Calender

with Joachim Bessing (author & journalist, Berlin), Wachs & Gold & Verena Issel (artist, Berlin)

The terms ‘departing’ and ‘arriving’ are understood equally in a geographical sense and as symbols of life changes; they are associated with courage, hope and security, as well as with desires and fears. The events in this series, held as part of the exhibition Uncertain Maps, each bring together an author and an artist who engage with the theme in different yet very similar ways.

Joachim Bessing sends his protagonist to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa: what he is looking for there and who he really is are constantly changing. However, what he finds in the Ethiopian capital proves to be just as fickle and contradictory – a city about which he knows next to nothing and where, amidst corrugated iron walls and colonial façades, he has a wide variety of encounters and experiences in a world overshadowed by colonial atrocities.

Verena Issel’s interest in different countries and cultures has taken her on travel grants and artist-in-residence programmes to Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Lithuania and Papua New Guinea, amongst other places. Her art, which plays with a wide variety of materials – often everyday ones – is inspired not least by what she observes and discovers on her journeys. She also keeps a keen eye on the social and political conditions in each place. In 2023/24, a large-scale installation by Verena Issel was on display in the exhibition Bodies, Grids and Ecstasy at KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION.

with Katharina Döbler (author & journalist, Berlin), Dein ist das Reich & Juergen Staack (artist, Düsseldorf)

The terms ‘departing’ and ‘arriving’ are understood equally in a geographical sense and as symbols of life changes; they are associated with courage, hope and security, as well as with desires and fears. The events in this series, held as part of the exhibition Uncertain Maps, each bring together an author and an artist who engage with the theme in different yet very similar ways.
Based on personal documents and archive material, Katharina Döbler tells the story of her grandparents and parents in her book Dein ist das Reich, who lived at the Neuendettelsau Mission in New Guinea, and thus sheds light on a largely unknown chapter of German history: the relationship between the Christian sense of mission, colonialism and racism.

The Düsseldorf-based artist Juergen Staack has explored in depth the language ‘Unserdeutsch’, which is now spoken by only around 100 people on an island in Papua New Guinea; it is a group language that originated amongst orphans and is composed of various idioms.
Staack has transferred historical photographs found on the island onto sand as works of art; these are gently vibrated by a sound transducer, causing the portraits of people who can still speak Unserdeutsch to slowly disintegrate.
In 2019, works by Juergen Staack were on display and could be heard in the exhibition Listen to the Image, Look at the Sound at KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION.

Drawings on the road in KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION

Aus dem Koffer + (= Out of the suitcase) brings together artists who work in the field of  drawing and raises the profile of the medium within contemporary art. The focus lies on the direct engagement with the works and on the dialogue between the audience and the participants. Aus dem Koffer + explores alternative forms of presentation beyond the traditional exhibition format. The artists from the organising teams in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne invite fellow artists to contribute and pack a suitcase of drawings. They travel to different locations with these suitcases to showcase the works. The host institutions and teams organise their part of the event independently.

Further information can be found here.

The exploration of the medium of drawing, which plays a central role in the exhibition Uncertain Maps, is set to be further explored through the participation of Aus dem Koffer +. During a two-day event at KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION, the organising teams from Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne will unpack their suitcases and present the drawings they have brought with them. This will be accompanied, for the first time, by a presentation featuring drawings by artists from Düsseldorf.

Saturday, September 5, 2026, noon – 3 pm
Suitcase Hamburg and suitcase Cologne

Sunday, September 6, 2026, noon – 3 
Suitcase Berlin and suitcase Düsseldorf

Drawings on the road in KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION

Aus dem Koffer + (= Out of the suitcase) brings together artists who work in the field of  drawing and raises the profile of the medium within contemporary art. The focus lies on the direct engagement with the works and on the dialogue between the audience and the participants. Aus dem Koffer + explores alternative forms of presentation beyond the traditional exhibition format. The artists from the organising teams in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne invite fellow artists to contribute and pack a suitcase of drawings. They travel to different locations with these suitcases to showcase the works. The host institutions and teams organise their part of the event independently.

Further information can be found here.

The exploration of the medium of drawing, which plays a central role in the exhibition Uncertain Maps, is set to be further explored through the participation of Aus dem Koffer +. During a two-day event at KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION, the organising teams from Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne will unpack their suitcases and present the drawings they have brought with them. This will be accompanied, for the first time, by a presentation featuring drawings by artists from Düsseldorf.

Saturday, September 5, 2026, noon – 3 pm
Suitcase Hamburg and suitcase Cologne

Sunday, September 6, 2026, noon – 3 pm
Suitcase Berlin and suitcase Düsseldorf