As part of the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026
Melike Kara's solo exhibition Whispers understands photography not as a static image, but as a circulating, changing medium of memory, identity and transformation. For the Kunsthaus Hamburg, the artist is developing an expansive installation for which she is burning photographs from her own archive for the first time and transferring them into the space as ashes. What remains are traces - fragments of images that elude fixation. Based on Melike Kara's longstanding engagement with her Kurdish heritage, the exhibition focuses on belonging and change. Visitors enter a fragile garden: paintings cover the floor, images made from coffee grounds permeate the space like sedimented traces of the past. Plants grow in individual areas and water collects in basins. This creates a sensual space that invites us to think of identity as something that is constantly changing.
Viewed in the context of the Triennial of Photography, the exhibition condenses central motifs of this year's festival theme: Alliance as a moving, constantly re-forming relationship between images, bodies and stories, Infinity as an unfinishable process of memory and change, and Love as a delicate form of closeness and belonging that requires affection and openness.
Curated by Anna Nowak
This content has been machine translated.Price information:
Regular: 6€, Reduced: 4€, Group (from 10 persons): 2€