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Kestner Gesellschaft</a> reflects on its exhibition history and the connection between artistic production and institutional work. This special exhibition includes both current and rediscovered limited-edition works, combining them with a series of related exhibition posters. A visual timeline traces the historical context of the works, their thematic connections to contemporary events, and their significance for the programmatic development of the Kestner Gesellschaft. Past and present intertwine in a vibrant dialogue that offers impetuses for future perspectives and makes the relationships between art, institutions, and society tangible.</p><p>The posters and limited-edition works refer to the diverse thematic exhibitions and projects that address societal and artistic questions of recent years: Tenderness (2022) focused on sensitivity and vulnerability, Anabasis (2023) explored movement and return, and Between Past and Future (2024) addresses Hannah Arendt’s thoughts on social responsibility and memory.</p><p>Since its founding in 1916, the Kestner Gesellschaft has collaborated closely with artists to release limited editions several times a year. These works form an essential part of its activities and significantly contribute to the accessibility, promotion, and visibility of contemporary art. beyond now. Editions not only offers the opportunity to explore the history of the institution’s exhibitions and limited-edition works but also to purchase these works.</p><p>In addition to historical works, the exhibition presents two new limited-edition works: <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Beyond-Now--Editions/"/Artist/Paloma-Varga-Weisz/ABE7845016158202">Paloma Varga Weisz</a> displays bronze sculptures from her series Wild People (2024), inspired by mythical and archetypal figures. And <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Beyond-Now--Editions/"/Artist/Monilola-Ilupeju/149A99AC4DA2B825">Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju</a> presents her handmade book BloodLetter (2024), which interweaves personal stories in poems, essays and journal entries.</p><p>Environmental issues are an important concern for the Kestner Gesellschaft. The exhibition was designed for sustainability by using only existing interior equipment. This concept reflects a responsible approach to resource management and underscores the institution’s endeavor to address current challenges not only thematically but also practically.</p><p><br></p>" />

Beyond Now: Editions

Kestner Gesellschaft

 Hannover | Germany
Dec 07, 2024 - Mar 02, 2025

With beyond now. Editions, the Kestner Gesellschaft reflects on its exhibition history and the connection between artistic production and institutional work. This special exhibition includes both current and rediscovered limited-edition works, combining them with a series of related exhibition posters. A visual timeline traces the historical context of the works, their thematic connections to contemporary events, and their significance for the programmatic development of the Kestner Gesellschaft. Past and present intertwine in a vibrant dialogue that offers impetuses for future perspectives and makes the relationships between art, institutions, and society tangible.

The posters and limited-edition works refer to the diverse thematic exhibitions and projects that address societal and artistic questions of recent years: Tenderness (2022) focused on sensitivity and vulnerability, Anabasis (2023) explored movement and return, and Between Past and Future (2024) addresses Hannah Arendt’s thoughts on social responsibility and memory.

Since its founding in 1916, the Kestner Gesellschaft has collaborated closely with artists to release limited editions several times a year. These works form an essential part of its activities and significantly contribute to the accessibility, promotion, and visibility of contemporary art. beyond now. Editions not only offers the opportunity to explore the history of the institution’s exhibitions and limited-edition works but also to purchase these works.

In addition to historical works, the exhibition presents two new limited-edition works: Paloma Varga Weisz displays bronze sculptures from her series Wild People (2024), inspired by mythical and archetypal figures. And Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju presents her handmade book BloodLetter (2024), which interweaves personal stories in poems, essays and journal entries.

Environmental issues are an important concern for the Kestner Gesellschaft. The exhibition was designed for sustainability by using only existing interior equipment. This concept reflects a responsible approach to resource management and underscores the institution’s endeavor to address current challenges not only thematically but also practically.



Beyond Now: Editions - Kestner Gesellschaft

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With beyond now. Editions, the Kestner Gesellschaft reflects on its exhibition history and the connection between artistic production and institutional work. This special exhibition includes both current and rediscovered limited-edition works, combining them with a series of related exhibition posters. A visual timeline traces the historical context of the works, their thematic connections to contemporary events, and their significance for the programmatic development of the Kestner Gesellschaft. Past and present intertwine in a vibrant dialogue that offers impetuses for future perspectives and makes the relationships between art, institutions, and society tangible.

The posters and limited-edition works refer to the diverse thematic exhibitions and projects that address societal and artistic questions of recent years: Tenderness (2022) focused on sensitivity and vulnerability, Anabasis (2023) explored movement and return, and Between Past and Future (2024) addresses Hannah Arendt’s thoughts on social responsibility and memory.

