We believe in images, because we believe
in what we see. Though, unfortunately,
we only see what we know. That is why we
constantly have to question our knowledge
about the world we live in for not to sticking
in misleading illusions, which are caused by
our limited perception. Artists can function as
role models as they produce images, which go
beyond the known in order to destroy prejudices
and clichés. Art can reveal alternative insights
on the world we live in, and this is what
Hans & Helga is aiming at.
The conceptual and curatorial framework of
the exhibition was developed according to the
given commission of curating an exhibition
presenting contemporary art from Germany.
Therefore, it deals with identity, nationality
and cultural behavior asking following questions:
Is it possible to show the typical “German”
in German Art? Can this exhibition be
very different from others, that show Turkish
artists? What could be German Art, and how
could it be presented to a Turkish audience?
What topics would it have to deal with to
make it look German? Would the use of a German
curator and German artists be enough for
making an exhibition look German?
Between Germany and Turkey there is a long
and intensive partner-and relationship, which
is based more on economics and politics than
on friendship and understanding. Close collaborations
already existed between Germany
and the Ottoman Empire. Later, from the
early Turkish Republic until today, this bilateral
relation continued. Still what do Germans
know about Turks, and what do Turks know
about Germans? Given knowledge is mostly
based on images, which come from sources of
our second reality, where visual information is
shaped according to the wishes and needs of
its producer.
This exhibition has chosen to take Hans &
Helga, two names that are used to describe the
“typical” German, known from Turkish movies
and vacation spots in Alanya, as its title.
Hans and Helga are often described by Turks
as being tall with straight blond hair and white
skin, disciplined, always on time, hard working
and honest. At the same time, Hans is supposed
to be a fat, beer drinking impolite and
cheap man, who wears shorts with sandals and
white socks. Helga is his female counterpart,
known either as a farmer’s wife on the Alps or
as a beautiful but slightly stupid woman, who
is not afraid of outer-marriage relationships.
Both, Hans and Helga describe clichés no one
wants to be attached to. Of course, there are
Hans and Helgas in Germany, but after crossing
its boarders, one might discover that the
majority of Germans does not fit this description.
In the end, Hans and Helga result from
imagination, generalization and projection
like Ali and Ayse or Mr. and Mrs. Brown.
Hans & Helga presents six contemporary artists
and one performance group from Germany.
It discusses the impossible quest of creating
a “German” Exhibition representing Germans
and German artists as well as Germany and its
art scene to a foreign audience abroad. This
exhibition will ironically and critically discuss
themes attached to the history and present
of Germany ranging from football to fascism
and nationalism, from pornography to beer
and Krautsalat (German-style cole slaw) and
from Enlightenment and Romanticism to the
Reality of ideal beauty and given ugliness. In
the end, the exhibition questions knowledge
and prejudices, reality and illusion as well as
art’s power to create images that get beyond
the known status quo of clichés, polemics and
politics.
Not all participating artists are German of origin,
but all have lived and worked for a long
time in Germany. Although nationality and
origin was not a reason for the artist selection,
the result reflects the multicultural and
multinational character of Germany, which is
massively shaped by immigration. In all artistic
positions, the spectator can find various
approaches to the topic of being German or
living in Germany.
Rudolf Reiber, a young German artist, who
works with various media like video, object
and installation, participates with three works
in this exhibition. In the video installation
„Unter vier Augen“ (tête-à-tête), the spectator
becomes a voyeur, who observes through a
peepshow hole excerpts from internet pornography,
which are set to the rhythm of a waltz
in the soundtrack. Reiber extracted the actress’
gaze into the camera without showing the actual
sex act. That is why, the dirty images occur
only in the mind of the viewer, and therefore
become his own images. Through the clash of
high and low culture (waltz and porn), the artist
ironically reveals the absurd artificiality that
surrounds porn. In the exhibition, this work
refers to the cliché of German porn, which
played an important role for introducing porn
to Turkey and spreading the word “wunderbar”.
In his monochrome painting series “German
Skies”, Rudolf Reiber shows minimal paintings,
which at the same time refer to the reality
of Germany during World War II. The
artists painted the exhibited panels in exactly
the same color that the planes of the Royal Air
Force used to camouflage them while bombing
German cities. Here, Reiber refers to Germany’s
war history, by using the aesthetic of
Minimalism. It is important to underline that
the artist successfully forms a non-formalist
version of minimal art, which is able to discuss
political issues.
The last work of the artist is the object “Untitled”,
a polished one-euro coin, where he
erased any descriptive marks, so that in the end
a high polish coin reflects the observer in order
to raise the questions of identity, national belonging
and worthiness.
Robert Barta, born in Prag, but living and
working for a long time in Munich and Berlin,
is an artist, who works with a wide range
of different materials and media. Especially
his combination of minimal aesthetic with
humorous but also subversively socially engaged
narration is outstanding. In Hans &
Helga, his work “Lucky” refers to the world
of comic using a simple element of communication.
