In a first comprehensive solo exhibition, Halle fuer Kunst presents a large selection of works by Helena Huneke (1967 – 2012), who in the late 1990s belonged to a circle of Hamburg-based artists operating the Akademie Isotrop, an alternative to institutionalized art academies. Although Huneke could closely relate to the mode of work and exchange probed and practiced there, she created an extremely autonomous and expansive body of work characterized by an strong command of materials, by fragility and intimacy.

The show at Halle fuer Kunst brings together works from different periods. The main focus is on Huneke's fabric pieces, object assemblages and drawings. A number of texts that Huneke partially published will also be presented. They combine and superimpose theoretical and political considerations with biographical externalizations tied to her own doubts, existential worries and desire for recognition, while at the same time questioning and rejecting existing hierarchies and systems. A moment thus appears in Huneke's texts that is characteristic of her entire oeuvre: The wish to intellectually penetrate her own work and intensively engage with the relations and conditions surrounding her.

Huneke's artistic thought was additionally imbued with an aversion for anything static, complete and one-dimensional. She by no means transferred the elements and motifs of her work to a final state, for example, but combined and arranged them to ever new overall constellations. Accordingly, the exhibition is grasped as one of many possible perspectives on her work and should not be understood as an attempt at a linear and homogenizing (art) historiography. Quite to the contrary: It is informed by the wish to show how reserved and fragile, and at once captivating and sensitive the work and the artist appear. The exhibition also seeks to convey that Helena Huneke's work has not only lost none of its topicality, but years ago already displayed what has today become the vocabulary of entire generations of artists. 

The exhibition was developed in cooperation with the circle of friends of Helena Huneke.

A subsequent publication is planned.

Programme

Guided Tour

Thursday, 9  April 2015, 6.30pm

Children guide children & Children´s Club (6 until 12 years)

Saturday, 11 April 2015, 11am - 1.30pm

Registration until Monday, 6 April 2015, kids@halle-fuer-kunst.de

Arts and Cake

Sunday, 26 April 2015, from 3pm

"Meine Zärtlichkeit ist wie das Ephemere (...) Also bring mir später nicht Deine stigmatisierten Brüste an!" - Vortrag von Lina Launhardt

Wednesday, 29 April 2015, 7 pm

Guided Tour through Kunstverein Lüneburg and Halle für Kunst

Wednesday, 22 April 2015, 2pm

Am Ochsenmarkt 1a, Heinrich-Heine-Haus, 21335 Lüneburg

"Correlation"

Artist workshop with Bernd Plake

April 2015. Further information will follow

"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" (Tony Richardson, 1962) - Screening

Monday, 4 May 2015, 7pm

With generous support by Land Niedersachsen, Lueneburgischer Landschaftsverband, Hansestadt Lueneburg, VGH-Stiftung and Lueneburger Buergerstiftung.

Our special thanks are due to the family and circle of friends of Helena Huneke as well as the lenders Guido Baudach, Stefan Thater, Markus Selg and several private collectors.

Works by Helena Huneke (1967 – 2012) have been presented et al. at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2013), Shane Cambell, Chicago (2012), Vilma Gold, London (2011), Friends And Lovers In Underground, Hamburg (2011), Kunstverein Wolfsburg (2010), Pro Choice, Vienna (2010), Montgomery, Berlin (2009 und 2008), Brno House of Arts (2009), Kunstverein Hamburg (2005), Greene Naftali, New York (2003), Goldbekhof, Hamburg (2003),  Maschenmode, Berlin (2002), Esther Freund, Vienna (2001), Fullerton Art Museum, San Bernadino (1999), Galerie Nomadenoase, Hamburg (1998), Balduingalerie, Hamburg (1996). With Akademie Isotrop Helena Huneke had shows et al. at Grazer Kunstverein (1999), Gesellschaft fuer Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen (1999), Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (1999), Cubitt, London (1999), Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (1998) and at Kuenstlerhaus Stuttgart (1997).