27.-31.10.2015 Exhibition at UN Headquarters NYC

28.10.2015 Lecture Performance at Goethe-Institut NYC

Cooperation Partners:

German Mission to the UN

Goethe-Institut New York City

New York City, October 2015: Berlin-based artist duo Janina Janke and Maurice de Martin presented their artistic research of United Nations Headquarters in three cities: Nairobi, New York, and Vienna and across three continents: Africa, North America, and Europe. Since 2011 Janina Janke and Maurice de Martin have conducted over 70 video-interviews with UN staff based in the three Headquarters as well as members of the local host communities. For the exhibition in the New York UN Headquarters, the artists have created a room-filling sociogram consisting of 120 video stills, a complex kaleidoscope of individual gestural expressions.

After its premiere in Vienna in 2013, UNKNOWN SPACES travelled to Nairobi in 2014. On occasion of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, the exhibition was shown in New York City. The presentation of the exhibition and accompanying lecture-performance in New York City were made possible by the generous support of the German Mission to the UN, the German Federal Foreign Office, and the Goethe-Institut New York.

Opening Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 1 B Neck, UN Headquarters New York City, 6pm (Entrance: 46th Street and 1st Avenue)

Exhibition opening with introductory remarks by:
Ambassador Dr. Harald Braun, Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN

Under Secretary General Yukio Takaso, United Nations Under Secretary General for Management

Janina Janke and Maurice de Martin, German artists behind “Unknown Spaces”

Exhibition October 27 -31, 2015, 1 B Neck, UN Headquarters New York City

Lecture Performance and Discussion Roundtable, Wednesday, October 28, 2015, Goethe-Institut NYC, 6:30 pm

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon‘s message for the opening of the NYC exhibition

Delivering opening messages at UN headquarters (f.l.t.r.): USG Takasu, Amb. Dr. Braun, Artists Janke & de Martin

Discussing the SCD („Smallest Common Denominator“) concerning an art exhibition at the UN NYC together with UN staff members at the opening.

USG Takasu delivering message by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

UNKNOWN SPACES Lecture-Performance @ Goethe-Institut NYC, 29.10.2015

(Fotography: StäV. NYC)

Photography: Jacobia Dahm/Goethe Institut NYC

Photography: Tanya von Barnau Sythoff & Mereth Ellerbeck