Zeitenwende

2024, Wall drawing, sizes variable

Zeitenwende is a large-scale wall drawing commissioned by exhibition A Time in Pieces. The drawing traces the geopolitical, ideological and militaristic connections to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine within a larger European and international framework. Based on conversations with prominent Ukrainian historian Georgiy Kasianov, Henriksson’s map remains decidedly subjective and selective, highlighting the never-neutral practice of historiography. Beginning with the period of denazification and the early envisioning of the European Union, the map draws attention to a number of historical and contemporary moments that belong to the realm of chronopolitics. Some of these events, like the Russian- led memory wars or the infamous declaration of a “Zeitenwende” (“turning point”) by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, already emphasise the politicisation of time through their terminology. Henriksson’s drawing not only chronicles past and present events, but also introduces predictions and various speculations regarding a near or distant future, centred on the crisis of the Suwałki Gap, the only land route connecting the Baltic States with the rest of the European Union and NATO. A strategically important region in northeastern Poland, the Suwałki Gap is projected to become contested, and the artist hypothesises a variety of more and less probable scenarios of our common future within and beyond Europe.

(text by Viktor Neumann)

Download here a copy of the drawing