Tell Me Where Home Is

How do people define Heimat (“home”) in the 21st century? Can you still speak of home in the singular, when concepts of home have become incre­a­singly plural in the present time? Has home as a geogra­phical location had its day? How do people conti­nu­ally form new homes for themselves?

Even our globa­lized and digitized societies harbor a longing for home—despite, or perhaps precisely because they are shaped by migration and constant change. The spectrum of reasons for forced and voluntary migration are manifold, and ongoing processes of forming a sense of home have long become the social normality.

The central question is whether and how people find a sense of home within these turbulent social struc­tures, with all their controversies.

Houses and cities, countries and lands­capes, family, friends and commu­nities, religion, music and language, cultural practices, food, digital platforms, and social networks—in the area of tension between memory and the present, homes can take many different forms. Tell Me Where Home Is explores these develo­p­ments through the global lens of 21st-century art, in which numerous artists—whether poeti­cally, metapho­ri­cally, or directly—address pressing questions surroun­ding home, migration, and belonging.

With around 160 works of art and plenty of space to linger, Tell Me Where Home Is invites visitors to consider personal and collec­tive concepts of home and to engage in trans­cul­tural encoun­ters. The exhibi­tion seeks to foster under­stan­ding of the traumas experi­enced by forcibly displaced people and to encourage the accep­t­ance of diversity as an essential part in the formation of new commu­nities: homes every­where, for everyone.

The exhibi­tion also brings together contri­bu­tions from a „glocal“ perspec­tive, developed by two colla­bo­ra­ting partners: the Depart­ment of Inter­na­tional Urban Studies and Design at the Univer­sity of Stuttgart and the Institute for Contem­porary History and Urban Presen­ta­tion in Wolfsburg. An inter­di­sci­pli­nary academic advisory board guided the develo­p­ment of Tell Me Where Home Is, which has resulted in a trans­di­sci­pli­nary, richly illus­trated publi­ca­tion (German/English, approx. 300 pages) featuring contri­bu­tions from renowned authors as well as the parti­ci­pa­ting artists. 39 € at the museum shop and online.

Artists: Bani Abidi, Nevin Aladağ, Halil Altındere, Kader Attia, Alkan Avcıoğlu, Yael Bartana, Birgit Brenner, Jenna Burchell, Ana Maria Caballero, Ishita Chakra­b­orty, Tiffany Chung, Anna Ehren­stein, Alia Farid, Larissa Fassler, Gauri Gill, Patrick Goddard, Shilpa Gupta, Manaf Halbouni, Hannah Haller­mann, Anawana Haloba, Jeppe Hein, Sky Hopinka, Pieter Hugo, Tao Hui, Courage Hunke, Nadira Husain, Evan Ifekoya, Alfredo Jaar, Hayv Kahraman, Šejla Kamerić, Bronwyn Katz, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Atiye Noreen Lax, Shannon T. Lewis, Christian Manss, Olaf Metzel, Cristina de Middel, Radenko Milak, Johnny Miller, Carlos Motta, Alex Müller, Hira Nabi, Marina Naprush­kina, Shirin Neshat, Coco Olakunle, Grit Richter, Odur Ronald, Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam, Titus Schade, Diana Scherer, Abeer Seikaly, Mithu Sen, Tracey Snelling, Inga Somdyala, Nasan Tur, Duncan Wylie, Lu Yang, Ciğdem Yüksel, Julia Zejn, 0001 (Kollektiv)

Curator
Uta Ruhkamp

Curato­rial Assistant
Linus Jantzen and Anne Rybka