From November 18, 2021, the Museum Center for Persecuted Arts presents three exhibitions where art knows no boundaries. The installation ZONE by artist Manaf Halbouni extends throughout the entire museum building. Similarly, the art project MOBILISTAN explores themes such as mobility, limited territory, recognition, exclusion, freedom of movement, and the desire for belonging. The exhibition “To the Fighters…” by Anna VanMatre is dedicated to 14 heroes and heroines who fought against the Nazis in the Krakow Ghetto. Parallel to these two exhibitions by contemporary artists—commemorating Heinrich Mann’s 150th birthday and centered around his arguably most important work, “The Theme”—an exhibition of first editions, inscribed copies, photographs, and documents will be on display in the museum’s literary department.

MANAF HALBOUNI: ZONE

At the Center for Persecuted Arts, artist Manaf Halbouni is showing his installation ZONE — a critical reflection of our present day, which takes up historical motifs in the permanent exhibition just as it represents an acute and real restriction for visitors. In the center of ZONE, oil barrels irreversibly divide the museum in two, and viewers are forced to visit both parts of the exhibition via different approaches. Halbouni: “Our society is currently experiencing a division due to an imaginary wall that is not visible, in every area and every social class. We lack debates that we can have with each other, lack dialogue and lack the need to find each other again in order to solve problems together. ”

MANAF HALBOUNI: MOBILISTAN

In 2021, Manaf Halbouni and Christian Manss declare the first mobile state in the limited space of a vehicle — MOBILISTAN. What is a state? What is the territory? And do we accept its definitions? Who must recognize us if not just ourselves? MOBILISTAN should be understood as a pure ART PROJECT that deals with the issues of mobility, limited territory, recognition, exclusion, freedom to travel and the desire to belong. The state of art in the area of a stretch or state limousine forms the territory into which you can enter and leave via the doors of the vehicle with a visa.

ANNA VANMATRE

To Those Who Fight... is dedicated to 14 heroes who fought against the Nazis in the Krakow ghetto. Anna VanMatre refers to Katarzyna Zimmerer's book “The Chronicle of a Murdered World.” The exhibition was created for the Galician Jewish Museum in Krakow and is being shown outside Poland for the first time in the graphics department of our Discovery Museum. After the three exhibitions over the summer, To Those Who Fight... enriches the rest of the program with a political perspective on resistance against the Nazi regime.

HEINRICH MANN ON HIS 150TH BIRTHDAY

Parallel to the two exhibitions of contemporary artists, we are dedicating a show of first editions, photographs and ego documents to mark Heinrich Mann's 150th birthday — grouped around arguably his most important work, the subject — in the house's literary department.

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The exhibition zone by Manf Halbouni is a cooperation with the Soest Cultural Parliament, supported by the Arnsberg district government. Mobilistan is supported by Allianz Cultural Foundation. Anna VanMatre's exhibition is a cooperation with Galicia Jewish Museum Krakow. The Heinrich Manns exhibition is the first project of the Center's Sponsors' Association #Wir_erinnern_Wir_gestalten.‍

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