The Grand Finissage – TERRA DIASPORA
The Grand Finissage
of
TERRA DIASPORA – Active Terrain N°2
“Collapse is not a destination, it is a process”
Julius von Bismarck, Julian Charrière, Marjolijn Dijkman, Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau,
Andreas Greiner, Robert Gschwantner, Spiros Hadjidjanos, Kapwani Kiwanga,
Almut Linde, Ulrike Mohr, Mazenett Quiroga, Marike Schuurman, Raul Walch
curated by Dr. Almut Hüfler and Stephan Klee
On the occasion of the final weekend of this exhibition, the Kunstverein Göttingen is particularly pleased to invite you to a closing event full of programme items and interesting guests – The Grand Finissage – on Sunday, 21 September 2025, on the first floor of the Old Town Hall in Göttingen. The entire programme will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on–site, with snacks and drinks served, and the current edition presented. Feel free to drop by whenever it suits you best and when you are most interested. We look forward to seeing you! – The team at Kunstverein Göttingen.
OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRAMME
Sun 21 September, 11 am – 5 pm
The Grand Finissage
11 am
Guided tour of the exhibition with curator Stephan Klee
2 – 5 pm
Panel conversations on the topic
A real life in the wrong one?
An afternoon of talks on the benefits of the economy for the common good and the possibilities of culture in the climate crisis.
Part 1
2:00 – 3:15 pm
Book presentation
“Species extinction will continue, as will the melting of the polar ice caps, and the rainforests will continue to burn as long as nothing changes in our economic system. The pioneers of the economy for the common good are setting a positive direction for economic activity. Through their actions, they refute the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno and show that there is indeed a right way to live in a wrong world.”
Lawyer, cultural manager and author Sven Hartberger (Vienna) has been the spokesperson for the Economy for the Common Good Austria since 2021. He deals with the question of what needs to change in our economic system in order to halt the disastrous developments of climate change. In his trilogy Minotaurus (2019), Mallingers Abschied oder vom Sinn und Unsinn der Arbeit (2023) and Lasst Euch nicht täuschen! – Ein Brief an die letzte Generation, fundamental questions are posed and possible solutions discussed in literary form.
Moderator: Dr Almut Hüfler
Part 2
3:30 – 4:00 pm
Sustainability and the Economy for the Common Good in Göttingen
With:
Annabel Konermann, Coordinator of the Göttingen Regional Group of the Economy for the Common Good Germany;
Nils König, Scientists for Future, Climate Advisory Board of the City of Göttingen (Executive Board);
Michael Letmathe, Deutsches Theater Göttingen (Chief Dramaturg)
Co-moderator: Johanna Meyer
Part 3
4:00 pm
What opportunities and responsibilities do culture and art have in relation to the consequences of the climate crisis?
With:
Sven Hartberger, author;
Stephan Klee, curator of the Göttingen Art Association;
Nils König, KUNST e.V. (board member);
Michael Letmathe, Deutsches Theater Göttingen (chief dramaturge);
Annabel Konermann, coordinator of the Göttingen regional group of Gemeinwohl–Ökonomie Deutschland
Moderator: Dr Almut Hüfler
4:45 – 5:00 p.m.
Closing remarks and book signing with Sven Hartberger
Afterwards
from 5:15 p.m.
We cordially invite you to continue the conversation at the Künstlerhaus (Gotmarstraße 1) with snacks and drinks in an informal setting, to get to know each other better and to round off the evening.
Event image: Graphic by Stephan Klee, all rights reserved by the author and frontviews
THE EDITION OF THE EXHIBITION

Spiros Hadjidjanos
Chemicals are Internal to Us, 2022–2025
Edition of 12 + 5 AP
,
29.7 cm x W 42 cm,
Archival inkjet pigment print (Fine Art Long Duration Inkjet Print) on HAHNEMÜHLE PHOTO RAG,
velvety – matte, natural white, acid-free, 100% cellulose, 308 g/sqm
Courtesy of the artist
Price: €320 / €240 for members of KV Göttingen
Here, the artist presents a brilliantly surrealistic homage to the elemental semiconductor silicon, which is not only indispensable in many areas of the electronics industry, but also plays a key role as a natural substance in organic bodies, among other things, in holding tissue together. The motif thus humorously embodies our deep, material exchange with the terrestrial environment. By purchasing this edition, you are supporting the work of our association in a particularly sustainable and meaningful way.
In the Old Town Hall in Göttingen, the central group exhibition Active Terrain No. 2 in the second year of TERRA DIASPORA features artists whose works deal with the discrepancy between the ecological crisis of our planet and people’s perception of it. Given the scale and often vast distance of human intervention and its protracted nature, the profound consequences are hardly taken seriously as an acute danger. The complexity of the processes undermines humanity’s evolutionary response to danger, so that necessary countermeasures are repeatedly ‘postponed’ in the face of acute emergencies such as wars, economic crises, etc. As a result, ecological collapse is already taking place without humanity responding adequately.
The groups of works in the exhibition make the complex of themes directly accessible in visual, haptic and cognitive terms using original material and images of processes taking place globally in real life. Under the thematic headings ‘Changes in the Forest’ and ‘Changes in the Soil,’ twelve well–known international individual positions and a duo from eight different countries and three continents are represented. The works on display include evidence of ‘counter-ecological’ developments from five continents.
