Melike Kara

Whispers

5.6.–23.8.2026

The exhibition is part of the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026, which encompasses eleven exhibitions across eight venues in the city.

The Trienniale Ticket, valid for admission to all participating exhibitions between 4 and 14 June, is available at the ticket offices of the individual institutions for 35€ (25€ concessions).

The publication accompanying Melike Kara's exhibition can be purchased for €5 at the Kunsthaus Hamburg or as part of the Triennale anthology in bookshops.

Exhibition text

Melike Kara’s solo exhibition Whispers conceives photography not as a static image, but as a circulating, ever-changing medium of memory, identity and transformation. For the Kunsthaus Hamburg, the artist creates a large-scale installation in which, for the first time, she burns photographs from her own archive and, once turned into ash, integrates them into the space. What remains are traces – fragments of images eluding fixation. Building on Kara’s long-standing exploration of her Kurdish heritage, the exhibition focuses on belonging and transformation. Visitors enter a fragile garden: a frieze made from coffee grounds permeates the space like a sedimented trace of the past; in some places, plants are growing; water oozes out of the walls and collects in basins. The result is a sensory space that invites us to consider identity as something that is in a state of constant flux.

Viewed within the context of the Triennial of Photography, the exhibition condenses the key themes of this year’s festival: Alliance as a fluid, ever-evolving relationship between images, bodies and stories; Infinity as an ongoing process of memory and change; and Love as a delicate form of closeness and belonging that requires care and openness.

Curated by Anna Nowak

Melike Kara (*1985, Bensberg, DE) is an artist working across various media with a particular focus on painting. In her practice, she engages with questions of perception, materiality and transformation in the interplay between image and space. In addition to painting, Kara works with fragments of photography, organic materials and installation-based arrangements, assembled into multi-layered, spatial constellations. She studied under Rosmarie Trockel at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Her works have been exhibited internationally, among at Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2018); Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2020); Kunstverein Göttingen (2020); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2021); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2022); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2023); Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf (2023); Museum De Fundatie, Zwolle (2023); Philara Foundation, Düsseldorf (2023) as well as Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2024).She lives and works in Cologne.