»I can’t breathe«
Press information
In conjunction with the exhibition BREATHING, the Hamburger Kunsthalle will present the European debut of the light projection IN MEMORIAM by US artist Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) for one night only on Saturday, November 19, 2022, at 8 p.m. The internationally influential conceptual artist has used language as her primary medium since the 1970s, occupying public space as her exhibition platform. Her texts address oppression, gender, sexuality, power and war
The exhibition BREATHING looks at the many different facets of the theme of breath and its representation in the art of the Old Masters and the present day. Some 100 works engage in exciting dialogues, in some cases across the epochs. The result is an unconventional exchange on an existential topic – one that would at first seem to be merely an unconscious, biological process but which in fact has myriad social and political dimensions.
IN MEMORIAM is part of the exhibition’s second »action weekend« on November 19–20, 2022, which is dedicated to the theme of breathing in depth and across disciplines. Actors from the Thalia Theater will read excerpts from recent and historical texts about the motif of breathing in literary history in the staged reading Einziehen und Ausströmen (Saturday, November 19, 7 p.m.). In his workshop Breathe With Me (Sunday, November 20, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.), Danish artist Jeppe Hein will invite participants to breathe with each other and draw a line with blue paint in harmony with their own exhalation. What happens when breathing stops working properly and how the right breathing technique can even alleviate pain will be discussed by Dr. Björn von Stritzky (chief physician for anaesthesia and intensive care medicine at Helios Kliniken Mittelweser) and Maria Weber (midwife at the birth centre in Hamburg) (Sunday, November 10, 3 p.m.)