Specials


Fig: Maja Mirek
(Re)Spacing – „unearthing“
Dance performance by and with Maja Mirek + Borys Jaźnicki
Tuesday, 21.11.2023, 7 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
Offical greeting by Frank-Tilo Becher, Mayor of the City of Giessen
In cooperation with Stadttheater Giessen


Fig.: Maja Mirek
“(Re)Spacing” goes into its second round: the dancers Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki perform “unearthing”, a work inspired by the emotional darkness of Sibylle Ruppert’s works at the Kunsthalle Giessen.
The performance series “(Re)Spacing”, a collaboration between the Stadttheater Giessen dance ensemble and the Kunsthalle Giessen, returns for its second round in November. The dancers Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki were inspired by the last exhibition Dancing in Darkness by the artist Sibylle Ruppert. In “unearthing”, they take up the motif of bodies tearing apart and merging, transcending the boundaries between inside and outside, between human and animal. The dancers make reference to ancient mythologies. The performance of “unearthing” will take place once on 21 November 2023 at 19:00 in the Kunsthalle Gießen. Admission is free. Frank-Tilo Becher, Mayor of the City of Giessen, will give a welcoming speech before the performance.
The performance series “(Re)Spacing”, a collaboration between the Stadttheater Giessen dance ensemble and the Kunsthalle Giessen, returns for its second round in November. The dancers Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki were inspired by the last exhibition Dancing in Darkness by the artist Sibylle Ruppert. In “unearthing”, they take up the motif of bodies tearing apart and merging, transcending the boundaries between inside and outside, between human and animal. The dancers make reference to ancient mythologies. The performance of “unearthing” will take place once on 21 November 2023 at 19:00 in the Kunsthalle Gießen. Admission is free. Frank-Tilo Becher, Mayor of the City of Giessen, will give a welcoming speech before the performance.

Fig: Maja Mirek
(Re)Spacing – „Jamais-vu“
Dance performance by and with Emma Jane Howley + Jeff Pham
Thursday, 13.07.2023, 7 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
In cooperation with Stadttheater Giessen



Fig.: Maja Mirek
With the series “(Re)Spacing”, the successful cooperation between the Kunsthalle Gießen and the Stadttheater Gießen will relaunch in July 2023, with members of the dance ensemble developing choreographies and performances that will be shown uniquely at the Kunsthalle.
The first piece is the dance performance “Jamais-vu” by and with Emma Jane Howley and Jeff Pham. In it, the two dancers are inspired by the recent exhibition Forced Amnesia by the Luxembourg artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez, which showed fantastic worlds and creatures in the form of sculptures and digitally generated images and video animations that seem to encroach on our everyday world. In their performance, Howley and Pham let these creatures materialise once again in modified form and deal with the question of how an encounter with the foreign and the other could proceed. What form of contact and cooperation can be imagined between these beings themselves, as well as between them and us humans?
The first piece is the dance performance “Jamais-vu” by and with Emma Jane Howley and Jeff Pham. In it, the two dancers are inspired by the recent exhibition Forced Amnesia by the Luxembourg artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez, which showed fantastic worlds and creatures in the form of sculptures and digitally generated images and video animations that seem to encroach on our everyday world. In their performance, Howley and Pham let these creatures materialise once again in modified form and deal with the question of how an encounter with the foreign and the other could proceed. What form of contact and cooperation can be imagined between these beings themselves, as well as between them and us humans?


Fig: Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano
„WATER AS AN ENGINEERED PLANETARY SPACE“
Prof. Klement Tockner in dialogue with Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano
Lecture: Friday, 03.11.2023, 6 pm, Hermann-Levi-Saal Giessen
In cooperation with Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
We are pleased to announce that our successful cooperation with the Panel on Planetary Thinking will continue next year. The Think Tank at Justus Liebig University Giessen explores issues around sustainability from a planetary perspective. This July, two fellows of the Residence Fellowship were already guests at the Kunsthalle with the interim exhibition Unstable Planteary Spaces and presented, for example, the development of the Lake Chad region using satellite images (Adenike Titilope Oladosu).
The closing event this year will be the lecture WATER AS AN ENGINEERED PLANETARY SPACE – in the framework of the Planetary Lectures – by Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner. The Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research studies freshwaters, which hold a remarkable biodiversity and are fundamental for human well-being. Due to overexploitation, habitat degradation, invasion, climate change, dam construction as well as emerging stressors such as light, noise and synthetic chemicals, freshwaters are at risk. New management strategies need to be developed to counteract the decline in biodiversity. After the lecture, thought-provoking talks by this year’s Fellow Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano will open up the discussion to the audience.
The event will take place as a hybrid event in the Hermann-Levi-Saal in the Kunsthalle Giessen, as well as online. The lecture will be streamed online via BigBlueButton. If you are interested in participating, please register with panel@planet.uni-giessen.de until November 1st.
Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner is Director General of the Senckenberg Senckenberg Society for Nature Research and Professor of Ecosystem Sciences at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main (since 2021). He served as President of the Austrian Science Fund FWF (2016–2020), Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the Free University of Berlin (2007–2020), and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin (2007–2016).
Klement Tockner is an internationally renowned freshwater ecologist, particularly in the research fields of biodiversity, ecosystem science, and environmental management. He has published about 250 scientific papers, including a comprehensive book on European rivers (Rivers of Europe, Elsevier; 2nd edition in 2022).
Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano (Bogotá, 1991) is a visual artist and writer driven by questions about the interdependence of technology, territory, and ecology, seeking to imagine media beyond extraction. In addition to working with text, audio-visual media and digital space, he has also produced laboratories that promote collaborative experimentations with digital and analogue technologies. He has been an adjunct professor in the art departments of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague (The Netherlands) and Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), and in the Digital Narratives program at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). He has also been a programming coordinator at Plataforma Bogotá and at Espacio Odeón in Colombia.
The closing event this year will be the lecture WATER AS AN ENGINEERED PLANETARY SPACE – in the framework of the Planetary Lectures – by Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner. The Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research studies freshwaters, which hold a remarkable biodiversity and are fundamental for human well-being. Due to overexploitation, habitat degradation, invasion, climate change, dam construction as well as emerging stressors such as light, noise and synthetic chemicals, freshwaters are at risk. New management strategies need to be developed to counteract the decline in biodiversity. After the lecture, thought-provoking talks by this year’s Fellow Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano will open up the discussion to the audience.
The event will take place as a hybrid event in the Hermann-Levi-Saal in the Kunsthalle Giessen, as well as online. The lecture will be streamed online via BigBlueButton. If you are interested in participating, please register with panel@planet.uni-giessen.de until November 1st.
Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner is Director General of the Senckenberg Senckenberg Society for Nature Research and Professor of Ecosystem Sciences at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main (since 2021). He served as President of the Austrian Science Fund FWF (2016–2020), Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the Free University of Berlin (2007–2020), and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin (2007–2016).
Klement Tockner is an internationally renowned freshwater ecologist, particularly in the research fields of biodiversity, ecosystem science, and environmental management. He has published about 250 scientific papers, including a comprehensive book on European rivers (Rivers of Europe, Elsevier; 2nd edition in 2022).
Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano (Bogotá, 1991) is a visual artist and writer driven by questions about the interdependence of technology, territory, and ecology, seeking to imagine media beyond extraction. In addition to working with text, audio-visual media and digital space, he has also produced laboratories that promote collaborative experimentations with digital and analogue technologies. He has been an adjunct professor in the art departments of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague (The Netherlands) and Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), and in the Digital Narratives program at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). He has also been a programming coordinator at Plataforma Bogotá and at Espacio Odeón in Colombia.

