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Heimweh
15.04.21 - 14.07.21

“Heimweh” is a German word for “homesickness”. It is composed of two words - “home” and “pain”. Whilst I learned it, It seemed to me a stronger expression than “homesickness”...

 

How do people from different cultures express and feel about homesickness?

 

I am not a linguist, but through the lead of my curiosity, I have discovered how it is expressed in different cultures... La Morrinia/ La Nostalgia (in spanish); “鄉愁” (sorrow of missing home) in Chinese; dor de casă (in Romanian); “ilgesys namams” (in Lithuanian);  घर की याद (in Hindi);  أحن للبيت in Arabic. 

 

I have then talked to our artists in this exhibition in the past few months.  They are from different cultures  - Swiss, German, English, Taiwanese, Spanish, Moldovan, Indian, Syrian, and Lithuanian. Most of them live far away from home.

 

Homesickness is expressed with the feeling of pain, sorrow, sore, longing for... but there is one of our artists telling me that she feels sweet from this pain.

 

I hope the artworks that we present you in this season could find you comfort you well.

​

 

- Angela Hsu, curator (Berlin, 15.04.2021)

All artworks in this exhibition can be acquired.

Interested buyers can get in touch with us at curation.berlin@gmail.com

Please click on the artworks to see them in full screen.

viewbyartists

the following artists are part of the 'Heimweh' exhibition:

Nick Dong

Nick Dong

"Suddenly realized the “heimweh” memories erupting and escaping, I tried to preserve them in these enamel drawings, an impression, an encounter, a body, a gaze."

Svetlana Grecova

Svetlana Grecova

"I feel I am like a fish swimming in and out from  a country to country. For me to have a home is essential. And during my life,  I called “my home” different places. I was living in Moldova for nearly 20 years, where I was born, and then happened almost 15 years in Asia, in Taiwan. I have family and friends in both countries, and my preferable spots of course... Two months ago I relocated to Berlin, and I started to feel really homesick... My new paintings, freshly made, reflects my childhood memories, Sweet tea time with my family, and also beautiful east coast of Taiwan. I live in these two countries long enough to call them my home but now after located in Germany with my husband it’s time to make a new home , because  we will leave here also long time."

Video of Svetlana Grecova about her work

(04:04)

Chloe Grove

Chloe Grove

"homesickness, for me, is a feeling that has, at times, manifested as a symptom of general yearning for security, peace & belonging, a reaction to an unease at finding myself in particular circumstances. 
this collection of images represent some of those occasions, be it the misery of a dysfunctional relationship, desire for love & support where it is not forthcoming or objects & stimulus i associate with the warm bubble of familiar surroundings.
when i have been at the mercy of these negative emotions, plunging myself into the immersive state of meticulous work has always been a welcome sanctuary, a sense of being at home in my own consciousness."

​Seeman Khawam

Semaan Khawam

"I wish I have homesickness 
I have only bad memories of  my home Syria and its following where ever I go 
And its still hard to make of beirut a real home 
Time to leave again to a decent place to save what is left of my humanity"

Beat Kuert

Beat Kuert 

"Homesickness is the misery that falls upon you when a part of yourself has been lost. In the past indigenous Americans when they had to go from one place to an other, they stopped again and again on their journeys so that the soul who remained behind could find time to follow."

Video of Beat Kuert about his work

(01:40)

Dörte Lützel-Walz

Dörte Lützel-Walz

"I associate homesickness with the longing for a place where I feel comfortable, which is familiar to me. This place is not necessarily "home", it is rather an inner landscape."

Bob Phelps

Robert Phelps

"For me, heimweh means the need to experience ideas, places and cultures that are rooted in my past ; elements of rootedness that have influenced my experience. These works reflect those experiences, evoking memories and hopes for the future."
 

Oscar Rey

​Oscar Rey

Series of paintings based on the poem “Let us have faith at the beginning of the cold season” by Forugh Farrokhzad.

 

“Perhaps the real thing were those two young hands. buried under the incessant snowfall, and next year when spring go to bed with the sky behind the window. and in his body they explode the green origins of her slight stalks, they will flourish, companion, my only companion. Let us have faith at the beginning of the cold season.”

Xecon Uddin

Xecon Uddin

"In this series, Xecon Uddin aims to explore his cultural roots.  He uses hybrids of humans and forest animals framed by elements from nature, as his aesthetic solutions that depict his need to connect with the earth. The constant search for the centered self is his contemporary state of mind, which Xecon seems to pour into his work. Influenced by both mainstream imagery and folklore, it is easy for the viewer to establish an emotional connection with these apparent anonymous characters."

Almyra Weigel

Almyra Weiel

"Heimweh ist für mich meine Sprache und Volkskultur. Ich habe für meine Kunstwerke Litauische Zeitschriften und Faden benutzt. Durch die Fäden kann man Litauische Wörter lesen und die Gesichter von Landsleuten erkennen. Die Faden symbolisieren Landkultur, wo Textilien sehr große Rolle spielen. Die Faden ziehen sich durch unser Leben, sie dienen nicht  nur für Kleider, -  sie "schreiben auch Geschichten..."

Chen-Kai Yang

Chen-Kai Yang

"Homesick, perhaps not that beautiful, is the adhesive created by loneliness and melancholy. It’s bound by the sense of belonging and emotional fetters to control the path forward."

Video of Chen-Kai Yang about his work

(01:15)

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