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KLARA HOBZA’S (*1980) work orbits the paradox of biographical events and permanent
flux. It is characterised by long-term projects that initially seem impossible,
or by the staging of intense events and encounters. Her subsequent experiences
serve as the raw material for a pictorial articulation through the use of a
variety of media and techniques. Her artistic
endeavours are justified through petitions signed by filmmakers and
artists, lending her works systematic necessity. She currently lives in Berlin
and works wherever one allows her to.
De-straightening on behalf of the Intellectual Revolution
by Carola Uehlken
I am planning a journey to the Baltic coast, where I will sit at my laptop in the co-working space of Baltic Bay and enjoy the view of the artificial coast off the island of Rügen. I am hoping that this journey and the bracing sea air will make my words flow about our increasingly absurd relationships with wilderness and water. But 2020 is also the year when it becomes obvious, even to me, that there are others—those who decide how one may move in this world.
Klara Hobza’s Early Endeavors, as she herself calls them—placing them within the chronicle of her work—may be considered part of our current, slowly but steadily developing intellectual revolution towards environmental awareness. The effort to engage with the tides and to observe them in relation to ourselves for instance, is illustrated in her video work Schlickschlacht zu Schillig [engl. “Mud Fight at Schillig”]. Hobza films a jujutsu fight on the mudflats of the Northern German Wadden Sea, a place which itself is caught in a daily struggle for identity between land and sea. In relation to the vastness of the landscape, the scene plays out on a vanishingly small scale— the rules are set by a referee, while sculptors akin to courtroom sketchers, attempt to document the unfolding spectacle. In the following part, we witness a gracious Bojutsu kata performed in the mud. Hobza makes it seem as if mankind may find itself in harmony with the biodiversity of the environment, through those martial art techniques as practiced for centuries. But if one considers the billions of micro biotic systems with which the fighters are inundated, or the artificially produced materials that wash into the sea with the tide every day, the protagonists’ activities only manage to appear absurd.
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Klara Hobza, Die Schlickschlacht zu Schillig, 2016, HD video, 9:59 min, film still. Courtesy: Klara Hobza
Hobza’s productions generally refer to specific periods of her life. It could be her moving from the States back to Germany, or an attempt to communicate with her New York neighbourhood using Morse code. Furthermore, her efforts always seem to reflect a thirst for knowledge about historical events, like in the the long-term project Nay, I’ll have a Starling. In 1890, all bird species mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays were exported from Great Britain to the United States, where they eventually succeeded in reproducing. Starlings are now considered a plague in the States and numerous methods are employed to keep them in check. Hobza makes it her task to free the North American continent of their burden by literally abducting the Starling’s young. Submitting herself to the rules of transportation, she has no choice but to smuggle the birds’ eggs back to Europe in her mouth or strapped around her legs. This not only unveils the nature of historical action or current transportation regulations, but also the increasingly severe power we impose upon our environment and other life forms.
Intellectual revolutions proceed very, very slowly. The ripple caused by mountains on the move takes longer still. Let’s take a look at Hobza’s longterm project, Diving Through Europe. Measured in terms of gross domestic product, the EU’s internal market is the largest common economic area in the world, an area which Hobza wishes to dive through within the span of 30 years. That is roughly the time it took to build the Main-Danube Canal, along which about 5 million tons of goods are transported each year. Due to current climatic conditions, measurements of the canal have exhibited low water levels for several years, and subsequently the number of goods being transported has begun to decrease. The path of the river, which had once masterfully meandered its way through Nuremberg, Vienna and around the romantic island of Ada Kaleh—now sunken due to the construction of the canal—has been straightened, and for long stretches Hobza will have to swim through artificial canals that are not designed for human exercise.
There was not always a waterway that directly connected the port in Rotterdam with the Black Sea. The water that permeated through the Alps and into the European landmass was held back by mountain ranges. According to legend, this is what happened:
Seven giants were commissioned to open the Rhine. Equipped with gigantic spades, they cleared their way through the remorseless volcanic rock and thus paved the way for many myths and tales. After the work was completed, the giants shook the dust from their bodies and the dirt from their spades. The resultant heaps of earth became the so-called Siebengebirge, which still lines the Rhine today.
Diving Through Europe not only unfolds in the river, but also in preparatory encounters with outstanding personalities such as her diving trainer and world-record expert, Namik Ekin, with whom she trained her lung capacity and learned how to eat bananas and drink under water. She enters danger zones that are protected from people like her by high security mechanisms and a large set of international trade regulations. Equipped with a petition signed by filmmakers in her wetsuit, that expresses the necessity of her project for humanity, Hobza’a enthusiasm remains uncompromised. In fact, the sincerity with which she engages her projects, resembles that of astronauts making extensive preparations for their journey to Mars, exploring new horizons for humanity. Hobza reclaims once natural habitats as a matter of course.
