[spectre] THIS LAND IS MY LAND

[shahram entekhabi]

You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition on 27  
October, 7 p.m.

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THIS LAND IS MY LAND
28.10.- 3.12.2006
Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Oranienstr. 25, 10999  
Berlin
daily 12.00-18.30 Uhr
Projektraum 1 Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Mariannenpl. 2, 10997  
Berlin
  daily 12.00 - 19.00 Uhr

Artists among others:
Petra Bauer, Katinka Bock, Shahram Entekhabi, Harun Farocki, Ingo  
Gerken,
  Lise Harlev, Susan Hiller, Thomas Locher, Marisa Maza, Florian  
Wüst, Jun Yang

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The exhibition THIS LAND IS MY LAND takes a critical look at  
contemporary
global phenomena like the retrogressive search for national values and
symbols as well as the longing for a collective creation of meaning.  
THIS
LAND IS MY LAND thus presents artistic projects that take Germany as an
example to ascertain that national identity is not a fixed entity but a
complex, heterogeneous, contradictory, and modifiable construction.
The idea of “nation” is produced and played out by different interest
groups. This implies diverse inclusion and exclusion mechanisms: so- 
called
strangers have to adapt to the culture’s national order. In reality,
however, Germany is a globalized immigration country in which the  
notion of
an established national order seems outdated. Nations today are hybrid
creations composed of various ever-changing cultural, social, and ethnic
groups. National cultural identity is subject to an unfinished process.
Nevertheless, Germany’s “majority society” requires migrants to  
assimilate
to an indefinable German culture (catchphrase: integration courses)  
or its
idea of multi-culti degrades the ethnically diverse to folklore (e.g.,
Carnival of Cultures, Tropical Islands, and similar undertakings).

THIS LAND IS MY LAND intends to identify the workings of the  
mechanisms of
inclusion and exclusion as well as the power structures of  
definition, break
down well-worn patterns of thought regarding national self- 
sufficiency, and
sensitize people for subtly diversified points of view. Artists have  
been
invited whose work utilizes the field of conflict known as cultural  
identity
as a productive gap, observes the overlapping of national fictions with
everyday life, and identifies the instability of traditional,  
national, and
cultural classifications. The artists examine the rituals, emblems, and
codes of national self-representation (Fogarasi, Heuck, Locher,  
Yang), go
looking for traces of identity in Germany (Haberkorn/Johne, Hiller,  
Grisey,
Wüst), reflect multiple identity by taking up self-images of migrant  
youth
(Bock, Maza) or imagining role-plays (Blank/rentagerman, Entekhabi,  
Elsner,
Gerken, Harlev), and analyze the role of the media in constructing  
images of
others and oneself (Bauer, Farocki, Raether).
Accompanying the exhibition will be a daily film program in  
Projektraum 1 at
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (program: Sabine Winkler) and a weekly  
evening
program with discussions and lectures at Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende
Kunst (NGBK).

The exhibition is a project by the NGBK group THIS LAND IS MY LAND  
(Dorothee
Bienert, Shahram Entekhabi, Marisa Maza, Marina Sorbello, Antje Weitzel,
Sabine Winkler) in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, where it  
took
place from May 18 to July 3, 2006. Conceived by Dorothee Bienert, Marina
Sorbello, and Antje Weitzel, THIS LAND IS MY LAND will be shown in an
expanded form in the rooms of NGBK and the Projektraum 1 at Kunstraum
Kreuzberg/Bethanien in Berlin, whom we thank for their support.

A brochure and a catalogue accompanying the exhibition are published  
by NGBK
(ISBN: 3-938515-05-8).

  www.ngbk.de