Photo:Paul Hess
Unstable Planetary Spaces
Adenike Titilope Oladosu + Don’t Follow the Wind with Ahmet Öğüt and Eva & Franco Mattes
Artists Talk: Thursday, 06.07.2023, 6 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
Duration: 06. – 11.07.2023
In cooperation with Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
First time guest at Kunsthalle Giessen: The Panel on Planetary Thinking is a think tank at JLU Giessen that explores sustainability issues from a planetary perspective and communicates them to the public. From July 6th to July 11th 2023, fellows of the “Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence” program will present the results of their projects on the theme of UNSTABLE PLANETARY SPACES. The exhibition will be complemented by filmic installations and an Artists Talk on 6th July 2023. In tandems between art and science, the fellows of our innovative fellowship program work on the meaning of not simply live on an ever-changing planet, but actually being a part of it.
Nigerian climate activist Adenike Titilope Oladosu (I Lead Climate Action) examines satellite imagery of the Lake Chad region – a body of water that has lost a full 90% of its volume since the 1960s. By this, she provides insights into the multi-layered conflicts of a vital space for the region’s people and wildlife, and thus creates a basis for a peaceful conflict resolution.
UK-based curator and author Jason Waite(Don’t Follow the Wind)shows how non-human creatures make the radioactively contaminated Fukushima exclusion zone their home again. Comparing video footage from Fukushima to scenes captured in forests around Giessen, his project documents the transitory nature of planetary spaces in the presence and absence of various living beings.
The Artists Talk will take place in English and will be introduced in German. Pre-registration (panel@planet.uni-giessen.de) is requested.
Nigerian climate activist Adenike Titilope Oladosu (I Lead Climate Action) examines satellite imagery of the Lake Chad region – a body of water that has lost a full 90% of its volume since the 1960s. By this, she provides insights into the multi-layered conflicts of a vital space for the region’s people and wildlife, and thus creates a basis for a peaceful conflict resolution.
UK-based curator and author Jason Waite(Don’t Follow the Wind)shows how non-human creatures make the radioactively contaminated Fukushima exclusion zone their home again. Comparing video footage from Fukushima to scenes captured in forests around Giessen, his project documents the transitory nature of planetary spaces in the presence and absence of various living beings.
The Artists Talk will take place in English and will be introduced in German. Pre-registration (panel@planet.uni-giessen.de) is requested.
Archive
WHAT’S ON YOUR WALL?
In cooperation with the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung, the Kunsthalle Gießen has launched a new series entitled ‘What’s on your wall’, in which it asks people working in the cultural sector with a connection to the Kunsthalle what hangs on their walls – at home or in the office.
All features appear once monthly in the GAZ and on the Kunsthalle Gießen’s digital platforms.
All features appear once monthly in the GAZ and on the Kunsthalle Gießen’s digital platforms.
DE_CONSTRUCTIONS

Choreographic-performative interventions during the intervals between exhibitions
The Kunsthalle Giessen in cooperation with the Stadttheater Giessen / Tanzcompagnie Giessen
During the intervals between deinstallation and installation of an exhibition, dancers from the Tanzcompagnie Gießen will present independently developed choreographies that draw on the Kunsthalle Gießen. The choreographic-performative interventions respond to the unique situation within the Kunsthalle, which is otherwise unseen by visitors.
The Kunsthalle Giessen in cooperation with the Stadttheater Giessen / Tanzcompagnie Giessen
During the intervals between deinstallation and installation of an exhibition, dancers from the Tanzcompagnie Gießen will present independently developed choreographies that draw on the Kunsthalle Gießen. The choreographic-performative interventions respond to the unique situation within the Kunsthalle, which is otherwise unseen by visitors.