Halbe Halbe – Floating in, Swerving out, Doing Art and Theory

On June 14, the individual projects of the exhibition will be presented in lecture-performances from 6 to 8 p.m. in the premises of the Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst (GAK) Bremen. Then, at 8:30 p.m., the vernissage of the exhibition "Halbe Halbe" will begin on the HfK ship "Dauerwelle". The exhibition is open from June 14 to 19. With the exhibition, the HfK will also participate in the Lange Nacht der Museen, Bremen’s Long Night of Museums, on June 18.

"The PhD candidates have dedicated themselves to projects and research activities that transcend classical disciplinary boundaries," said Prof. Dr. Andrea Sick, Vice Rector for Artistic Research and International Affairs at the Hochschule für Künste. "This is also reflected in the name of the event. 'Halbe Halbe‘ symbolizes that there is no demarcation between art and theory in the exhibition, as well as in the practice of the exhibitors," said Prof. Dr. Sick. "The title, however, naturally also expresses a certain irony, an ironic self-reference, which refers to the impossibility of the demand to maintain such a strict division between art and theory in all areas and to always think along these lines in the work. A precisely calculable and measurable interrelation simply cannot be accounted for," emphasized Prof. Dr. Sick.

Then again, the diverse research positions presented in "Halbe Halbe - Floating in, Swerving out, Doing Art and Theory" show a wide range of possibilities for dealing with this entanglement and also for questioning it. The result is an exhibition of works in which parts can at the same time have similarities and be linked together, differentiate themselves from one another, and yet always retain their uniqueness.

By looking into the abyss, Luiz Zanotello examines its relation to the “unknown” and defines its feelings of understanding time, something Elisa Storelli is also researching, along with the role of time’s communication, digital materiality, and the perception of missing memory, like the one that Elburuz Fidan gazes into with his archival material that produces a counter-knowledge through a Queer lens.

On a landscape, Irena Kukric stages scenes for invisible actors and performance installations, similar to Izabella Dobielewska, who changes the centricity of the human while deconstructing our relationships with mountains on an intimate level.

On a different plane, Harm Coordes creates experiences, using community building to research fashion practices that criticize neoliberal structures, somewhat like the capitalistic principles dismantled by Henrik Nieratschker in his occupation as an artist at the Warehouse, as well as through an analysis of digitalizing labor.

A model that is different from the cell models that Joosten Müller researches while examining the changes in the historical course of how humans learn and proposing new didactical approaches to understanding our tiniest living parts. Together with the above-mentioned, all-over critical approaches and crises, Shoey Nam introduces the relevance of laughter as a possible survival strategy in serious situations.

Since 2020, the HfK has offerd the opportunity to do a PhD within the framework of the art- and science-based PhD program.

The binational PhD program is currently organized in cooperation with Leiden University (Academy of Creative and Performing Arts and in cooperation with Royal Academy of Art The Hague) and the Imperial University of Groningen (together with Minerva Art Academy Groningen) as well as with the University of Gothenburg (with HDK-Valand - Academy of Art and Design). Future plans include collaboration with other international partner universities.

By combining applied research, artistic practice, theoretical-scientific grounding and individual supervision, the binational PhD program at the HfK makes an important contribution to artistic-scientific and artistic-design research in Germany.

The doctoral students qualify for a future career at precisely these innovative interfaces. The focus is on artistic-design practice, which forms the basis for the doctoral project, the resulting research activities and new ways of knowing and understanding.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Sick
Vice Rector for Artistic Research and International Affairs at HfK
E-Mail: a.sick@hfk-bremen.de

Dr. Kathrin Gollwitzer-Oh
Head of Artistic Research Support and Research Coordination
E-Mail: k.gollwitzer-oh@hfk-bremen.de