Politics of Love

We're all against war. But what are we for? Peace, we say. What is peace?

Highlighting this key question, the Art-of-Peace Biennale was launched in 1985 on the initiative of Fluxus artist Robert Filliou at the Kunsthaus Hamburg and Kunstverein in Hamburg. Today, some 40 years later, in our time of mounting global crises, war violence, and massive suffering, this question remains highly acute. While national and individual divisions are increasing, essential visions for joint solutions and coalitions of action, from which new concepts of networking and collaboration might take shape, are vanishing.

The international group exhibition Politics of Love counters the sharply defined contours of delimitations and power conflicts with many-voiced expressions of togetherness and inclusion. Taking Michael Hardt's thesis of a socially engaged “politics of love” as a starting point, it addresses the diversity of intimacy, the common good, and the richness of multi-perspectival experience. As a transformative power, love is the basis for coexistence in solidarity that connects us in our differences and multiplicities. Politics of Love conjoins works of emerging and established international artists, including retrospective encounters with participatory projects as well as current collaborative practices, which open up perspectives for a collectively created, more peaceful future.

Curated by Dr. Belinda Grace Gardner and Anna Nowak