basis is pleased to announce the exhibition project Heimat als Idee in the new spaces at Elbestrasse 10, in Frankfurt/Germany.
 

The notion ‚homeland’ or, in German, ‚Heimat’ is characterized by lots of different associations and ruptures. In many cases, the word is used in a reactionary and nationalistic manner that makes it almost impossible to reflect it in an open-minded and more complex way.
The exhibition project Homeland as Idea tries to visualize another, alternative way of thinking about the notion ‚home’ and ‚homeland’. The focus of the show is to suggest an actively shaped and not geographically defined meaning of the word. The artistic works presented in the show mediate ‚homeland’ as a social and cultural process which could be activley constructed instead of recurring onto a reactionary, unchangeable idea.

The show questions two main aspects of the notion: on the one hand, it gives some new definitons of home as a self constructed, activley shaped situation rather than a stable status. On the other hand, the show displays the ruptures and problems a subject has to adapt to new social, cultural and political circumstances at a foreign place. The process of building a new home, a structure to live in as a social, political, and cultural being, seems to be a reconstruction of a homeland.

In contrast to the understanding of the word as a stable and unchangeable situation, the works suggest to approach the topic with the necessity for a constantly redefined idea of something that could be called ‚homeland’. The works unite the interest in an emotional, social, and cultural approach to the notion. By questioning the common idea of ‚homeland’, the works reveal that the reactionary definition of a home, a hometown or a homeland is not more than a mental construction. Against this questionable perspective, the heterogeneous strategies of the works suggest a more self centered way of dealing with ‚homeland’ and the difficulties to develop something like a ‚home’, something that is more than just a geographical place.

In this sense, the project tries to open a perspective onto an alternative aspect of ‚homeland’, one that is actively formed by individuals on an emotional, cultural, and subjective basis. This understanding is focussed on the idea that home is also a mental status which includes the possibility of shaping and modelling a sphere which could be called ‚home’.

the exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Vilém Flusser and Felix Ruhöfer in German and English (56p./4-color).