Anja Hantelmann

Sunday, May 31, 2026 from 4 pm: Philosophy at the coffee table: thoughts on the phenomenology of the body

Anja Hantelmann's artistic interest lies in the relationship of people to their environment and to themselves; their self-perception, their struggle, their memories, their traces, their search, their self-assurance.

Hantelmann's practice is characterized by thematic explorations, whereby the process of discovery always has a high performative component. The artist lives through or grasps themes through her body, so to speak. The results usually lead to slowly developing paintings, but also repeatedly to performances and, more recently, to sculptural forms.

The fact that Hantelmann brings the performative into her paintings, incorporating what she has experienced and perceived herself into naturalistic painting and transferring moods perceptibly, is, she thinks, what makes her works special.

The use of egg tempera and painting in many layers of color give Hantelmann the opportunity to make moods perceptible through fine nuances of color that support her motif ideas.

In a new body of work comprising painting, photography, video performance and sculptural elements, the artist explores the duality between having a body and being a body. She is interested in the discrepancy between external image and physical sensation.