Till Fellrath – författare

First monograph on the Lebanese artist The Lebanese artist Aref el Rayess (1928–2005) produced an impressive oeuvre of paintings, drawings, collages, and sculptures, that remains largely unstudied. Rayess was an independent thinker, a political man and a free spirit. He lived in many places and his works reflect the spirit of those respective countries, times and art scenes. The subjects of his works range from individuals and society, abstraction and nature. His style changed constantly, but always remained unmistakable. This first monograph is dedicated to Aref el Rayess’s multifaceted artistic practice, focusing specifically on his paintings between 1949 and 2005.

Published to accompany an exhibition in 2014, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, the book's premise builds on the artist's topical work Turbulence (2012), a 4 x 4 metre square composed of thousands of glass marbles laid directly onto the floor. Placed exactly at the centre of the exhibition, this installation lies at the heart of a linear but non-chronological trajectory whereby a number of unexpected juxtapositions echo the complexity through which the artist (Beirut, Lebanon, 1952) has managed to challenge, and at times disturb, our experience of the ordinary.The choice of the notion of turbulence as a conceptual framework for the exhibition is derived from the thematic and formal dichotomies inherent within the artist's work. These render it familiar yet perplexing, allowing for an intense aesthetic experience that is both inviting yet impenetrable, or, in other words, turbulent. Text in English and Arabic.

Paul Guiragossian (1926-1993) is one of the most influential artists to emerge from the Arab World in the 20th century. Born to Armenian parents, survivors of the Armenian Genocide, he experienced the consequences of exile, first as a child, and later on as a young refugee from Jerusalem arriving to Beirut in the late 1940s.In the '50s Paul started teaching art in several Armenian schools and worked as an illustrator. He later started his own business with his brother Antoine painting cinema banners, posters, and drawing illustrations for books. Soon after he was discovered for his art and introduced to his contemporaries after which he began exhibiting his works in Beirut and eventually all over the world.

Passage is a site-specific, two-channel video installation, which expands Nujoom Alghanem's experimentation with contemporary Arabic poetry through the language of film. Taking her quintessential 2009 poem, The Passerby Collects the Moonlight, as a point of departure, this installation explores the universal experience of displacement. This Brechtian conflation of reality and fiction, culminating in a scene that depicts Falak arriving at the pavilion in Venice, prompts the viewers to consider the parallelism between the film's three protagonists: the director, the actress and the fictional character. These three women of a similar age share the experience of similar dualities: the hidden and the revealed, fragility and power, belonging and displacement.The experience of passage and duality also permeates the design of the exhibition space, where visitors can enter and exit from either side of the pavilion. A large screen, diagonally positioned at the centre, divides the space into two symmetrical halves. The viewers are invited to engage both with Nujoom and Amal's real process of creating the film and with the cinematographic portrayal of the fictional character of Falak.

Passage is a site-specific, two-channel video installation, which expands Nujoom Alghanem's experimentation with contemporary Arabic poetry through the language of film. Taking her quintessential 2009 poem, The Passerby Collects the Moonlight, as a point of departure, this installation explores the universal experience of displacement. This Brechtian conflation of reality and fiction, culminating in a scene that depicts Falak arriving at the pavilion in Venice, prompts the viewers to consider the parallelism between the film's three protagonists: the director, the actress and the fictional character. These three women of a similar age share the experience of similar dualities: the hidden and the revealed, fragility and power, belonging and displacement.The experience of passage and duality also permeates the design of the exhibition space, where visitors can enter and exit from either side of the pavilion. A large screen, diagonally positioned at the centre, divides the space into two symmetrical halves. The viewers are invited to engage both with Nujoom and Amal's real process of creating the film and with the cinematographic portrayal of the fictional character of Falak.Text in Arabic.

The thematic exhibition Walking Through Walls presents a contemporary panorama of the artistic responses made to the detrimental effects of human-made barriers, divisions and walls, showcasing works by Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira, alongside many others. Acknowledging the location of the Gropius Bau alongside the former Berlin Wall, the exhibition offers a global perspective on the physical and psychological repercussions of coexisting in divided societies. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the exhibition is a timely exploration of how barriers can articulate feelings of vulnerability and anxiety, and represent individual and collective identities.Artists: Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira and others.Text in German.

