In conversation with Bruce Hainley and Fatima Hellberg, Susanne Titz and Haris Giannouras discuss Ghislaine Leung’s exhibition at Museum Abteiberg.

Bruce Hainley is a critic, writer and poet. Until recently he held the position of professor of Criticism and Theory at the MFA program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and the Roski School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California. In 2021, he was made Chair of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University. His work includes critically acclaimed publications such as Under the Sign of [sic]. Sturtevant’s Volte-Face (2013), Foul Mouth (2006), which was a finalist in the National Poetry Series, Art – A Sex Book, cowritten with John Waters (2003) and Pep Talk Reader (2011). He is a regular Contributor at art magazines such as Frieze and Artforum. Bruce Hainley has contributed a text on the upcoming box catalogue accompanying Ghislaine Leung’s exhibit at Museum Abteiberg. 

Fatima Hellberg is the director of Bonner Kunstverein. She served as the artistic director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart until 2019. Before that she was curator at Cubitt and Electra in London and taught at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam at the University of Oxford and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Fatima Hellberg has curated numerous acclaimed exhibitions including The Holding Environment (2021) at the Bonner Kunstverein, Okey Dokey III – Fenster with Steven Cairns (2019) in various locations in Cologne and Düsseldorf. At Künstlerhaus Stuttgart she worked on exhibition projects a.o. with artists like Gregg Bordowitz, Ellen Cantor, Bruce Conner, Hildegarde Duane, Ghislaine Leung, James Richards and Leslie Thornton. 

The exhibition is part of the anniversary program “beuys 2021. 100 years of joseph beuys”, a project of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in cooperation with the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.