The Hamburger Bahnhof is holding the exhibition Under Construction, which will present the latest additions to the Nationalgalerie collection. One of the artists in these new acquisitions is Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, besides Nairy Baghramian, Eduardo Basualdo, Thea Djordjadze, Ceal Floyer, Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, Melvin Moti, Manfred Pernice Martin Städeli, Mariela Scafati, Dierk Schmidt, Bartolina Xixa and Julio González. The group show, which presents international artists in various media, including painting, installation, sculpture, video and works on paper, is curated by Gabriele Knapstein, Alice Koegel and Luisa Bachmann.
Ever since the institution was founded in 1861, the collection of the Nationalgalerie has continually been expanded to include contemporary works from each passing era. The collection has been “under reconstruction” since the exhibition and research project Hello World: Revising a Collection (2018), which reflected on the political and cultural ramifications of the Nationalgalerie’s approach to collecting, and called for non-Western art movements and transcultural approaches to be incorporated into the museum’s practices and collections.
Through their different approaches, aesthetics, themes and reference points, these works influence how we look at both past and present while evolving the collection and challenging and negotiating its function as the identity of the museum. Over the course of the exhibition, audiences will be able to see how these works are able to constantly produce new readings, with the museum serving as the site of a lively process of interrogation and interpretation.