To Move, To Carry, To Remain

Invitation to the Opening of the July Exhibition “To Move, To Carry, To Remain”
as part of the annual theme “Hospitality”

Opening: July 10, 6:00 p.m.
Reading and artist talk: 7:00 p.m., in English
Closing Reception: July 24, 6:00–9:00 p.m.

*To Move, To Carry, To Remain* brings together new works by Phuong Thao Nguyen and Ayşe Ateş.

Both artists work through movement—through tracing, searching, listening, and returning. Their artistic practices unfold through travel and encounters, in which the journey itself becomes part of the work. What is found along the way does not simply fill a gap or complete a missing story. It changes the direction of the search, shifts the artist’s role, and becomes part of the work’s creation and evolution.

The exhibition explores what it means to remain in motion as an artist—not only physically, but also in relation to the material, to history, and to the people one encounters along the way. The artist initially enters the story, life, or past of another person as a guest. Gradually, however, she becomes a guardian of what she has received: someone who preserves what she has found, creates the conditions for its acceptance, and assumes responsibility for a story that is never entirely her own. These two positions cannot be reconciled and remain in a state of tension within the works.

Within the framework of the annual theme “Hospitality,” the exhibition understands hospitality as a practice of continuous negotiation. Entering another place, a memory, or a story means constantly renegotiating one’s own position within it: when to speak, what to bring, and when to leave a story with those to whom it belongs.

Phuong Thao Nguyen is an artist and filmmaker. Her work traces the paths of people, stories, and objects through cultural and political landscapes. She works with film, sculpture, installation, and text. Her practice remains rooted in the documentary while simultaneously opening up spaces for intimate, fragmented, and multilayered forms of storytelling.

Ayşe Ateş works by reading traces, listening, and following. Her practice begins with fragments—oral narratives, chance encounters, material remnants, and overlooked details—from which larger constellations of memory, place, and relationship gradually unfold.

Invited and curated by: Razan Sabbagh

The annual program of nachtspeicher23 is supported by the Department of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg @bkm_hh.