Uncertain Maps

Maps, Borders and Movements

The group exhibition Uncertain Maps is based on the fascination which maps and city plans hold for artists. It takes us to real countries and cities, but also into complex imaginary worlds. In addition to guided tours through the exhibition, there will be a large-scale projection of Borders and Movements by Shpresa Faqi. In her travel projects – which she will also discuss herself in KAI 10 – the artist explores refugee movements and other forms of motion, cultural encounters, and internal and external boundaries, reflecting on these themes from various perspectives and always without prejudice. The projection is a collage of drawings, photographs and films created in Germany, England, South-Eastern Europe and South America.

Screening: Borders and Movements by Shpresa Faqi
8.30 pm & 10.30 pm

Guided tour through the exhibition
10 pm & 11 pm

Curator Ludwig Seyfarth introduces the exhibition Uncertain Maps and presents selected works.

Tickets for all participating venues are available in advance online, at KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION and at the box office for €17.00 (€12.00 concessionary).

Anne Weber (author, Paris) & Esther Ernst (artist, Berlin & Solothurn) on traveling and discovering foreign countries and cities

Departing – arriving is an initiative of the Literaturbüro NRW. The two terms are understood both geographically and symbolically, representing life changes. They are linked to courage, hope, and security, as well as to desires and fears.

The events in this series, held at KAI 10 in the context of the exhibition Uncertain Maps, bring together one writer and one artist, both of whom explore real or imaginary journeys in different yet comparable ways.

In her novel Bannmeilen, Anne Weber sends her protagonist on wanderings through the outskirts of Paris and describes a very unique experience of the city.

Anne Weber moved to Paris in 1983, where she still lives today. In 2020, she received the German Book Prize for her verse epic Annette.

What Swiss artist Esther Ernst captures in her artwork is based exclusively on impressions of places, whether in her neighbourhood or from travels to distant countries and cities, such as Istanbul or Cairo. In her intricately composed drawings, quick, sketch-like strokes appear alongside meticulously rendered scenes and detailed cartographic maps, complemented by diary-like written notes.

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

with Katharina Döbler (author & journalist, Berlin), Mein 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.

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.