Henrike Naumann, 2018-2023

Bibliothek Westalgie / Anschluss '90

Mixed Media Installation,
consisting of postmodern bookshelf, books, object, carpet, fur chair

For her exhibition titled WESTALGIE [Westalgia], Henrike Naumann takes us on a trip to the year 1990. The starting point for her work Anschluss '90 [Annexation, 2018], initially created for the steirischer herbst festival 2018 edition, is the interest for how Austria could have responded to the German reunification. Her alternative historical scenario imagines Austria voluntarily joining the Federal Republic of Germany, providing the latter’s expanding capitalist ambitions with a new consumer market. For IKOB, she takes this thought experiment one step further. What, she asks, would have happened if the German-speaking community of Belgium had decided to do the same? What would the region look like?

Link to the IKOB exhibition