To create her sculptures, Hannah Hallermann works the materi-als by hand in her studio, often pairing competing sets of materials and ideas: identity and nature; reduced forms and socio-political observations; the past and the future. The materials she chooses are powerful transmitters of movement and energy; she often uses materials such as steel in combination with loam. One of the most ancient building materials, loam can be manipulated and re-used over centuries. It is never static, just as fire (Phoenix, hex, hex) has always been and still is a place of gathering, exchange and transformation (Paul).

Have exercise and spirituality been commercialised? Is their pur-pose no longer to lend poise and insight, but rather to make one a more efficient servant to the meritocracy? In her work DMÜ, Hallermann dissects religious attitudes as she reveals dogmat-ic positions in the religious and minimalistic stand. Hannah Hall-ermann is critically aware of the minimalistic avantgarde being a male-dominated movement, yet she was able to learn to ‘listen’ to minimalism and considers listening to be an essential tool in shap-ing one’s surroundings and reinventing public space.

Listening is also key to understanding cause and effect. In her works from both the hurricane series and Eva, the artist asks where female stereotypes come from and how we can reform them. From 1930 onwards, meteorologists have given hurricanes female names.

In 1979, this led to protests. Now hurricanes carry alternating female and male names. Sincethen, those hurricanes with female names have statistically caused more deaths. Male names sound dangerous, female ones harmless – this is what thousands of years of cultural history have taught us and the consequence is that hurricanes named things like Sandy, Pauline or Dolly are usually underestimated.

Hannah Hallermann’s artworks are never unambiguous and ad-dress individual growth as well as collective transformation. They provide paradox with form and refuse to accept a state of stag-nation.

In her multidisciplinary work, the Berlin artist Hannah Hallermann combines clear, essential forms with complex social issues. In her sculptures, which often evoke abstract architec-tural elements or sports equipment, she explores the relation-ship between bodies and objects, the contemporary narratives of constant optimization and the need for leaps of faith, new be-ginnings and breakups. The strong spatial presence of the work is closely bound to a resonant sense of the metaphorical.

Her series of Startblocks , for example, made of various combi-nations of materials, can, on the one hand, be read in the light of a tradition of minimalism, but they are simultaneously imbued with a symbolic narrative. A starting block is an object for taking off as well as representing a challenge to one’s personal limitations and fear of heights. It concerns both hesitation and the need to rev oneself up, a point of departure at which contradictory emotions coalesce – yet a decision has to be made.

A few neon-yellow metal stands (Hürde (with a warm eye), rem-iniscent of parts of the hurdle or the high-jump, rise straight up, apparently awaiting their task. Stripped of their function of challenging a body to perform at its peak, these objects appear somewhat lost in space, though they cannot fail to maintain their posture. Impulses concerning urgent questions about the con-temporary world emerge in Hallermann’s work. How much can and must you accomplish? How is your body formed by things? How can you stay true to yourself while shaping society? In the long foyer of the Kunstverein on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, a heavy cloth soaked in loam wraps itself around a bright yellow branch, which appears to be held up only by the tension and weight of the blanket. As is often the case with Hannah Hallermann, the implica-tion of sculpture in this work is a contradictory one. Is it about a tent-like shelter or the struggle between two objects that want to drag each other down to the point of exhaustion? (0.T.)

HANNAH HALLERMANN

This text was written by SASKIA TREBING in conversation with Hannah Hallermann. SASKIA TREBING is a freelance journalist. Her writing has appeared in publica-tions including the German art magazine Monopol and the newspaper Die Zeit.

STARTBLOCK

previous page:STARTBLOCK 20202020Tiles, charcoal, rubber matt73.5cm x 45cm x 30cm

STARTBLOCK 42017White concrete, recycled oil73.5cm x 45cm x 30cm

STARTBLOCK 22017

Polished stainless steel73.5cm x 45cm x 30cm

These blocks speak to the conditio humana, to setting off and hesitating and to the different starting positions that life offers us.

SAMMLUNG HOFFMANN, Berlin.STARTBLOCK 3

Installation view of an exhibition on the theme of revolutionPhotographic work by Theo Altenberg, 1978Action painting by Hermann Nitsch, 1984

From the starting block, it is a small step or a long journey.

STARTBLOCK, HANGING2019

Polyurethane rubber, steel73.5cm x 45cm x 30cm

STARTBLOCK 6372017 – 2018

Corten steel, concrete, straw, exposed aggregate concrete, gravel3 x 73.5cm x 45cm x 30cm

SEDAN

SEDAN2020

Bamboo, concrete, pigment, aluminium, cat’s eyes35cm x 350cm

Installation view Funkhaus, Berlin

Hanging work: Isabella Fürnkäs / Hanging gardens of Babylon 2020

Sedan is a hybrid of sprinters’ starting blocks and a sedan chair. It is a piece of apparatus built for forward motion. Who carries, who supports? Who has the power?How much power lies in the hands of the individual, how much in the consolidation of the many?

EVA

EVA2014Ceramic, plastic, acrylic28cm x 14cmColumns: 476cm x 25cm

Installation view GussglasshalleFRUIT OF THE BOOM2018

Columns support, carry, they conduct the space, articulate it, a small interventionleads to a substantial change. New structures and relationships are created, which leads to a completely idiosyncratic phys-ical perception in one’s immediate surround-ings. Routines have to be changed, in little steps, breaking free from the system almost unno-ticed.

Hannah Hallermann encroaches on the classical order of Western culture, changing Corinthian capitals into tropical fruits – a South Sea dream. This symbol of decadence is not set on top of the column, but is instead exposed, allowing it beviewed from all sides.

