Nadia Kaabi-Linke. Seeing Without Light

Nadia Kaabi-Linke. Seeing Without Light features a selection of artworks by the Berlin-based artist spanning more than two decades. Through paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographs, and mixed-media installations Kaabi-Linke confronts historical erasure, and explores the hidden traces of violence that unnoticeably shape our understanding of the past and the present. For her solo exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, the artist has created a new video and sound installation that was shot in Ukraine in the spring of 2023. Titled Bud’mo (a popular Ukrainian toast that loosely translates to “let us be”), the work is a poetic yet sobering acknowledgment of tragedies perpetrated by man and of cycles of life and death. Central to the exhibition is Blindstrom for Kazimir (2023), a conceptual installation that refers to a number of paintings, now preserved at the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv, which were censored and confiscated by Soviet intelligence during the 1930s. Through this work, the artist examines the role of censorship and violence in Central Europe's art and political history.
This is the third in a series of publications accompanying solo exhibitions of contemporary artists at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. It comprises a curatorial text by Sam Bardaouil, an interview with the artist by co-curator Daria Prydybailo, and a contribution by Paul Ardenne that situates Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s work within a larger context.