Artists: Alex Hojenski & Monique S. Desto
Exhibition title: Szene 12: Erbschleifen
Venue: Westwerk, Hamburg, Germany
Date: August 29 – September 8, 2024
Photography: Alex Hojenski & Monique S. Desto / all images courtesy of the artists and Westwerk, Hamburg
We start in a setting, in a spiral of people, in an environment, at a certain time.
There are numerous and often contradictory influences shaping our being, forming our ideals and determining what we will pass on to others. THE FAMILY PROJECT digests this through dedications, gestures, memories, documents, objects and images. The result is a series of scenes, some are performed, others remain behind their titles. Following Scene1: Der verlorene Reisauflauf, a performative installation in the Atelierhaus Trittau, which took place in March 2024,, the visit to the Westwerk marks the final stage of the project for the moment. In Scene12: Erbschleifen, visitors enter a room filled with voices and perspectives on cross-generational imprints of fictional and real family histories. What is passed on can be material, it can represent attitudes, demand belonging, transport love, manifest class, or silently ride piggyback. From the painful split, to the search for alternatives, to the return to the familiar, we seem to move in loops. Taught actions and feelings are inscribed across generational boundaries.
To you, who I love dearly but who I might not let see this show.
An artist’s book was published to accompany the exhibition.
On September 6, a screening of the film “Meine keine Familie” by Paul-Julien Robert (FreibeuterFilm, 2012) took place.
Alex Hojenski (*1989) and Monique S. Desto (*1989) live and work in Hamburg. Szene12: Erbschleifen is produced in cooperation with Luka Lenzin and the voices of Hêja Netirk, Jetzmann, Sheyda Toufan, Simon Kluth and Tara Jahan Bigloei.
The project is made possible by the support of the Claussen Simon Foundation and the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung.