The thematic exhibition Walking Through Walls presents a contemporary panorama of the artistic responses made to the detrimental effects of human-made barriers, divisions and walls, showcasing works by Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira, alongside many others. Acknowledging the location of the Gropius Bau alongside the former Berlin Wall, the exhibition offers a global perspective on the physical and psychological repercussions of coexisting in divided societies. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the exhibition is a timely exploration of how barriers can articulate feelings of vulnerability and anxiety, and represent individual and collective identities.Artists: Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira and others.

The publication The Architecture of Deception / Confinement / Transformation accompanies the eponymously titled exhibition trilogy at BNKR - current reflections on art and architecture in Munich and showcases 18 diverse artistic standpoints at the intersection of art and architecture.Each chapter directly corresponds to the evolving history of the exhibition space, which was originally constructed as a camouflaged air-raid bunker during the Second World War, then used as a postwar internment camp, and finally transformed into its current state as a mixed-use residential and office building.The Architecture of Deception explores notions of illusion and deception, the creation of new realities, truth versus fiction; Confinement explores notions of shelters and safety, captivity and freedom, ‘outside’ versus ‘inside’; Transformation explores notions of gentrification, decay and definition of living spaces.With contributions by the editors, David Adjaye and Nikolaus Hirsch, Isabelle Doucet, and Madeleine Freund.Artists: The Architecture of Deception: Hans Op de Beeck, Emmanuelle Lainé, Bettina Pousttchi, Gregor Sailer, Cortis & Sonderegger, The Swan Collective; The Architecture of Confinement: Ramzi Ben Sliman, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Annika Kahrs, Özgür Kar, Joanna Piotrovska; The Architecture of Transformation: Dana Awartani, Olivier Goethals, Eva Nielsen, Jeremy Shaw, Hannah Weinberger, Andrea Zittel.

A World of Endless Promise assembles a host of creative practices by 88 artists from 39 countries that are spread across 12 locations spanning several centuries of Lyon’s rich history.Whether through the issues they tackle, or the materials they use, these artists’ diverse approaches represent varied understandings of our current state of global uncertainty and has the potential to inform our thinking about generative paths of resistance. In recognising that artists, past and present, are often among the most vulnerable voices in our societies, the exhibition also brings together works of art and objects spanning millennia that bare their scars and deformities, share forgotten accounts of turmoil, and draw attention to the indelible traces of time. And it is exactly there, at the heart of their fragility, that the promise of a truly changed world begins.

The Many Lives and Deaths of Louise Brunet brings together several hundred works of art, objects and archival documents, covering diverse geographies over several millennia. From Cranach to 1960s industrial design, and ancient funerary stele to 18th century Japanese Samurai armour, the exhibition draws on the collections of local and foreign institutions. It exhumes trans-historical narratives of fragility and resistance and confronts them with a diversity of works by the biennale’s invited artists.Departing from the context of Lyon, the exhibition is designed as a retelling of the obscure 19th century story of Louise Brunet, a silk spinner from the Drôme, who after joining the revolution of the “Canuts” (silk weavers) in 1834, embarked on an arduous journey of self-reinvention, which ended in the Lyon-owned silk factories of Mount Lebanon. Louise Brunet is portrayed as an elusive figure, part real, part fictional, that appears in different guises, in various places, at several moments in history.

Beirut and the Golden Sixties revisits a turbulent chapter in the development of modernism in Beirut beginning with the 1958 Lebanon crisis and ending with the 1975 outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. Through 230 works by 34 artists and more than 300 archival documents, the exhibition examines this romanticised era of global influence in Beirut to highlight how collisions between art, culture and polarised political ideologies turned the Beirut art scene into a microcosm for larger trans-regional tensions. As a city that is arguably in and of itself a manifesto of fragility, Beirut continues to evoke both vulnerability and determination – or at least traces of it – and conjure forms of resistance, called forth by the urgency of the moment and the desire to be remembered.Artists: Shafic Abboud, Yvette Achkar, Etel Adnan, Farid Aouad, Dia al-Azzawi, Alfred Basbous, Joseph Basbous, Michel Basbous, Assadour Bezdikian, Huguette Caland, Rafic Charaf, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Georges Doche, Simone Fattal, Laure Ghorayeb, Paul Guiragossian, Farid Haddad, John Hadidian, Jumana Bayazid El-Hussein, Dorothy Salhab Kazemi, Helen El-Khal, Jean Khalifé, Simone Baltaxé Martayan, Ibrahim Marzouk, Jamil Molaeb, Fateh al-Moudarres, Nicolas A. Moufarrege, Mehdi Moutashar, Aref El Rayess, Mahmoud Said, Adel al-Saghir, Hashim Samarchi, Nadia Saikali, Mona Saudi, Juliana Seraphim, Cici Sursock, Khalil Zgaib, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige

In Collapsed Time, Christina Quarles (Chicago, 1985) shows an installation that occupies the entire exhibition space and exhibits her paintings alongside works from the Nationalgalerie collection.Quarles confronts several decades of diverse forms of artistic practices, from photography and sculpture to video and performance, that have dealt with notions of physical and psychological confinement, and their impact on the representation of the human body. The formal language of Quarles’ paintings explores the experience of living in a racialised, queer body. Her figures contend with the boundaries of identity, as they intervene with complex patterns and planes.The catalogue features a curatorial essay by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, an extended interview with Christina Quarles and a contribution by Jillian Hernandez, Associate Professor at the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, University of Florida, USA.Text in English and German.

Nadia Kaabi-Linke. Seeing Without Light features a selection of artworks by the Berlin-based artist spanning more than two decades. Through paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographs, and mixed-media installations Kaabi-Linke confronts historical erasure, and explores the hidden traces of violence that don't noticeably shape our understanding of the past and the present. For her solo exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, the artist created a new video and sound installation that was shot in Ukraine in the spring of 2023. Titled Bud’mo (a popular Ukrainian toast that loosely translates to “let us be”), the work is a poetic yet sobering acknowledgment of tragedies perpetrated by man and of cycles of life and death. Central to the exhibition is Blindstrom for Kazimir (2023), a conceptual installation that refers to a number of paintings, now preserved at the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv, which were censored and confiscated by Soviet intelligence during the 1930s. Through this work, the artist examines the role of censorship and violence in Central Europe’s art and political history.This is the third in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial text by Sam Bardaouil, an interview with the artist by co-curator Daria Prydybailo, and a contribution by Paul Ardenne that situates Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s work within a larger context.Text in English and German.

Naama Tsabar’s art overcomes the boundaries of sculpture, music, performance and architecture: Hamburger Bahnhof presents the installation and performance artist with her first institutional solo exhibition in Germany.The exhibition Estuaries focuses on four bodies of work with wall and floor pieces that also function as musical instruments and can be activated by the audience. The performance, created especially in the exhibition, is developed in close collaboration with a group of female identifying or gender non-confirming musicians and dancers from Berlin, New York and Los Angeles and will be premiered on the opening weekend. The exhibition presents on about 420 sqm four series of over twenty works that correspond with each other both visually and sonically throughout the exhibition space. Naama Tsabar reveals hidden spaces and systems in her interactive works, re-defining gendered narratives and shifting the viewing experience to a moment of active participation.This is the fourth in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial text by Ingrid Buschmann, an interview with the artist, and a contribution by Fiona McGovern that situates Naama Tsabar’s work within a larger context.Text in English and German.

Eva Fàbregas. Devouring Lovers introduces the work of Barcelona-based artist Eva Fàbregas on the occasion of her largest solo exhibition to date. Eva Fàbregas takes over the historical hall of Hamburger Bahnhof with a monumental, site-specific installation that expands the boundaries of sculpture, inviting visitors to a sensual, spatial experience. Biomorphous sculptures transform the museum’s architecture, which is characterised by industrial iron girders, into an organically grown space, blurring the borders between technically generated, and the human and non-human worlds.This is the second in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial text by Anna-Catharina Gebbers, a comprehensive interview with the artist, and essay contributions by Paul B. Preciado and Daisy Lafarge situating Eva Fàbregas’s work within a larger context.Text in English and German.

The volume provides an insight into the work of the Korean artist Lee Ufan (born 1936, lives and works in Kamakura, Japan and Paris), one of the most important representatives of the Mono-ha school in Japan and the Dansaekhwa movement in Korea, which developed in parallel to other minimal art movements.Lee’s philosophical writings shaped the artists’ collective Mono-ha (School of Things), which was active in Tokyo from 1968 to 1975. Mono-ha is one of the most influential styles of post-war art in Japan. In their sculptures and installations, the artists combined raw materials such as stones, branches or earth with industrial materials such as steel or glass. In the Dansaekhwa movement, Korean artists began to explore abstraction and materiality in the mid-1970s, especially in monochrome painting.Text in English and German.