Since its founding in 1916, the Kestner Gesellschaft has collaborated closely with artists to release limited editions several times a year. These works form an essential part of its activities and significantly contribute to the accessibility, promotion, and visibility of contemporary art. beyond now. Editions not only offers the opportunity to explore the history of the institution’s exhibitions and limited-edition works but also to purchase these works.

In addition to historical works, the exhibition presents two new limited-edition works: Paloma Varga Weisz displays bronze sculptures from her series Wild People (2024), inspired by mythical and archetypal figures. And Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju presents her handmade book BloodLetter (2024), which interweaves personal stories in poems, essays and journal entries.

Environmental issues are an important concern for the Kestner Gesellschaft. The exhibition was designed for sustainability by using only existing interior equipment. This concept reflects a responsible approach to resource management and underscores the institution’s endeavor to address current challenges not only thematically but also practically.



Artists on show

Contact details

Goseriede 11 Hannover, Germany 30159

What's on nearby

works by Paloma Varga Weisz</a>. It brings together her recent series of works with key pieces from over three decades, offering insight into her poetic and simultaneously subversive artistic practice. Her works—sculptures, watercolors, drawings, and installations—delve into existential questions about identity, memory, vulnerability, and transformation. Figures and forms oscillate between the familiar and the foreign, the corporeal and the narrative.</p><p>Trained as a wood sculptor, Varga Weisz deliberately breaks with the tradition of the craft. By mastering traditional techniques while simultaneously subverting them, she creates works that challenge classical notions of materiality and form. Her sculptures combine historical references with surreal elements, humorous disruptions, and subtle irony, impressively exploring the boundaries between artisanal precision and contemporary reflection.</p><p>A central focus of the exhibition is Wild People (1998—2024), a series of works ranging from small ceramic figures to monumental bronze sculptures. These hybrid beings, which combine human and animal traits, embody a deconstruction of gender roles and family ideals. They raise questions about isolation, community, and transitions from humans to nature. The sculpture Rug People (2011) plays a special role in this exhibition: Inspired by the story of the former railway station in Folkstone in England from which soldiers departed for battle during World War I, this work reflects on themes such as migration, loss, and the fragility of human stories. For Varga Weisz, this also becomes a quiet homage to her father, who had to flee from National Socialists-occupied Paris during World War II as a Jewish refugee. Rug People (2011) functions as a monument to the resilience and vulnerability of human experiences.</p><p>Multiface(2019), a multi-faced silver head that looks in all directions, symbolizes the fluid boundaries of the self and the constant changes of life. The multiheaded nature of her works invites viewers to understand identity not as a selfcontained unit, but as an open, evolving structure that sees breaks and transitions as essential components of being. Multiface reveals the complexity of the human—not as an ambivalence to be overcome, but as its essential strength.</p><p><br></p>" />
Paloma Varga Weisz: Multiface - Kestner Gesellschaft
Paloma Varga Weisz: Multiface
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Ilupeju. At its heart is the artist’s book of the same name, a handcrafted leather-bound work made specifically for the show at the <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Beyond-Now--Editions/"/Organization/Kestner-Gesellschaft/1CDFB9833BB083E8">Kestner Gesellschaft</a>. This book forms the conceptual core of the exhibition and embodies key motifs that shape the artist’s practice: ancestry, memory, grief, healing, and the complex connection between individual and collective narratives.</p><p>Serving as much more than a collection of texts, BloodLetter functions as a personal archive. Poems, essays, letters, and journal entries address questions of identity, belonging, and migration: autobiographical reflections intertwine with universal themes including intergenerational trauma, familial ties, and cultural transformation. The book is presented in the exhibition within a specially designed installation made of clay elements called “breeze blocks,” inspired by the cement blocks used by her grandfather in the construction of his home. This pavilion creates an intimate space within the exhibition itself, both protective and porous, while also highlighting the artist’s book as both a physical and conceptual center of the exhibition.</p><p>The exhibition focuses on Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju’s large-scale paintings on leather and small sculptures made of birch, whose symbols and personal motifs expand the thematic range of the exhibition. Ilupeju combines painting, installations, and text in her practice, making visible the fractures and overlays of memory through unconventional media and surfaces modified with scratch marks and pyrographic techniques. Her works link personal and collective narratives, questioning traditional archiving while opening spaces where stories can be told in depth. In particular, the relationships with her family and thoughts on homeland and diaspora are a common thread throughout her works.</p><p>The title BloodLetter refers on one hand to the central role of blood as a metaphor in Ilupeju’s work. For the artist, blood signifies life, connection, trauma, and the transmission of stories. On the other hand, “Letter” points to recorded written and spoken language, asemic writing, the documentation and reshaping of narratives. Together, the interplay of these ideas creates an artistic concept that explores the relationship between body, language, and history.</p><p><br></p>" />
Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju: BloodLetter - Kestner Gesellschaft
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