Home Work

Art exhibitions as we know them started in private homes. Until the 19th century, when private collections migrated to public salons and museums, the exhibition of new works was something that happened in the home of collectors. Historically, artwork presented at home was viewed by the elite few, but in the past decades, curators, collectors, and gallerists have been converting rooms in their homes into public exhibition spaces.

Both collector and gallerist, Nick Koenigsknecht and Hannes Schroeder-Finckh initiated a space that is simultaneously private and public, problematizing the way we imagine living with art. At Open Forum, owning, selling, and exhibiting art are inextricably intertwined with home life.

Home Work is an exhibition where the founders of Open Forum will be confronted with the very questions they pose publicly with their space. The exhibition features 17 newly commissioned performances, in which Nick and Hannes are the sole performers and audience of the works. They are performing for themselves, and the work exists in their private vigilance. In asking those who normally occupy a patronage role to assume the duties of performer, audience, and host institution simultaneously, Home Work lays bare the mechanisms behind the experience, exhibition and production of art.

Is it an exhibition if there is no public? What does it mean to own art? Can a performance be owned?

Like other exhibitions, Home Work will have an opening, and a closing. Nick and Hannes will be performing in private during the exhibition period, and the works will be made public only at the closing, in the form of a book. The finissage will also serve as the book launch, and the first time during the exhibition the public at large will experience the artwork.

Curated by Carson Chan and Clara Meister, with new works by Candice Breitz, Christian Falsnaes, Jean Pascal Flavien, Tue Greenfort, Hadley+Maxwell, Christian Jankowski, Annika Kahrs, Irene Moray and Wojciech Kosma, Annika Larsson, Lindsay Lawson, Dafna Maimon, Niko Princen, Judy Radul, Yorgos Sapountzis, Louis-Philippe Scoufaras, Fiete Stolte, and Anna Witt.

Exhibition production: Open Forum, Berlin (Nick Koenigsknecht and Hannes Schroeder-Finckh)