- Marjolijn Dijkman “Cloud to Ground”, 2021, resin, fulgurite, aluminium board 30 x 30 x 20 cm and Marjolijn Dijkman “Earthing Discharge” (#1 + #2), 2019, framed C-print on paper, 110 x 90 cm
- Marjolijn Dijkman Cloud to Ground, 2021 Resin, fulgurite, aluminium board 30 x 30 x 20 cm
- Marjolijn Dijkman Cloud to Ground, 2021 Resin, fulgurite, aluminium board 30 x 30 x 20 cm
- Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau “Concerto for extinct birds”, 2024, walnut, spruce, speaker, cable, electronics, 210 x 210 x 25 cm
- Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau “Concerto for extinct birds”, 2024, walnut, spruce, speaker, cable, electronics, 210 x 210 x 25 cm
- Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau “Concerto for extinct birds” (detail), 2024, walnut, spruce, speaker, cable, electronics, 210 x 210 x 25 cm
- Ulrike Mohr “Sheltered (Nest)”, 2024, ceramic and carbonized wood, 85 x 30 x 110 cm, Installation with distilled smoke scent
- Ulrike Mohr “Sheltered (Nest)”, 2024, ceramic and carbonized wood, 85 x 30 x 110 cm, Installation with distilled smoke scent
- Ulrike Mohr “Sheltered (Nest)” (detail), 2024, ceramic and carbonized wood, 85 x 30 x 110 cm, Installation with distilled smoke scent
- “Collapse is not a Destination”, exhibition view: front: Ulrike Mohr, left: Spiros Hadjidjanos, back: Andreas Greiner
- Spiros Hadjidjanos Unfolded, 2019 Pine (Charred) Part I: 174 x 24,5 x 15 cm – Part II: 183 x 39,5 x 0,5 cm
- Spiros Hadjidjanos K_enn_ecot_t, 2021 Bronze Cast 52.4 x 41 x 6.4 cm Installed with K_enn_ecot Pre-Cast, 2021
- Spiros Hadjidjanos “K_enn_ecot_t” (detail), 2021 Bronze Cast 52.4 x 41 x 6.4 cm, 2021
- Spiros Hadjidjanos “K_enn_ecot_t”, 2021 Bronze Cast 52.4 x 41 x 6.4 cm, Installed with “K_enn_ecot” Pre-Cast, 2021
- Robert Gschwantner “North Beach Collection V”(detail) , 2023, PVC tubes, seawater, sand, plastic particles, 220×100 cm
- Robert Gschwantner North Beach, 2021 Collection II, PVC tubes, seawater, sand, plastic particles, folded 95x70cm
- Robert Gschwantner “North Beach” (detail), 2021 Collection II, PVC tubes, seawater, sand, plastic particles, folded 95x70cm
- Robert Gschwantner “ERIKA0065” (detail) , 2000, PVC tubes, oil: TOTAL ALTIGRADE GP & ELF 2T, 50x85cm
- Almut Linde “DIRTY MINIMAL #88.1 MINIMALIZED DIRT SQUARE/ GORLEBEN”, 2014 Salt, 200 x 200 cm and Almut Linde “DIRTY MINIMAL #88.2 – CAVE”, 2014, Light-jet Print, 120 x 180 cm
- Almut Linde “DIRTY MINIMAL #88.2 – CAVE” (detail), 2014, Light-jet Print, 120 x 180 cm
- Mazenett Quiroga “Roots of the Sky”, 2024, 9 digital prints on cotton paper Hahnemühle, covered with gold leaf 24K, 59 x 47 cm each
- Mazenett Quiroga “Roots of the Sky” (detail), 2024, 9 digital prints on cotton paper Hahnemühle, covered with gold leaf 24K, 59 x 47 cm each
- Mazenett Quiroga Gente Serpiente (Snake people), 2019-2023 2 Bicycle tires and Acrylics 2 Branches, bronze 2 x 60 cm, 2 x 25 x 14 cm
- Mazenett Quiroga “Gente Serpiente” (Snake people), 2019-2023, 2 Bicycle tires and Acrylics Branch, bronze 2 x 60 cm, 25 x 14 cm
- Marike Schuurman “Merzdorf 1400 – 1979, Kohle”, 2017 Inkjetprint of reclaimed negatives on aluminium 48 x 36 cm
- Marike Schuurman “Bergheider See 3-PH3, Toxic”, 2022, Inkjetprint on aluminium, framed in plexiglass box, 104 x 85 cm
- Marike Schuurman “Bergheider See 3-PH3, Toxic” (detail), 2022, Inkjetprint on aluminium, framed in plexiglass box, 104 x 85 cm
The annual programme 2025
TERRA DIASPORA – ACTIVE TERRAINS
TERRA DIASPORA is the leitmotif of the Kunstverein Göttingen 2024–2025. In view of fundamental upheavals in the coexistence of nature and mankind, TERRA DIASPORA stands for a world on the move; for a terrain that is becoming increasingly alien to its inhabitants and for an earth on which people are becoming foreign bodies. It is an earth in a foreign land, a terra diaspora.
After the first part of the TERRA DIASPORA – WELTEN WANDELN programme series in 2024 explored contemporary forms of fantastic, figurative art, TERRA DIASPORA – ACTIVE TERRAINS is the Kunstverein’s current motto for 2025. As the second part of the comprehensive TERRA DIASPORA exhibition series, the fundamental distortions in the relationship between nature and man in our present day are shown and discussed here using real geographical case studies and the creative reaction of artists to precisely these conditions in Göttingen. This annual programme is also developed and supervised by curator Stephan Klee together with the participating artists and related curators.
We would like to thank our sponsors: Niedersächsische Sparkassen Stiftung, Sparkasse Göttingen, Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, Stadt Göttingen, and Landschaftsverband Südniedersachsen e.V.






















































































