My central material is a waxed skin; silk material dipped in beeswax. Its haptic and visual appearance mirrors the theme of crossing borders in the phenomenon of the skin as a membrane. The transparency of the material and the aroma invite you to draw nearer. Fundamentally, the body, as a primary cultural tool, becomes the actual medium for inspired action that is continually motivated through the yearning for the experience of transition, touching and being touched.
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crossing – exhibitions
Midwife House Skagaströnd, Island August 2018
Arteles, Finland, September 2018
Something else, Off Biennale Cairo, October 2018
Greatmore, Cape Town, February 2019
Galery Gublia, Essen, August 2020
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CROSSING Interviews
As an artistic research project “Crossing” is dedicated to find new and sustainable life strategies by crossing borders.
On the foundation that it is not the artists duty to give answers but to ask questions, this includes documentary- interviews with international artists in very different places, like Iceland, South Africa, Finland, Egypt and Libanon, in the near future in Greece, Kuba and Mexico.
The social changes, in my opinion, require a reflection on dealing with the issue of fear. Thus, in my interviews I try to explore how other artists react to the experience of uncertainty creating their own strategies, not only in a rational but intuitive way, in their art practice. The starting point of my work is the experience, that many problems caused by „globalization“ can be dued to an experience of separation. Not feeling the connection to others or the world causes fear, the main reason (and not only the effect) of most catastrophes that are happening in the world right now. The basic question of my artistic research will proceed from this Archimedean point, therefore: How can we develop the intense experience where we are not separate from our so-called ‘environment’? How can we achieve to reflect the specific kind of analogy between the human being and his/her living space at the level of a fundamental connection – as expressed, for example, in the view of the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. How can we strengthen this connection through art?
In reference to Josef Beuys ́s “Social Sculpture” in my project the artistic process is the main source looking for transformation of the society in a sustainable way. The interpersonal exchange on the foundation of creating is the specific transformative potential of “Crossing” and the basis of the innovative character of the project. As an international language, art is a possibility of crossing the thresholds between cultures and individuals in an exchange with surprising innovative answers.
The new research process in ’25 and ’26 will be guided by the main question: ‘How does peace work?’
The results of the exchanges with international artists will be presented in an exhibition at the CROSSING. kunstraum in Essen, this website and catalog.
It is the aim of the project to show that cultural life/ – survive can be redefined and made possible through exchange rather than demarcation.
The CROSSING workshops focus on experiences ‘on the threshold’. We work with materials such as wax, which allow us to directly experience processes of transition. Perceptions of colour phenomena in painting processes and image viewing are also central.
There are three different course formats:
A) ‘How does peace work?’ workshop
B) ‘Imaging’ – exploring images of our own life
C) Visions of the future…
In den CROSSING workshops geht es um Erfahungen „an der Schwelle“. Gearbeitet wird mit Materialien wie z.B. Wachs, an denen Prozesse des Übergangs unmittelbar erfahrbar sind. Zentral sind auch Wahrnehmungen von Farbphänomenen.in malerischen Prozessen und Bildbetrachtungen.
Dabei gibt es drei verschiedene Kursformen:
A) „Wie geht Frieden?“ – Workshop
B) „Bildern“ – Auseinandersetzung mit Bildern des eigenen Lebens
C) Zukunftsvisionen…
CROSSING RESEARCH
Since August 2018, Katharina Lökenhoff has been travelling for her artistic research project ‘Crossing,’ visiting Iceland, Finland, Egypt, Lebanon, and South Africa. She is investigating how people in different places respond to the experience of uncertainty and the global process of crossing borders. To this end, she will continue the interviews on new journeys starting in summer 2025.
So far, the interviews have shown that it is possible to discover new life strategies in the field of art: it has become clear that cultural life and survival take place through exchange and not through separation, and that art can be a way to connect with a general human consciousness that is free from group affiliation. A process similar to child’s play seems important here. My vision is to continue to provide new impetus for the preservation of the natural habitat and natural joie de vivre from this CROSSING process.
In the second CROSSING process, the central research question will be:
How does peace work?
In September 2024, the CROSSING art spaces in the south of Essen were opened in the presence of Lord Mayor Thomas Kufen. A space for art, action and dialogue – with an in experimental character and a central theme: CROSSING is dedicated to crossing borders and experiences of transition. How are real and imaginary borders experienced and what experiences are associated with it? And what happens in the in-between?
In its claim to be an open space for experience and thought, CROSSING takes an interdisciplinary approach to a variety of different questions on the subject and offers both artistic and discursive formats a space for exhibitions, performances, workshops and discussions. The initiative emerged from the identically named research project CROSSING THE THRESHOLD by artist Katharina Lökenhoff and establishes a place in Essen to explore strategies for sustainable thinking and action creatively, aesthetically and philosophically.
