Sabine Mohr installing her work in the context of the Art-of-Peace Biennale, 1985:
Sabine Mohr, Das Dritte versuchen, das Eine finden, 1985, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Ottmar Poschinger
Wed, 15.1.2025, 7:30 pm
René Block, Sabine Mohr, Anna Nowak and Milan Ther in conversation about the Art-of-Peace-Biennale (1985)
Free participation
Venue: Kunstverein in Hamburg (Klosterwall 23, 20095 Hamburg)
On the initiative of the French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou (1926–1987), the Art-of-Peace Biennale was launched at the Kunsthaus Hamburg and the Kunstverein in Hamburg in 1985. The idea for a concerted art event in the name of peace took shape in 1983/84 while Filliou was teaching at the Hamburg University of the Arts in collaboration with his students and colleagues. Following the premise that peace is a form of art rather than an abstraction, artists from around the world were invited to develop “their individual contributions to this collective (re)search.”
Under the artistic direction of René Block, around 150 artists were selected to participate with drawings, sculptures and installations. A further 150 took part in the form of mail art and around 100 unrealized proposals were included in the presentation.
The Art-of-Peace Biennale is an important historical point of reference for the exhibition Politics of Love, which is on view at the Kunsthaus Hamburg from 30 November 2024 to 2 February 2025. In the talk, curator René Block and artist Sabine Mohr, who took part in the Biennale at the time, will look back on the project. Together with the directors of the Kunstverein and Kunsthaus, Milan Ther and Anna Nowak, they will reflect on the genesis, potential and protagonists of this joint pioneering project.