The MdbK presents Harry Hachmeister’s first major solo exhibition at a museum. Housed in a site-specific installation within the MdbK, the show takes the form of an ongoing construction setup, incorporating elements of a building site and a fitness studio, where Hachmeister shows ceramics, reverse glass paintings and regular paintings.
The design of the exhibition space gives it the feel of a snapshot of an ongoing reconstruction, frozen in dignified stillness. The ephemerality of the situation – inherent to both building sites and conversion work at a museum – is complemented with a distinct atmosphere: a particular sense of possibility, of transformations and new beginnings. Hachmeister plays with the shift in meaning of everyday objects within the context of an exhibition by integrating elements of construction work with great ingenuity and staging his art in a playful manner.
The subjects on his canvases and behind the glass, the ceramic objects: all are casually arranged and placed throughout, and all refer to states of no-more and not-yet. Processes of change, provisory arrangements and in-between states are the points of departure for Hachmeister’s artistic exploration of (gender) identities, bodies and their attributions.
As a visual artist Harry Hachmeister (born in Leipzig in 1979) has been active until 2019 under the name Grit Hachmeister. He studied Fine Arts with a focus on Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) under Prof. Timm Rautert from 1999 through 2007. Today he pursues the themes of his art in interdisciplinary works, ranging from photography to drawing, painting and ceramics.
Various photographic portraits by Harry Hachmeister will be on view as interventions throughout the revised presentation of the collection on the second floor of the MdbK until mid-2022.
On April 1, 6 pm, there will be an artist talk with Harry Hachmeister and Dr. Birgit Bosold (Schwules Museum Berlin) in the exhibition. Admission is free of charge.
An artist book will be published on occasion of the exhibition, featuring views of the installation alongside reproductions of some of Hachmeister’s past and current works. Designed by Anna Lena von Helldorff and including texts by Dr. Birgit Bosold, Claudia Gülzow, Ulrike Kremeier and Christin Müller the book will be published in German and English by Spector Books, Leipzig. 112 pages, softcover, ISBN 978-3-95905-554-3. Available from 2nd February 2022 for the special price of 22 € directly at the MdbK or for the regular price of 28 € via regular bookstores. On April 1, 6 pm, Harry Hachmeister presents the catalogue "Harry" in conversation with the freelance artist and author Christin Müller at MZIN.
The exhibition and the accompanying publication are realised with kind support of Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn.
