Laurel Chokoago, Proverbs, 2025, Courtesy the artist, Photos: Jaewon Kim
Whisper Down the Lane –
Laurel Chokoago
7 August – 2 November 2025
Kunsthaus foyer
Laurel Chokoago’s artistic practice combines subjective experience with theoretical research. Her multimedia works create spaces in which established notions of cultural identity are challenged and individual experiences can become visible. Pop cultural references and a thorough examination of social dynamics form central points of reference in her work.
This is precisely the intersection at which Proverbs (2025) operates – a new work that the artist developed especially for the exhibition series Whisper Down the Lane at the invitation of her predecessor Luzia Cruz. Its visual starting point is a scene from the music video for the song Sagacité by Douk Saga. The image is veiled by a semi-transparent surface, through which it is only vaguely discernable. On it you can read a quote taken from the song – a poignant line typical for the Coupé Décalé music style: “Les gens n‘aiment pas les gens mais les gens aiment l‘argent des gens”.
In the experimental and communicative exhibition format Whisper Down the Lane, the roles and functions of hosting and being hosted become fluid: in line with the eponymous children’s game, the exhibiting artists themselves choose the next person. With the project, the Kunsthaus transfers part of the curatorial responsibility to the artists themselves, with the aim of creating alternative institutional modes of access and rendering local network structures visible both in terms of personal ties and with regard to artistic approaches. So far, works by Jaewon Kim, Fritz Lehmann, Altay Tuz and Pia Pospischil and Luzia Cruz have been shown as part of Whisper Down the Lane.
Laurel Chokoago‘s (*1997 in Hamburg, DE) artistic practice encompasses time-based media, photography and installation. In 2025, she completed her Master of Fine Arts at the HFBK Hamburg. Her work has been exhibited at Camera Austria, Graz (2025); Friese Künstler:innen Haus, Hamburg (2024); RaumPro, Bremen (2023); MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg, DE (2021); and HVW8 Gallery, Berlin (2020), among others. She lives and works in Hamburg.
Thursday, 7 August 2025, 6 pm
Opening
in the context of Panorama XV with Dong Zhou & Isa Schwarzenberg