2 September 2020

We (all) are the people
Artistic intervention by Hans Haacke on the façade of the Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz for Berlin Art Week 2020 from 9 to 13 September

On the occasion of Berlin Art Week 2020, the new edition of Hans Haacke’s Wir (alle) sind das Volk will be installed as a banner on the façade of the Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz, among other places. The work, which was first shown at documenta 14 (2017) on façades and stops in Kassel and Athens, takes up the slogan of East German demonstrators from 1989/1990 using a slightly altered version of it in support of solidarity with migrants and refugees. Since then, Haacke’s work has been shown at several art museums and colleges around the world to profess the institutions’ openness and cultural diversity. The idea of solidarity is reflected in the rainbow colours along the sides of the banner and the repetition of the phrase "We (all) are the people" in twelve different languages down the middle. In Berlin, the new edition of the work has been initiated by the Neuen Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), realised by Kulturprojekte Berlin and implemented together with partners of Berlin Art Week. In addition to the Akademie der Künste, the banners, flags and posters will also be on display at the Gropius Bau, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Savvy Contemporary and the Volksbühne Berlin from 9 to 13 September.

In 2006/2007, the Akademie der Künste dedicated the exhibition “HANS HAACKE wirklich. Werke 1959–2006”, developed with Deichtorhallen Hamburg, to Hans Haacke. For the first time in Germany, the eponymous catalogue of the comprehensive retrospective offers a representative overview of Hans Haacke’s work, ranging from his system art works of the 1960s to the political concept art of the 1970s, from the post-conceptual installations of the period that followed to his works in New York and Berlin.

Hans Haacke – wirklich. Werke 1959–2006
Matthias Flügge and Robert Fleck (Eds.)
Akademie der Künste, Berlin / Deichtorhallen Hamburg / Richter Verlag, Düsseldorf 2006
ISBN 13: 9783883311050
340 pages, 330 colour and b/w illustrations
€20
German edition