Projekte / Ferne Welten

Ferne Welten

Faraway Worlds - Jens Hanke - Jules Verne

In six rooms of the special exhibition and with selected interventions in the historically furnished living rooms of Schloss Britz, an amalgam of Jules Verne's literary world of ideas and Jens Hanke's artistic work is created. The contemporary artist arranges his paintings, drawings and objects around themes that are characteristic of the "scientific novel" of the late 19th century and especially of Verne's literary work. In this way, the world of ideas and the history of mentality of the Wilhelminian era is revealed through a modern art exhibition.

In his art, Jens Hanke processes literary and cinematic sources that create images in his mind. However, his works, which result from various impressions and influences, do not appear illustrative or directly dependent on concrete models. Even his works exhibited here were not originally created with reference to Jules Verne! Rather, he listens to the echo that his memories of what he has read or visual or acoustic impressions evoke in him as "synapsal afterimages" In his works, he carefully observes the results of this mental and neurophysiological processing and translates them into highly original creations.

Jules Verne can be considered a typical representative of the fin de siècle period. His themes are those of his time: he describes technological progress, nationalism and colonial expansionism in his books. Verne himself considered many phenomena to be problematic.

Two publications have been produced to accompany the exhibition.

Ferne Welten, exhibition catalog with texts by Steffen Greiner, Jens Hanke, Christian Schnell and Dr. Martin Steffens
English translation

Britzer Sextant, newspaper for the exhibition Ferne Welten