• Duration of the Exhibition07. October 2012 - 07. April 2013
  • VenueHamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin
  • The exhibition was made possible by the Freunde der Nationalgalerie.

     

Childhood memories are central to Martin Honert’s artworks which was presented by the Nationalgalerie in a comprehensive solo exhibition in the main hall of Hamburger Bahnhof. Derived from images that have been preserved in his memory as well as family photographs and drawings he made as a child, the artist recreates moments from his own past and transforms them into three-dimensional objects.

In a complicated creative process, he condenses memories of games, lessons and scenes from his childhood into single impressive pictures. Behind every object is a story that has been shaped by the fantasies, ambivalent feelings and experiences of a child. The remembered moments are based on personal memories and yet at the same time are a testament to childhood in the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany in the post-war period.

Commenting on the central theme of his art, Martin Honert said, “Childhood is certainly not a theme because I think my own was particularly eventful or bad or good. My childhood was no doubt just as dull and boring as anyone else’s. What’s important to me is to explore things that may well have happened a long time ago but continue to exist for me as an image, a memory.” The artist lives and works in Düsseldorf and Dresden.