylum seekers, Michael has collected prominent statements that center around these questions: What do we HOPE for? Does HOPE depend on the country of origin? Our language? Our education? Our faith? Our personal emotions?
In a second step, artists were asked to choose a citation from a list, reflect on it, and create or share an artwork. More than 280 artworks, from over 150 artists around the world were submitted. An international jury selected 75 works of art to become part of the exhibition here at the airport of Munich.
Two works by Terry Braunstein and Victor Raphael are included in this exhibition which continues to travel. In Europe.
Was ist HOFFNUNG? Lässt sie sich definieren? Kann man sie teilen? Nachvollziehen?
Oder ist sie rein subjektives Empfinden, geprägt von unserem kulturellen Hintergrund? Unserer Sprache? Unserer Erfahrung?
Diese Fragen legt Michael Härteis von KUNST VERORTEN zugrunde, als er Asylsuchende zum Begriff Hoffnung befragte. Entstanden ist daraus eine Zitatensammlung, die als Inspira- tionsquelle für internationale KünstlerInnen diente. Mehr als 150 Kunstschaffende aus allen fünf Kontinenten haben über 280 digitale Abbildungen von Kunstwerken eingereicht. Die Ausstellung zeigt nun 75 Werke, die von einer internationalen Jur y ausgewählt wurden.
„Hope is Maybe“ – Hoffnung ist Vielleicht: Diese Antwort eines jungen Mannes aus Nigeria – einem Land, aus dem 2017 ein Großteil der Asylanträge vom Bundesamt negativ beschie- den wurde – hat der Ausstellung ihren Titel gegeben. Das Kunstprojekt Hope is Maybe ist als fortlaufender Prozess konzipiert: Die Über- legungen zur Hoffnung sollen weitergehen, es können weiter Kunstwerke eingereicht werden, die dann in späteren Ausstellungen gezeigt werden. Zusätzlich soll an jedem Veranstal- tungsort ein Hoffnungs-Workshop stattfinden. Das kreative Schaffen der teilnehmenden KünstlerInnen in Verbindung mit den gesam- melten Zitaten bilden die Grundlage zur philo- sophischen Reflexion. „Wir möchten Menschen im Alltag dazu anregen, sich mit Hoffnung aus- einanderzusetzen – mit der eigenen Hoffnung und der anderer, zum Beispiel von Menschen auf der Flucht“, so Bruder Dieter Müller SJ, der Mitglied der Jury war.
Die Ausstellung zeigt Kunstwerke von:
Alex Kamweru (E AK), Alwina Heinz (D), Ana Sladetic (HR), Anja Struck (D), Anna Fr ydman (D), Athanasios Aléxo (I), Barbara Steinman (CDN), Béatrice Lebreton (USA), Beverly Ress (USA), Birgit Hef ter (D), Birgit Lochmann (IRL), Camilla Luihn (N), Carolina Pinzon Rivera (CO), Christine Renner (D), Christou Christos (CY ), Cornelia Rapp (D), Eric Mayen (D), Gabriele Stolz (D), Grace Graupe-Pillard (USA), Hagen Klenner t (D), Holger Her twig (D), Ian Kirkpatrick (GB), Jessica Russo Scherr (D), Jo Dunn (GB), Johannes Gerard (NL), Kerstin Römhild (D), Kevin Ryan (IRL), Kevo Stero (E AK), Klaus Fezer (D), Kuzana Ogg (USA), Lara Mouvée (D), Maria Mathieu (D) , Maria Mijares (USA), Marija Kondres (HR), Mar ta Pieregonczuk (GB), Mar y Rouncefield (GB), Michelle M. Vara (USA), Renata Sinclair (GB), Rochelle Shicoff (USA), Ron Moppett (CDN), Rosa Quint (D), Sarawut Chutiwongpeti ( TH), Shirin Abedinirad (IR), Simone Jimena Rudolphi (GB), Sonia Yousefi Azimi (GB), Susan Plover (GB), Susanne Pohl (D), Tan Chee Hon (MAL), Tanja Fender (D), Terr y Braunstein & Victor Raphael (USA) und Vaiva Kovieraitė-Trumpė (LT ).
“Though her art uses the techniques of collage and the aesthetics of photography, Braunstein considers herself neither a collagist nor a photographer. But while Braunstein always uses found images, never using the camera to create images, her art is in fact more closely related to photography than to collage, particularly to aspects of darkroom photography in her manipulating, clarifying, extracting, combining, and reproducing existing images. Her sole use of the camera is mechanical, to reproduce her collaged images so that in their final material form her words may appear to be authentic photo documentation rather than pieced paper constructions. She exploits the appearance of photography to deny the fact of her paper collages and in order to simulate documentary “reality.” Braunstein thus uses the camera for one of its oldest and original purposes: to fictionalize, much as such pioneering photographers as Oscar G Rejlander (1813-1875), Henry Peach Robinson (1830-1901 or the cinematographer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) created images that never existed except in their art.”
“In addition to the photo collages or montages, Braunstein also creates books. The books have a far more hand-wrought quality, and are put into the world more as objects — as things — than as images of other things. But there are close similarities of concept and techniques with the photographs. As always, Braunstein utilizes existing sources — other books — to create her own books. She combines images extracted from her usual sources of magazines, books and printed matter, with illustrations or text pages from bound volumes such as children’s storybooks or scientific manuals. Some of her books “read” like normal books — that is, from one page to the next, in a sequence from first to last, and often there is a visual, if not always logical, narrative. But other of her books are sculptural with holes, windows and other contours cut through the pages, so that in turning from page to page, new information accumulates layer upon layer; these books are read not only from one page to another, but from one page through another. In the hands of the reader, one of Braunstein’s sculptural books becomes a kinetic sculpture whose visual and intelligible content changes with each turn of the page.”
“The magic of Terry’s work is that she has given new meaning and unexpected context to a common symbol we all recognize. The combination of the grand scale and the intimate, often nostalgic images act to draw visitors to the site and invite interaction. Rarely, in public art projects, is the resolution of formal issues so beautifully married with the subject matter, which, for so many, is the heart of the memorial. Happily, Terry’s sculpture is an object of extraordinary beauty that succeeds on all levels and for all ages.”
“There are as many definitions of “art” as there are expressions of it. If art is defined as a visual philosophy of life or a search for meaning, Terry Braunstein creates it. Whether expressed as a poignant view of human behavior, a nostalgic perception of things past, an honest look at life and loss, the wisdom learned from collective experience, desperate longing for love and desire, or anxious hope for the future, Braunstein’s art explores it all. Working in a variety of media that includes . . . . installations. . . she creates work that stimulates the mind and the heart on myriad levels.
“To create a picture in the way that Terry Braunstein does is, in essence, to reassemble pieces of our familiar world into a surprising, yet convincing, new world. . . . There are no ready answers to the questions Braunstein poses, and no promise of a resolution forthcoming. In fact, there seem only to be more questions, and more cross-references. By importing the loaded content of mass media imagery into her artistic landscape, she not only challenges the assumptions implicit in contemporary culture but also addresses one of the basic aesthetic dilemmas: the interpretive gap between appearance and truth.”
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