In the piece, a metal speech bubble
seems to come right out of a pile of books. As
it does not show any letters, it must belong to
a speechless or still standing author. Though,
a damage right in the middle of the bubble
shows that someone or something has hit him
or her. Nevertheless, no reason for the damage,
12 13
and no details of the story are given by the artist.
As time stands still, just an active spectator
will be able to imagine the incident that has
just happened inside of the books.
In the other piece “Lucky”, Barta does a minimal
intervention to a pedestal by adding a
single bill under it, where it looks as if it has
been forgotten after cleaning up an art show
or an art auction. The work forms a subversive
critique of our art world’s commercial side
by changing the “holy” aura of a pedestal into
something more profane.
System HM2T is a German performance
group, in which the artists Helge Meyer and
Marco Teubner deal with the body as a physical
tool but also a poetic entity. They participate
in Hans & Helga with “The German
peepshow”, a work, for which the performers
construct a wooden hut inside the gallery
space. During the performance, System
HM2T reacts on the idea of cultural identity
and raises questions like: What is it to be German?
Which parameters underline a German
iconography? The group uses body work, irony
and the cliché of the peepshow to experiment
within this hut inside the gallery.
Besides this life performance, which is later
shown as a video documentation, another documentation
of the performance “I promise…”
is shown in Hans & Helga. Here, double-sided
tape works as bounds that make the performer’s
body movements more difficult. At
the same time, this handicap, the endless hug
they bind the artists in, works as a metaphor
for collaboration and social bonding.
Daniel Man, a Chinese painter, who has lived
and worked for a long time in Germany, is famous
for his multi-layered wall paintings, in
which he uses a huge variety of artistic forms
and materials. In Hans & Helga, he installs a
mural, which reflects on national identity as
well as on the architectural context of the gallery.
In his work, layers of elements of folklore
as well as various symbols discuss the idea of a
house, where the spectator finds himself confronted
with a spectacular aesthetic and numerous
materials that lead him to questions of
identity. Man’s eclectic aesthetic, in which he
combines western painting styles with Chinese
painting tradition as well as graffiti, responds
to both the architectural and social environment
of its location. Therefore, the work in the
exhibition becomes a great example for a sitespecific
painting.
Emanuel Fanslau, a German frottage and installation
artist living and working in Munich,
shows frottages that depict areas of his studio,
where he wrapped details of the space with
canvas using suction to capture the surface’s
texture with spray paint. Relocating the imprints
of the private spaces in Munich to the
public gallery in Istanbul, the work discusses
questions of travelling, geographical contexts
and national belonging. Besides
these frottages, Fanslau shows objects from the
“Crash Lamps” series, in where he translocates
smashed dreams into the cosy private space of
living rooms. There, a loss of modern man’s
dream turns into a decorative element. So, the
work refers to the breakdown of modern illusions
in society and their transformation into
harmless decoration.
Motoko Dobashi, a Japanese drawer, who lives
and works in Munich, is well known for her
large scale wall drawings. In Hans & Helga,
she shows a site-specific mural in combination
with several drawings on paper, in which
she creates a new form of mountain idyll for
modern society. There, modern man can find
a refuge, far away from all the social obligations.
Her combinations of western and Japanese
painting tradition as well as the clash of
elements of pop culture, Manga and site specific
motifs give her work an eclectic approach,
which responds to various art historical movements
as much as it deals with imagination
without neglecting the reality of the paintings
context. The work has connections with German
Romanticism and Biedermeier, where the
ideal forest was understood as a magic representation
for the greatness of god and the
country during the good old days.
Jan Löchte, an interdisciplinary and conceptually
working artist from Stuttgart, participates
with the work „Germany“, where he shows
typical German sites and buildings, which are
well known or people are proud of. The whole
work is made of German food as food is a very
simple difference between cultures and an important
part of stereotypes about other countries.
The other work is called Mobile Plattform
nach oben, where he creates his personal
way upstairs, to reach a higher position above
other people. There, one can enjoy all the advantages
like a better view but will be alone
because the platform is for one person only.
As we are surrounded by images, live with
them, communicate through them, sell goods
with them and understand the world because
of them, we have to question their impact on
the way we understand and construct reality.
TV, internet and the thousands of pages in
newspapers, magazines and books overfill our
world, so that our first (natural) and second
(medial) realities are inseparable intermingled
in our visual culture, where, since the digital
revolution, the production of images is easy,
its sharing is fast and its consumption is even
faster. For following the fragmented character
of our status quo, this exhibition is not homogeneous
but pluralistic and heterogeneous. It
is not an overview-show of German art, but
presents fragmental insights on various artistic
tendencies and strategies that artists in Germany
use today. The artists of Hans & Helga
deconstruct cultural images, in order to ironically
play with and seriously criticize prejudices
and clichés in order to reveal the limitation
of our reality constructions.
Also, alles wunderbar und Prost meine Damen
und Herren!
Marcus Graf

Curator: Marcus Graf