HAMBURG.- Sand is the framework of the world, the foundation of modern technologies, the seemingly inexhaustible, invisible yet fundamental material of built habitats and digital communication devices. In order to extract it, beaches are transported away, sea- beds sucked out, gigantic pits are excavated, mountains piled up. Wars are fought on and over sand, villages sink into the ground, islands are inundated by the sea. In concrete, asphalt, glass, telescopes, fibre optic cables, chips, mobile phones and satellites, sand is below and above us, is an extension of our bodies. At the same time, however, sand manifests countless stories of dispossession, forced resettlement, persistent colonial power relations, oppression and exploitation; sand also holds manifold spiritual meaning as the (un)resting place of bones.
!Hū is the word for sand in Khoekhoegowab, but also the word for both earth and land as well. With “ai” added, !hū becomes !hūai meaning The Face of Earth, considered sacred. Khoekhoegowab in its many dialects, is said to be an endangered language spoken and recognised in Namibia and South Africa.
The exhibition Sand !Hū Sand at
Kunsthaus Hamburg spans music and the visual and performing arts. The presentation has its origins in the music and theatre project The House of Falling Bones (Kampnagel Hamburg/Kammerspiele München/Theater- spektakel Zürich, 2018) about Namibian folktales in which colonial history has left its traces. It builds on the experiences of and encounters between the artist, musician and activist Garth Erasmus (Cape Town), the artist and musician Ruth May (Hamburg), the performance/spoken word artist Nesindano Xhoes Namise (Windhoek) and the musician and lyricist Peter Thiessen (Hamburg). In the jointly designed space in the exhibition hall at Kunsthaus Hamburg, the four actors explore stories with and around sand. In the process, they examine their relationship to the landscape, earth, planet and people as well as the colonial history of Germany, Namibia and South Africa. Numerous conversations and discussions on joint journeys have informed their artistic work. The material sand as the starting point for these discussions has led the artists to the different regions of Namibia, to the sandy stretches of the Cape Flats in Cape Town, to the sand pits of northern Germany and to Alpine quarries.
Together, yet each with their different background of experience, they went on a search for traces there.
Performances, workshops, talks and concerts will be held within the setting of an expansive installation, but during the exhibition this is also the setting where rehearsals, productions or improvisations are to take place. The artistic works, for the most part created for the exhibition, consist of ephemeral materials such as fabric and sand, the sounds of dry ice and conversations on journeys. They revolve around different approaches to the world; fragile borderlines between man/natur/culture/technology; the transitions between the animate /inanimate/present/ghostly. Starting from the material sand, visual, acoustic and performative means intertwine to tell stories from different perspectives and in hybrid formats.
The exhibition will be accompanied by several events in which, in addition to the main initiators, other international guests (including the Gardening Projects Aio Da Go and Sisters of the Soil, members of the bands Khoi Khonnexion, Kreidler and Kante) are invited and will participate, allowing the audience to experience the exhibition space at the Kunsthaus Hamburg selectively and collectively.
Curator: Katja Schroeder
