Streamlines

About

Assembled by the internationally renowned curator Koyo Kouoh from Dakar, the exhibition in the Hall for Contemporary Art will mainly feature site-specific works that deal with the historical background and the current and prospective situation of Hamburg as a »gateway to the world«. The thematic emphasis of the presentation is the »oceans as the sixth continent«, thus examining the seaways across which global flows of commodities have been channeled since the 19th century, whose control is still of great economic and political significance today. Some of the participating artists have been featured at documenta, including Kader Attia, Ulrike Ottinger and Alfredo Jaar. 

The exhibition »Streamlines« focuses on the metaphor of the oceans in order to examine the cultural effects of the global stream of goods and trade from the South to the North. In a broader sense, the show initiates a reflection on the issue of how oceans are used, how social, political and economic inequalities can be visualized through the seas, and how one can understand the status of invisible borders and the notion of property  in relation to the oceans. How should we interpret migratory flows? Who enacts and applies laws for this all-encompassing and strange territory? The exhibition addresses the streams of communication and information, of people and goods. 

»Streamlines« is an invitation to contemporary artists from various areas around the world that have a strong historical trading link to the port of Hamburg as a place where cargoes from these regions -including Asia, Latin America, Africa and of course also Europe - are unloaded.

The viewers’ experiences of this exhibition are intended to be guided by the key terms »Action«, »Consumption«, »Confrontation«, »Reconfrontation«, »Participation« and »Narrative«. These offer levels on which to present the challenges of history, politics or the environment, which the artworks highlight through humanistic and aesthetic interpretations.