The exhibition Spektrum by Hella Gerlach is the fourth in the series for fear of continuity problems, which explores the notion of memory in parts of the GAK’s indoor space and the poster frames outside.
Hella Gerlach explores communication and relationships as an interplay between bodies and technology. Touch often lies at the center of this exploration: touch that leaves traces, triggers reactions, and generates data that inscribes itself in both technologies and bodies. The spectrum across which these forms of contact unfold is wide. With the aid of sensors and their technological extensions, physical contact can bridge large distances and connect different modes of perception between bodies.
Large and small wool objects—modeled, washed, and further shaped by Gerlach—hang from rubber cords throughout the space. Some incorporate technical elements that extend their responsiveness to touch through trembling movements and vibrations. Communication unfolds nonverbally, both among the objects themselves and between the objects and human participants, inscribing itself as memory. Gerlach has titled this series of abstract, tactile objects Inside-out, as their forms recall bodies turned inside out. The selection of works for Spektrum focuses on the brain region.
This movement between interior and exterior also appears in the outdoor installation. Here, Gerlach brings pages from her current publication Kollagen—normally found inside the book—onto the building’s exterior wall. Through hands and ears, and through existing and newly produced book pages, a collection of texts and images unfolds across the façade, exploring different forms,gestures and transformations of touch. Each touch sets off a chain of sensory perceptions. Vibrations travel, transform, and move through countless materials—channeled, stored, and transmitted again. In this way, Gerlach’s works also probe the tensions between body and technology, possibility and vulnerability, extension and loss.
Hella Gerlach (b. 1977, based in Berlin) studied, art history, archaeology and philosophy at the University of Cologne, interdisciplinary design at TH Cologne and experimental sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Since 2010, Gerlach teaches art with a three-dimensional focus in various educational contexts. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions, including ACAPPELLA Naples, AIL Vienna, Machina Loci, Berkeley, Østfold Kunstsenter, Norway, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Stations, Berlin, Kunstverein Jesteburg, Kunstverein Hildesheim/Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Goethe Institut Glasgow, Garden City Club, Cairo, Kunstverein Schwerin/Museum Schloss Schwerin, STUDIO Berlin, KW Berlin, Kunstverein Hamburg, Mark Morgan Perez Garage, Buenos Aires, Bonner Kunstverein, Kunstverein Langenhagen, Kunsthaus Dresden, and Kunstpavillon Innsbruck.
Gerlach is a member of the Bossman collective (since 2021), initiator of the exhibition project DIE FUGE (2009-2012), editorial member of the first issue of the artist magazine SKULPI (2010), co-initiator of the mobile exhibition platform WHEELY (2005-2007), and curator in the collective of the Simultanhalle, Cologne (2003-2006).
Opening: March 20 2026, 7pm
The series for fear of continuity problems invites artists to play a game of ping-pong between the small bookshop at the GAK and the question of how memory, perspectives, narratives, identities, and the unconscious can be spatially represented and publicly negotiated. Julia Horstmann has designed a new bookshelf for the collaborative project based on the idea of the memory palace, a method for remembering using places and artifacts.
Funded by
Der Senator für Kultur der Freien Hansestadt Bremen, Liebelt Stiftung Hamburg, Waldemar Koch Stiftung, Sparkasse Bremen