Mona Hatoum developed an expansive, kinetic, site-specific installation that takes advantage of the towering height of the historic boiler house (Kesselhaus). The installation consists of a tall, gridded structure resembling the frame of a building in a state of construction or deconstruction. Hatoum’s work makes reference to the upheavals of the present and our precarious and shaky existence – witnessing the collapse of prevailing systems and attempts for renewal and reconstruction.

Curator: Kathrin Becker

A cooperation between Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, and Georg Kolbe Museum
Curators: Marius Babias, Kathrin Becker, Julia Wallner

16.10., 10:00 – 13:00
KinderKulturMonat Workshop: Balanceakt

22.10., 10:00 – 13:00
KinderKulturMonat Workshop: Balanceakt

29.10., 14:00
Symposium
Critical Distance. Body Politics and Displacement in the Work of Mona Hatoum
With Sam Bardaouil, Tamar Garb, Natasha Ginwala, Mona Hatoum, Polly Staple a.o.

19.4., 19:00
Localisations
Conversation with Claudia Basrawi (Writer and illustrator, Berlin), Serena Khan (Artist, Berlin) and Brigitta Kuster (Cultural scientist and cultural producer, Berlin), moderated by Sonja Eismann (Journalist and cultural scientist, Berlin), as part of the exhibition Mona Hatoum. all of a quiver.

The panel will illuminate localisation as a force that provides impulses and as a motif of artistic creation. In this way, urban localisation in the form of neighbourhood cooperation projects can reveal the collective potential of urban everyday life from feminist, post-migrant and marginalised perspectives. The conversation provides insights in line with the artistic-poetic and scientific practice of the participants into the respective approach based on examples between Beirut, Cairo and Berlin.

In English 
Free admission

Everything tilts, makes monstrous noises, the hinges of the bars crack and snap. And all of a sudden - you think the skeleton is about to collapse - everything straightens up again, standing once more as a steel grid: as rigid as power structures, laws, borders, religions, ideologies, standardisations. With this surreal kinetic sculpture, the artist tells a parable. That of her 70-year life to date, that of countless other people in this world who have fled the place of their birth, their childhood. Mona Hatoum calls this structure of subtle instability "All of a quiver".
[Alles kippt, macht monströse Geräusche, die Scharniere der Stangen knacken und schnappen. Und auf einmal – schon glaubt man, das Skelett stürze ein – richtet sich alles wieder auf, steht wieder als stählernes Raster: Starr wie Machtstrukturen, Gesetze, Grenzen, Religionen, Ideologien, Normierungen. Mit dieser surrealen kinetischen Skulptur erzählt die Künstlerin ein Gleichnis. Das ihres bisherigen 70-jährigen Lebens, das unzähliger anderer Menschen auf dieser Welt, die geflohen sind vom Ort ihrer Geburt, ihrer Kindheit. „All of a quiver“ („alles ein Zittern“) nennt Mona Hatoum dieses Gebilde von subtiler Instabilität.]
Ingeborg Ruthe, Frankfurter Rundschau, 30.9.22

This creates the impression that the three-dimensional spatial grid is completely vibrating—a very powerful work.
[Das erzeugt so den Eindruck, als ob das dreidimensionale Raumraster vollkommen ins Schwingen gerät – eine sehr starke Arbeit.]
Carsten Probst, Deutschlandfunk, 14.9.22

Further Material:
Room Guide Mona Hatoum. all of a quiver

Supported by