Dr. Katrin Hattenhauer
Studio: Berlin, Beilsteiner Str. 109, Altes Kesselhaus PhD, Social Sculpture, Film
NW1 0NF London, Stand & Deliver, Granary Street Transdisciplinary Arts Practice
Personal profile
Artist, filmmaker, researcher, and civil rights activist with over 20 years of experience in socially engaged art projects and civic education, awardee of the Federal Cross of Merit.
Social Sculptures and Exhibitions (selected)
'VOICES OF COURAGE' - What makes people courageous? Oxford, Berlin 2023 - ongoing
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This Social Sculpture displays filmed interviews with over 20 human rights and environmental activists from 16 countries, including Iran, Mexico, China, Russia, and Botswana, to uncover rarely attainable personal layers of motivation for becoming politically active. The project wants to honour the courage and importance of the work of activists defending human rights, protecting the planet despite the consequences to their lives and, in doing so, to draw attention to the potential to act courageously for the benefit of others that exists in each one of us. The sculpture is online and expanding.
'DO I KNOW YOU' - www.do-i-know-you.com Oxford, Leipzig, Gothenburg, Bologna 2017 - ongoing
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The project materialises the interplay of understanding and being understood in a social sculpture that aims to show the similarities and differences of the lives we lead and the perspectives we have.Watch: https://youtu.be/RAoZxxjI14E?feature=shared
'About Fear and Courage' - a monument to Harald Poelchau Berlin 2017 - 2018
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Public assignment and collaboration with prisoners from the State Penitentiary Berlin Tegel
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Conception and construction of a monument for Harald Poelchau, prison chaplain at Berlin Tegel during the Third Reich, recognised at Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
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Education of prisoners in social sculpture and connective practice.
https://www.berlin.de/sen/justv/presse/pressemitteilungen/2018/pressemitteilung.746206.php
'Open Air Living Room' Oxford, Cowley Road, June - Sept. 2016
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A collaborative work between Jon Bowra, Katrin Hattenhauer, Fusion Arts, the East Oxford Community Centre and the local people of Cowley Road, Oxford, This Social Sculpture is about the notion of home and the myriad ways of being together as strangers who become neighbours and sometimes friends.
'About Disappearing' London and Leipzig 2014
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The project drew attention to the imprisonment and murder of human rights activists worldwide through the widespread display of QR codes in public places.
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Deutsche Welle report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT2AlzYWXMU
'Rubbish Meadow' Hamburg 2013
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This sculpture, which occupied the Harbour of Hamburg in 2013, focused on the detrimental effects of plastic waste in the world's oceans, with about 60.000 visitors.
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Featured in Süddeutsche Zeitung, a translation is available on this website's 'Rubbish Meadow' project page.
'In Tuition' Arts PhD Showcase The Glass Tank Gallery, Oxford 2019
'Art Manifest(o)s' Fringe Arts Bath, Bath 2018
'Kunststücke - Fundstücke' State Chancellery Potsdam 2013
'Paradise Bound' Red Bud Gallery, Houston, 2010
'Lovers Project' Kunstforum Rheinhessen, Essenheim, 2006
'Inno a la Libertá' Villa Aldrovandi Mazzacorati, Baraccano, Bologna 2005, 2009
'Daring Freedom' Lecture and Workshops, Houston, Rice University 2010, Krzyzowa 2003'
Civic Activism
Member of the East-German opposition against the GDR regime 1987 - 1989
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Writer of political pamphlets, conducting marches against the government, hunger strike for political freedom, co-organiser of the illegal 'Leipziger Streetmusikfestival' (10. Juni 1989) and the 'Leipzig-Peace-Prayers'.
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Co-initiator of the first Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig on 04.09.1989, eventually imprisoned and indicated for insurrection to serve ten years. Freed from prison due to mass protests and the fall of the wall.
Numerous civic education and outreach activities 1990 -2024
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Addressing 200.000 people at the Augustusplatz in Leipzig on the importance of daring to be free (09.10. 2009), workshops on freedom and activism for the Foundation Remembrance, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Hans Böckler Foundation, the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Deutsche Gesellschaft (German Society).
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Speaking as one of the representatives of the opposition at the Brandenburg Gate at the official 20-year celebration of the Peaceful Revolution. (09.11. 2009) and at various panels, inter alia: Feminist Summer University Leipzig, Stiftung Aufarbeitung, Deutsche Gesellschaft Berlin, Cultural Institute of Poland
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In 2009, advisor to the Memorial about the Peaceful Revolution.
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Lecture and Workshop 'Daring Freedom', Public Library and Rice University, Houston
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In 2007, an open letter, 'We stand by you' to the nuns and monks protesting the military regime in Burma, see:http://www.interpool.tv/politik/168-qwe-stand-by-youq.html
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2011 - 2017, member of the Board of the Kreisau Initiative e.V.
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2012 - 2017, member of the Historical Commission of the Krzyzowa Foundation.
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In 2014, I was a member of the international jury for Freedom Express, a contest for young European artists, and for History Codes: Falling Walls Freedom as a European Challenge, a contest for art students.
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In 2015, an open letter to support Chancellor Merkel's refugee policy of open borders was broadcast and published in Arabic, English, French, German, and Russian by Deutsche Welle, http://www.dw.com/en/former-gdr-rights-activists-support-merkels-refugee-policy/a-18802792
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In 2019, "For an open country with free people - in remembrance of the Peaceful Revolution 89", theatre workshops with students and pupils, Evangelische Schule Neuruppin.
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2024, Evaluation and Connective Practice Workshop with the executive team of “Karneval der Kulturen”, Berlin
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2024, Social Sculpture at the International Congress for Universal Basic Income, Bath University.
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1990 – 2024, many interviews with national and international press, TV and radio
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1990 – 2024, numerous panel participations and moderations, most recently on the occasion of “75 Jahre Grundgesetz” with Bundesratspraesidentin Manuela Schwesig
Education
Oxford Brookes University, The School of Arts, awarded a PhD 2018 - 2023
Title: 'Voices of Courage' - What makes people courageous?
Supervisors: Prof. Daniela Treveri Gennari, Cinema Studies; Prof. Ray Lee, Sound Art and Contemporary Music; Prof. Emeritus Shelley Sacks, Social Sculpture
Oxford Brookes University, The School of Arts
Master of Arts in Social Sculpture (Distinction) 2015 - 2016
Theological Seminar Leipzig, Study of Theology 1988 - 1989
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Admitted to the University of the Protestant Church in Leipzig (12 places, only woman to be admitted to the course).
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Ex-matriculated due to political activism against the East German government.
Technical skills
Screen printing; Engraving; Lithography; Woodcut; Lino cut; Etching; Painting; Drawing; Welding; Video; FinalCut Pro; InDesign; Photoshop
Languages
German (native)
English (C1)