Kunsthaus Hamburg presents Leyla Yenirce: SO MUCH ENERGY

October 15–December 4, 2022

The first solo show of Hamburg-based artist Leyla Yenirce, who has received numerous awards (most recently, the Ars Viva Prize 2023), is being held at Kunsthaus Hamburg. Her artistic work in a variety of media is focused with the representation of resistance as well as hegemonic cultural, media, and armed forces structures. The artist addresses conceptual images of martyrs in her multi-media pieces. By deftly linking concepts that are frequently seen as being incompatible with one another, such as feminism and war, popular culture and genocide, desire, longing, and irony, Yenirce exposes the thin border between praising dogma and resisting emancipation.

In her debut solo performance, Leyla Yenirce weaves together the biographies of several women who have stood up for their rights in dire circumstances while posing the questions, “What circumstances led the persons to their actions and what pushed them in their environment?”

The movie included in the multi-part work NACHT. SCHLAF. DIE STERNE., 2021 is based on an investigation into the artist Anita Rée’s final days in Hamburg. The independent woman with Jewish ancestry committed suicide on Sylt in 1933 with the rise of fascism after making her mark in a field of art dominated by males and enjoying prestige. The projection of blowing hair, as well as the impelling roar and violent dynamics of industrial propellers, are all reflections of violence, devastation, and extinction. The powerful sound, which combines the voices of British freedom fighter Anna Campbell, who died in 2018 while defending the Kurdish city of Afrin from the Turkish military, and the Iraqi-Yezidis human rights activist Lamiya Aji Bashar, is composed of tank noises, digital effects, synthesizers, and found footage. The genocide against the Yezidis survivor was able to flee from IS. The installation explores the relationship between strength and helplessness from a variety of perspectives. The display becomes a tactile experience thanks to the propellers’ rotational movement in the space, as well as on a visual and aural level.

Curated by Anna Nowak.

Leyla Yenirce (b. 1992 in Qubîn, Kurdistan) finished her Fine Arts studies at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts in 2022. She has been also awarded for the Bundespreis für Kunststudierende, Bonn (2021). Yenirce has been part of Kein Schlussstrich Festival, Kampnagel, Hamburg (2021), Paradise, Kurdish Film Festival, Berlin (2020) and Hi Ventilation, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg (2019). 

Opening: October 14, 7pm
Performance by Leyla Yenirce and concert by Preach (One Mother)

Artist talk and short lecture: October 19, 7pm
Leyla Yenirce, Anna Nowak with Dastan Jasim (German Institute for Global and Area Studies)

Book launch: November 17, 6pm
Reading with the authors Enis Maci & Mazlum Nergiz, followed by DJ-Set €pro€y€z (One Mother)

Finissage: December 4, 3pm
Guided tour with Anna Nowak
Artist talk: Leyla Yenirce & Dr. Karin Schick (Head of Collection Modern Art, Hamburger Kunsthalle)

Kunsthaus Hamburg
Klosterwall 15
20095 Hamburg
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm

T +49 40 335803
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