Andrea Pichl focuses on norms and standards in everyday architecture, working with the societal ideas reflected in these guidelines. In her exhibition Wertewirtschaft / Values of Economy, she examines the exchange of money and goods between East and West Germany during the German division and afterwards.Pichl removes items and spaces from their original context and scrutinises them: Which image of humanity and notion of social coexistence imbue them? How do invisible structures such as state power, flows of capital and historical upheaval manifest themselves? Where does the public sphere end and the private one begin? When does a utopian vision turn into dystopian reality?This is the ninth edition of a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial essay by Sven Beckstette, an interview with the artist, and a contribution by Peter Richter that situates Andrea Pichl’s work within a larger context.Text in English and German.

Alexandra Pirici’s new, expansive work Attune explores the ways in which we – and our more-than-human counterparts – resemble, influence, and attune to one another to bring forth complex structures.Transforming the vast historic hall of Hamburger Bahnhof into a vibrant imaginary landscape, Pirici interweaves active sculptural elements with live performance and musical pieces of her own choreography and composition. In this immersive, at once archaic and futuristic environment, in which chemical reactions, mineral formations, and physical phenomena perform alongside living bodies, the wonder of self-structuring matter comes to the fore.This is the fifth in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial essay by Catherine Nichols, an interview with the artist by Raluca Voinea, and a contribution by Cecilia Alemani that situates Alexandra Pirici’s work within a larger context.Text in English and German.

Mark Bradford’s expansive artistic practice is firmly rooted in the dynamics of movement within the prism of racial identity. It embodies an unyielding quest for liberation, where the ceaseless rhythms of bodies become both a testament to oppression and an assertion of resilience.Through textured canvases, satirical videos, and sculptural installations imbued with layers of history and social critique, Bradford disrupts established narratives, urging contemplation on the intricate interplay of identity and societal frameworks. Emerging from the vibrant tapestry of Los Angeles, his art transcends aesthetics to probe deeply into the socio-political terrain, fostering a profound dialogue on the complexities inherent in contemporary society.This is the eighth in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial essay by Sam Bardaouil, an interview with Mark Bradford, and a compilation of selected text excerpts from previous exhibition catalogues on the artist.Text in English and German.

Marianna Simnett’s WINNER is a multichannel film installation, conceived as a three-act dance for film told through the lens of football. It is commissioned on the occasion of the 2024 European Football Championship, hosted by Germany. WINNER echoes the dramaturgy of the game and dissects its socially constructed power hierarchies, crowd psychology, and constant pressure to perform. Through the element of dance, the work restages and radically transforms football’s most impassioned moments: elation and triumph, brutality and ferocity, suffering and defeat. Simnett’s vivid hallucinatory world extends beyond the screen into the exhibition space, subverting the architecture of football and transporting it into the museum.This is the sixth in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial essay by Charlotte Knaup, an extensive interview with the artist by Sam Bardaouil, and Graham Greene’s short story “The Destructors”, elements of which Marianna Simnett used for WINNER.Text in English and German.

In 2024, the Preis der Nationalgalerie goes to Pan Daijing, Dan Lie, Hanne Lippard, and James Richards, the first time the award has gone to four artists. This new format for presenting the award looks at the exhibition as a collective conversation, seeking to expand the collection of the Nationalgalerie through the acquisition of four new productions. The prize-winners produce new works which will then be shown in this joint exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof. Pan Daijing works with sound, performance, installation, choreography and film, the art of Dan Lie addresses questions of ecology and non-human life forms, Hanne Lippard primarily uses her voice as her artistic medium, while the film-maker James Richards combines experimental techniques with a finely tuned sense for spatial arrangement.This is the seventh in a series of publications accompanying presentations of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial essay by Sam Bardaouil, an extensive interview with the artists by Agnes Rameder, as well as essay contributions by Tom Engels on Pan Daijing, Wong Binghao (Bing) on Dan Lie, Estelle Hoy on Hanne Lippard and Kristian Vistrup Madsen on James Richards.Text in English and German.

Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart is presenting the first comprehensive retrospective of the Turkish painter and opera singer Semiha Berksoy (1910–2004) in Germany. Berksoy studied at the Hochschule für Musik [Music Academy] in Berlin from 1936 to 1939, and enjoyed a distinguished career as a visual artist and an opera singer. Spanning over six decades, the exhibition focusses on Berksoy’s connection with Berlin, and explores the intersection of her two passions, emphasising her unique, spontaneous, and bold approach to painting. It introduces central themes in Berksoy’s practice: the attachment to her mother, the painter Fatma Saime, the ideological ties with Turkish cultural figures such as poet Nâzım Hikmet, her iconic opera roles, and the places and events that defined her prolific career. With more than 80 paintings and works on paper, along with a wide array of archival documents, film clips, and sound recordings, the exhibition highlights Berksoy’s significant impact on the cultural landscape in Türkiye and beyond.This is the second edition of a series of publications accompanying major retrospectives of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a number of new and historical texts on Semiha Berksoy, reproductions of all works exhibited as well as installation shots.Text in English and German.