Im September 2024 wurden die CROSSING Kunsträume im Essener Süden in Anwesenheit des Oberbürgermeisters Thomas Kufen eröffnet. Ein Raum für Kunst, Aktion und Dialog – mit experimentellem Charakter und einem Leitthema: CROSSING widmet sich Grenzüberschreitungen und Erfahrungen des Übergangs. Wie werden reale und imaginäre Grenzen erlebt, welche Erfahrungen sind damit verbunden? Und was passiert im Dazwischen?
In seinem Anspruch als offener Erfahrungs- und Denkraum, nimmt sich CROSSING einer Vielzahl an Fragestellungen zum Thema interdisziplinär an und bietet sowohl künstlerischen als auch diskursiven Formaten einen Raum für Ausstellungen, Performances, Workshops und Diskussionen. Die Initiative ist hervorgegangen aus dem gleichnamigen Forschungsprojekt CROSSING THE THRESHOLD der Künstlerin Katharina Lökenhoff und begründet in Essen einen Ort, um Strategien eines nachhaltigen Denkens und Handelns kreativ, ästhetisch und philosophisch zu erforschen.
They can contribute to seclusion, isolation and alienation, but they can also provide protection, support and orientation. And last but not least, they can be transgressed, shifted or overcome: borders. They raise ethical questions, determine identity discourses and are often the subject of subversive questioning in artistic forms of representation. Taking up the complex metaphor of the border and border thinking, the group exhibition also explores separating and differentiating, relationship-establishing and connecting functions in intersubjective contexts. The aesthetic exploration by Sebastian Fritzsch, Katharina Lökenhoff and Sabine Osthoff centres on border phenomena that explore time and again areas of an in-between that remains unmarked and open. Those places of transgression elude explicitness and create a dynamic that stimulates the constant re-negotiation of real and imaginary border formations. Along constants and fault lines, the exhibition creates different perspectives on borders and transitions as encounters with the Other. A balancing act that sometimes leads to existential tipping points where there is a risk of slipping. A fine line that can lead to getting lost in the world or falling into oneself. In free fall, this also means: tilting into the inside. A state that points into the open, into a groundlessness and boundlessness, without safe railings or landmarks. A collapse into consciousness that transcends words. Like an inward gaze, which can be delimiting towards the inside and can mean confinement towards the outside. NUKLEUS deals with physical and mental borderline experiences, which can be characterised by uncertainties and insecurities, curiosity and a thirst for adventure, but also by an existential fear – of the abyss, the fall into the bottomless pit, the immensity of space and time.
The exhibition itself also operates across the board: with paintings, collages, installations and sculptural ceramics as well as the performance ‘AKTION: Haar!’, it brings together artistic works and positions by Sebastian Fritzsch, Katharina Lökenhoff and Sabine Osthoff – and with them visual and aesthetic cultures and practices from the visual arts, film, theatre and drama.
Julia Martel
Katharina Lökenhoff founded the art space CROSSING in September 2024 to open up new perspectives on life through artistic experiments in an adventurous curiosity.
Katharina Lökenhoff gründete im September 2024 den Kunstraum CROSSING, um durch künstlerische Experimente in einer abenteuerlustigen Neugier neue Perspektiven auf das Leben zu eröffnen.
Katharina Lökenhoff has been primarily dedicated to the CROSSING project since 2018, which was further emphasised by the founding of the CROSSING 2024 art space. However, she is also involved in the White Flag Project and Social Culture Lab, among other projects. She can also look back on a number of successful theatre projects.
Katharina Lökenhoff hat sich seit 2018 primär dem Projekt CROSSING verschrieben, was durch die Gründung des Kunstraums CROSSING 2024 noch bekräftigt wurde. Sie ist jedoch auch im White-Flag-Project und Social Culture Lab u.A. Projekten engagiert. Außerdem kann sie auf eine Reihe erfolgreicher Theaterprojekte zurückblicken.
CROSSING asks questions about transitions and the in-between in order to enable new forms of life. CROSSING is a space and a project. CROSSING is an attitude towards the inside and outside in its connections. CROSSING is an artistic method that arises from the encounter. CROSSING is dedicated to borders and their transgressions. CROSSING enables conscious experiences of the threshold.
CROSSING stellt Fragen nach Übergängen und dem Dazwischen, um neue Lebensformen zu ermöglichen. CROSSING ist ein Raum und ein Projekt. CROSSING ist eine Haltung zum Innen und Außen in seinen Verbindungen. CROSSING ist eine künstlerische Methode, die aus der Begegnung entsteht. CROSSING widmet sich Grenzen und ihren Überschreitungen. CROSSING ermöglicht bewusste Erfahrungen der Schwelle.
