Address: Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Gustav-Adolf-Straße 140, 13086 Berlin

Opening hours:

30 June – 1 July 18, 2–7 pm

2–5 July 18, 4–7 pm and by appointment 

Opening: 29 June 18, 7 pm

On June 29, 2018, a space station will land at the Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz and present UFO Works by Hamburg artist Annette Wehrmann along with works by students from the Heinz-Brandt-Schule (Berlin-Weißensee).

In January 2018, students at the Heinz-Brandt-Schule along with Katharina Gerszewski (Ort des Gegen e. V./ Association for the administration of the Annette Wehrmann Estate) embarked on an artistic and creative examination of Annette Wehrmann’s (1961–2010) work.

Inspired by Wehrmann’s oeuvre, which is marked by a continuous dialogue with the world, the students sketched, photographed, and analyzed social and institutional grievances and developed their own alternative propositions. The students’ works address, among other things, institutionalized and individual exclusion as well as themes like environmental pollution and progressing climate change. The group presented their first sketches and observations to an audience at KW Institute for Contemporary Art on March 12 in an open workshop (see also: Gegen-Orte)

Since April 2018, the students have increasingly engaged with Wehrmann’s UFO Works. Contrary to any initial associations, these UFOs are not extraterrestrial spacecrafts, so much as constructions through which one acquaints oneself with unknown and even utopian world views or develops their own world view and is given space to discuss it. Berlin artist Malte Bartsch joined the group during this phase of production to develop visitor-accessible UFOs with the students that function as spaces of dissent.

The sculptures, designs, drawings, and concepts that emerged from this process will be presented alongside Annette Wehrmann’s UFO-readings and UFO-works in an exhibition jointly developed by the students from June 28 to July 5, 2018 at the Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin Weißensee.

Concept: Katharina Gerszewski

Artistic Directors: Malte Bartsch, Katharina Gerszewski, Alexandra Kersten

Project management: Katja Zeidler

Project assistance: Duygu Örs, Sabrina Herrmann

Gegen (…) bauen! is a project of the cooperating partners KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Heinz-Brandt Schule. It is facilitated by the State Program “Kulturagenten für kreative Schulen Berlin” of the German Children and Youth Foundation (DKJS), and supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.