Ellen Martine Heuser at Kunstverein Göttingen

Artist: Ellen Martine Heuser

Exhibition title: Not a civilization, but you,

Curated by: Vincent Schier

Venue: Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Date: April 29 – June 12, 2022

Photography: All works courtesy the artist. Images by Lucas Melzer, © Kunstverein Göttingen

At first, the phrase “Not a civilization, but you,” seems to lead nowhere.

In the context of the exhibition that artist Ellen Martine Heuser is showing at Kunstverein Göttingen, however, the half-sentence that forms the exhibition title is an invitation to us as individuals. It is an invitation to see ourselves as part of a civilization in which we are active participants – as part of a civiliza-tion that we can help shape and for whose social order, successes and failures we bear responsibility.

From this point of departure, Ellen Martine Heuser’s exhibition in Göttingen’s Old Town Hall takes a look at a civilizational past, while analyz-ing the here and now in equal measure. The work Dorf [Village] (2015), for example, is the artistic analysis of a living space that still exists today. The individual elements of the work – well, trough, house – establish a connection to the immediate environment of the exhibition space and form a reference to the civilization that surrounds the exhibition. At the same time, works such as Mausoleum (2022) and Nekropolis (2020) refer to the antiquity of western historiography and invite the question of how these societies, their customs and achievements, shape contemporary coexistence.

Physical labor is also part of Ellen Martine Heuser’s artistic approach. The artist carries out excavations herself and takes up traditional crafts, such as bell casting. Through these actions, she brings to the surface the very forms and histories that otherwise remain hidden. At the same time, the artworks help us to order our environment and to consider our civilization.

Ellen Martine Heuser, Dorf [Village] (2015 / 2022), Trough (Mortar box, gloss spray, brick, food coloring), Flag (Synthetic material, copper nails), Fireplace (Wood cuttings), House (Construction boards, aluminum, nut screws, washers), Pathway (Marble gravel), Fence (Chipboard, pencil), Well (Water pipes), Bell (Bronze, rope)