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Anton Hensing Apartamento Interview
Anton Hensing Apartamento Interview
Imagine a big, stylish lounge with warm-hued walls covered with large-scale paintings, pedestals with sculptures,
sleek armchairs and sofas. I could have been talking about
any elegant living room, but this is actually the work of
the German artist Anton Henning. Discovering his installations, for which much thanks goes to a large exhibition
at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, I became fascinated
with the spaces he creates and how the viewer is invited
to enter and observe the installation from within. Here,
interiors do not just frame or host the artworks, but form
a large part of it. The German term Gesamtskunstwerk
meaning a total work of art has hardly seemed more
relevant. The Anton Henning universe comes in a certain palette of colours; luscious, organic shapes in warm
ANTON HENNING
Loving the living room
INTERVIEW BY HELENA NILSSON STRNGBERG
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ACHIM HATZIUS
apartamento - Manker
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Anton, you seem to have lived a bit all over
the place and settled down in this small village
of Manker 20 years ago. Are you originally
from Berlin?
Yes, indeed. Im a Berliner, just like my parents, my grandparents and some of my great
grandparents. My mothers father was born
in Moabit, his mother was a widow who had
a pub on the corner of Birkenstrasse and my
grandfather was raised in the bar. Later, when
he was old enough and could afford it, he
bought the place and the corner pub is still
standing on Birkenstrasse today. My fathers
father came from Pommern, ran off as a young
man to become a sailor, but later started his
own pharmaceutical company. In search of
something equivalent to Viagra, he accidently
invented an explosive.
And what about your parents?
My father wanted to become a lawyer, but after
the Second World War the family business was
in such bad shape that he had to rescue the
company in the late 50s. My mother used to be
a stewardess in one of the first Lufthansa crews
to go to Rio de Janeiro, Dhaka, and all those
places, in the Super Constellation aircraft. It
was very glamourous to be a stewardess at that
time. She is still best friends with her former
colleagues.
Were you into art and painting already as a
child?
I dont think I was exceptionally creative as a
child; it was just very practical to paint and give
paintings away for birthdays and Christmas. I
got particularly interested in art when I was
about 16 years old, having seen an exhibition
of post-war American painting. I especially
liked Rauschenbergs combine paintings of the
60s and De Koonings Abstract Expressionism.
Strangely enough, I never cared much for Jackson Pollocks drip-paintings. I found them too
simple, tricky and obvious.
I heard you got expelled from your art school
in Karlsruhe. Why, were you a rebel?
I didnt really see myself as a rebel. I just
found it difficult to adapt to the conformity of
art school. I didnt really like school in general.
After graduating I went to Spain straight to
learn Spanish, and I really loved being away.
When I left Karlsruhe, I decided to go to London
to work on my paintings. Even though there
wasnt much squatting going on in London,
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here since then. My family and I really enjoy
it here because of all the space, which in the
beginning felt much like a pair of shoes that
was too big. Now they are almost custom-fit.
Did you do all the work on the house yourself?
No, because then I would still be doing it. I had
a lot of help, since it is quite large. I lived in
New York before and I loved living there, but I
had enough of city life. I decided to come here
because I wanted to have more space and be
closer to nature.
Why did you grow tired of New York, really?
Above: The Manker Melody Makers Lounge, 1999, installation view. Courtesy of Galerie fr zeitgenssische Kunst, Leipzig,
photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin. Below: Interieur No. 510, 2012. Courtesy of Collection of Magasin 3 Konsthall, Stockholm, photographer: Christian Saltas. Previous page: Interieur No. 227, 2004. Courtesy of private collection, France,
photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin.
okay streets. I had a big space and a gallerist who sold my work, until one day he just
disappeared.
Wait, what do you mean he disappeared?
He just disappeared. I know that hes dead
now. He must have had many enemies. That
was a tough experience, because he owed me
a lot of money. And you know, the question
eventually came up if I was going to stay there,
go back, or go somewhere else. At that time
Germany was the most interesting place because so much was happening: the unification
of a split country. Every time I was in Berlin I
was always thinking that I wanted to be a part
of that interesting moment.
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Were you actually in Berlin when the wall fell?
Yes, I was. I remember extremely well what I
was doing that night. I was renting a very nice
building in Kreuzberg: a four-storey small factory building where two oors were mine, and
the other two I subletted to my best friends. The
house used to be a printers shop, and later it
was bought by the publishing house Nicolai Verlag, so I had to move out. Anyway, one evening
me and my friends were watching the evening
news and they said that it looked like the wall
would be be opened that night. Since the wall
was only like half a mile away, we decided to
go the part by Heinrich-Heine-Strasse. Nobody
Well, you know, this was part of the peaceful history of life! Checkpoint Charlie was an important
point of the Cold War; people were separated by
the wall. When the wall fell, those people could
come together again. Everybody was in tears;
it was a beautiful big moment. And that was all
one could feel. I couldnt look any further.
repeating patterns of city life and communication. It had become too predictable and my star
was fading (laughs).
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What is the difference between placing your
art in an existing space and building your own
settings and furniture?
Its a more intense experience for me to create
my own space, unless the space given is interesting. The smallest installation I made was in
a box that measured a quarter of a cubic metre.
You looked at it through a spy peephole in the
door, getting the illusion that it was a big space.
I read that someone described your art as
walking into a cinemascope movie screen
where a cacophony of painted scenarios unfold, and I think that is a pretty good picture
of your work. Are you inuenced by the film
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Previous spread: Charlys Room,1996, courtesy of the artist, photographer: Anton Henning.
Above: Interieur No. 500, 2012, courtesy of the artist, photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin.
Below: Interieur No. 478, 2011, courtesy of the artist, Photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin.
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instance in newspaper headlines if they are
funny or drastic enough.
You seem to be working very three-dimensionally most of the time. What role do sculptures
or installations play in your work?
I think in all kinds of dimensions and sometimes I dont think so much at all. There is not
really a difference in the way I think of my
installations and my own home.
Previous page: Interieur No. 447, courtesy of the artist, photographer: Anton Henning.