Petrit Halilaj presents his first major institutional solo exhibition in Berlin at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. In addition to sculptures, installations and a video, new site-specific works are showcased.At the heart of the exhibition is the artist’s first opera, which explores the potential of collective dreaming to bring forth emancipatory worlds. The Berlin-based artist Petrit Halilaj creates complex works that provide space for freedom, lon­ging, intimacy and identity. His art is deeply connected to the history of his home country, Kosovo, and the cultural and political tensions in the region.This is the fourteenth in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. In addition to exhibition views and images of artworks, it comprises a curato­rial introduction by Catherine Nichols, an extensive interview by Amy Zion with Petrit Halilaj as well as an essay by Lura Limani.Text in English and German.

Berlin-based artist Annika Kahrs presents the most comprehensive selection of her works to date at Hamburger Bahnhof, exploring the intersection of art and music. Kahrs investigates the cultural and social functions of music: in an abandoned church in Lyon, at the parade of a cross-generational orchestra in an Italian village or in Berlin department stores. The exhibition features more than 10 video works, sound installations, and performances from the past 15 years, displayed in selected locations throughout Hamburger Bahnhof and in public space. A performance series on the occasion of the exhibition and celebrating the museum’s 30th anniversary will take place at Musikinstrumenten-Museum, at Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité [Medical History Museum of the Charité Hospital] and at Heilige-Geist-Kirche [Church of the Holy Spirit] in February 2026.This is the 15th in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. In addition to exhibition views and images of artworks, it comprises a curatorial introduction by Ingrid Buschmann, an extensive interview by Philipp Lange with Annika Kahrs as well as a text by Susanne Pfeffer.Text in English and German.

Toyin Ojih Odutola transforms Hamburger Bahnhof’s east cabinet into “Adijatu Straße,” a station on the fictional U22 underground line, in order to thematise the interplay of movement and history. Her narrative portraits trace the lives of various characters and incorporate every day or monumental settings, often interwoven with architectural details. Shaped by the artist’s upbringing as a West African woman in the Southern United States, Ojih Odutola’s work examines social and political dynamics through the vehicle of skin, the fluidity of expression, and the meaning of darkness and light. The artist’s first solo exhibition in Germany shows 25 works drawn on paper, board and linen.This is the 12th in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. In addition to exhibition views and images of artworks, it comprises a curato­rial introduction by Emily Finkelstein, an extensive interview by Sam Bardaouil with Toyin Ojih Odutola as well as an essay by Leigh Raiford.Text in English and German.

Klára Hosnedlová’s monumental installation for Hamburger Bahnhof’s historic hall explores themes of home, utopia and everyday life within different political systems. This is Hosnedlová’s most ambitious and expansive sculptural work to date, featuring tapestries up to nine meters high, site-specific objects, organic reliefs and large-scale embroideries. Most of the embroidery motifs are drawn from film and video recordings of performative interventions staged by the artist in Berlin. The content reflects architecture, films and novels that define the cultural memory of the border regions of what is now the Czech Republic over the past centuries. embrace marks the beginning of the CHANEL Commission, which enables artists to realise large-scale projects in the main hall of Hamburger Bahnhof.This is the eleventh in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial introduction by Anna-Catharina Gebbers, an exten­sive interview with Klára Hosnedlová as well as an essay by Ursula Ströbele.Text in English and German.

Ayoung Kim’s first solo exhibition in a German museum spans over the most recent years of her artistic practice. Using artificial intelligence, virtual reality, video, game simulations, sculpture and sonic fiction, Kim creates expansive fictional universes with their own temporal and spatial laws.Her works are often linked together by speculative narratives that are still connected to the actual world that we live in.The viewers themselves are transformed into first person players, controlling the narrative from their own point of view. Her subjects are humans, mythological beings and virtual entities who cross the boundaries between different possible realities, making possible and impossible worlds collide across different times and spaces.The exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof not only enables its audiences to enter Kim’s virtual landscapes but also extends those into the museum space where visitors can lose and re-encounter themselves over and over again.This is the tenth in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial introduction by Charlotte Knaup, an interview with Ayoung Kim by Sam Bardaouil, as well as two webtoons by the artists 1172 and cosmos.Text in English and German.