DENISE KOKKO & LUISE PILZ

EVA2014Ceramic, plastic, acrylic28cm x 14cmColumns: 476cm x 25cm

Installation viewBethanien, Berlin 2014 and NGORO NGRORO 2018

HUMANARCHAT2019

Postcards and editioned poster

HÜRDE (with a warm eye)

HÜRDE (with a warm eye )2018Steel, gloss paint, concrete, loam, flood lightText excerpt: Saskia Trebing

A few neon-yellow metal stands (Hürde(with a warm eye), remi-niscent of parts of the hurdle or the high-jump, rise straight up, apparently awaiting their task. Stripped of their functionof challenging a body to perform at its peak, these objects ap-pear somewhat lost in space, though they cannot fail to maintain their posture.

O.T.

O.T.2018Branch, varnish, loam, jute, steel, pigment10m x 3.5m x 2.5m

In the long foyer of the Kunstverein on Rosa-Luxem-burg-Platz, a heavy cloth soaked in loam wraps itself around a bright yellow branch, which appears to be held up only by the tension and weight of the blanket. As is often the case with Hannah Hallermann, the im-plication of sculpture in this work is a contradictory one. Is it about a tent-like shelter or the struggle be-tween two objects that want to drag each other down to the point of exhaustion? (0.T.)

SASKIA TREBING

PAUL

PAUL Aluminium, loam, straw

9cm x 355cm

HANNAH HALLERMANN & PAUL 2017Photographed by Maxime Ballesteros

Loam is a composite of sand, grit, stones and tension.

A journey through time: How many millions of years did it take for us to emerge fromthe mud into what we now are?

PHOENIX, HEX HEX 2014Aluminium, loam, strawDimensions variable

Installation view Bethanien, Berlin

DEMUTSÜBUNG

The sculpture “Demutsübung” appears at first glance to be a classic minimalistic object. However, it is not without refer-ences. Inspired by the form of a prayer bench, Hannah Haller-mann plays humorously in the work with the concept of humil-ity, going beyond the Christian context to the relationship be-tween the cosmos and society.HENDRIK LAKEBERG

Previous page:DEMUTSÜBUNG 5 & 62017Exposed aggregate concrete30cm x 30cm x 50cm

DEMUTSÜBUNG 12017

Polished stainless steel30cm x 30cm x 50cm30cm x 30cm x 50cm

Plinth: 120cm x 100cm x 65cm

DEMUTSÜBUNG 22014Polished steel30cm x 30cm x 100cm

DEMUTSÜBUNG 12014Detail

HURRIKANS

Following pages:SANDRA / IDA / KATIA

2016 / 201570cm x 50cm

Photographic print

From 1930 onwards, meteorologists have given hurricanes female names. In 1979, this led to protests. Now hurricanes carry alternating female and male names. Since then, those hurricanes with female names have statistically caused more deaths. Male names sound dangerous, female ones harmless – this is what thousands of years of cultural history have taught us and the consequence is that hurricanes named things like Sandy, Pauline or Dolly are usually underestimated.

Hannah Hallermann’s sculptures named after hurricane Sandy have something airy, almost dance-like in their precise and formal composition. In relation to the size and destructive power of a real hurricane they clearly appear inconsequential. However, there is a tension inherent to the manually bent copper pipes, which derives, on the one hand, from their form, but also from the ten-sions between political and personal objectives. More broadly, they present the naming of natural phenomena as an exercise in

exploring the relationship between the gen-ders, between human beings and nature.

Paul Crutzen, the great theorist of the An-thropocene, understands humanity as a natural force that shapes the world beyond what is natural. Man interferes decisively in biological, geological and atmospheric processes and shapes them – sometimes unconsciously. Analogies to this are evident in the in two-part divided prayer bench, redolent of minimalism, in which Hallermann humorously plays with the concept of humil-ity, reflecting on the relationship between cosmos and society, nature and culture, beyond the Christian context.

Another minimalist work confronts the spectator with their own appearance, re-flecting their own existence – their identi-ty – back to them in a highly polished steel plate. On the large reflecting surface the engraved phrase ‘no worries i am named after a girl’ appears like a reminder on a shopping list – as if the viewer were signing a contract just by walking by. Here, observ-ing is not just observing but also represents a historical and gender-specific awareness. The message is: We are neither woman nor man, we are human, we are playing. Just like the marbles that are placed on the gallery floor as if thrown there. Not only a symbol for play, but also for coincidence and open-endedness. And although we know what consequences our playing might have, we are its mercy because we are just too cu-rious to renounce it. The title ‘with a chance of’ remains, in its incompleteness, open to what might be. This is so very human. Even-tually – and this might be the most import-ant revelation facilitated by these works – we are responsible for the outcome. This is good news. We just have to realize more often that this is just the way it is. HENDRIK LAKEBERG

NO WORRIES2015107cm x 167cmPolished steel with laser engraving

Installation view Galerie Jens Walther, Berlin.

SANDY 32015

155cm x 80cm x 61cmBrushed copper

INSTALLATIONS

BLACK WHOLE WALTZ2007

Aluminium, coloured plastic180cm x 180cm

Installation view Villa Arson Nice,

France

PARADOX UNIVERSE2007Steel, coloured plastic450cm x 950cm

Installation view Villa Arson Nice, France

SLIPPERY2008

Aluminium, dyed plastic600cm x 400cm x 600cm

Installation view Prix Gras Savoye, Paris

MEMORY PICNIC2012

Photocopies, adhesive tape30cm x 40cm

YELLOW2007

Glass, coloured plastic350cm x 450cm

Installation view Villa Arson Nice,

France