A leatherback sea turtle covers 7500 km in one year. We do not know exactly why it makes its journey. There are many hypotheses. Klara Hobza’s Early Endeavors take her through bodies of water, which will continue to change decisively and in ways we will only gradually come to understand within the next 20 years. In the meantime, we might encounter her on her path and be able to formulate hypotheses.
De-straightening on behalf of the Intellectual Revolution
by Carola UehlkenI am planning a journey to the Baltic coast, where I will sit at my laptop in the co-working space of Baltic Bay and enjoy the view of the artificial coast off the island of Rügen. I am hoping that this journey and the bracing sea air will make my words flow about our increasingly absurd relationships with wilderness and water. But 2020 is also the year when it becomes obvious, even to me, that there are others—those who decide how one may move in this world.
Klara Hobza’s Early Endeavors, as she herself calls them—placing them within the chronicle of her work—may be considered part of our current, slowly but steadily developing intellectual revolution towards environmental awareness. The effort to engage with the tides and to observe them in relation to ourselves for instance, is illustrated in her video work Schlickschlacht zu Schillig [engl. “Mud Fight at Schillig”]. Hobza films a jujutsu fight on the mudflats of the Northern German Wadden Sea, a place which itself is caught in a daily struggle for identity between land and sea. In relation to the vastness of the landscape, the scene plays out on a vanishingly small scale— the rules are set by a referee, while sculptors akin to courtroom sketchers, attempt to document the unfolding spectacle. In the following part, we witness a gracious Bojutsu kata performed in the mud. Hobza makes it seem as if mankind may find itself in harmony with the biodiversity of the environment, through those martial art techniques as practiced for centuries. But if one considers the billions of micro biotic systems with which the fighters are inundated, or the artificially produced materials that wash into the sea with the tide every day, the protagonists’ activities only manage to appear absurd.

Klara Hobza, Die Schlickschlacht zu Schillig, 2016, HD video, 9:59 min, film still. Courtesy: Klara Hobza
Hobza’s productions generally refer to specific periods of her life. It could be her moving from the States back to Germany, or an attempt to communicate with her New York neighbourhood using Morse code. Furthermore, her efforts always seem to reflect a thirst for knowledge about historical events, like in the the long-term project Nay, I’ll have a Starling. In 1890, all bird species mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays were exported from Great Britain to the United States, where they eventually succeeded in reproducing. Starlings are now considered a plague in the States and numerous methods are employed to keep them in check. Hobza makes it her task to free the North American continent of their burden by literally abducting the Starling’s young. Submitting herself to the rules of transportation, she has no choice but to smuggle the birds’ eggs back to Europe in her mouth or strapped around her legs. This not only unveils the nature of historical action or current transportation regulations, but also the increasingly severe power we impose upon our environment and other life forms.
Intellectual revolutions proceed very, very slowly. The ripple caused by mountains on the move takes longer still. Let’s take a look at Hobza’s longterm project, Diving Through Europe. Measured in terms of gross domestic product, the EU’s internal market is the largest common economic area in the world, an area which Hobza wishes to dive through within the span of 30 years. That is roughly the time it took to build the Main-Danube Canal, along which about 5 million tons of goods are transported each year. Due to current climatic conditions, measurements of the canal have exhibited low water levels for several years, and subsequently the number of goods being transported has begun to decrease. The path of the river, which had once masterfully meandered its way through Nuremberg, Vienna and around the romantic island of Ada Kaleh—now sunken due to the construction of the canal—has been straightened, and for long stretches Hobza will have to swim through artificial canals that are not designed for human exercise.
There was not always a waterway that directly connected the port in Rotterdam with the Black Sea. The water that permeated through the Alps and into the European landmass was held back by mountain ranges. According to legend, this is what happened:
Seven giants were commissioned to open the Rhine. Equipped with gigantic spades, they cleared their way through the remorseless volcanic rock and thus paved the way for many myths and tales. After the work was completed, the giants shook the dust from their bodies and the dirt from their spades. The resultant heaps of earth became the so-called Siebengebirge, which still lines the Rhine today.
Diving Through Europe not only unfolds in the river, but also in preparatory encounters with outstanding personalities such as her diving trainer and world-record expert, Namik Ekin, with whom she trained her lung capacity and learned how to eat bananas and drink under water. She enters danger zones that are protected from people like her by high security mechanisms and a large set of international trade regulations. Equipped with a petition signed by filmmakers in her wetsuit, that expresses the necessity of her project for humanity, Hobza’a enthusiasm remains uncompromised. In fact, the sincerity with which she engages her projects, resembles that of astronauts making extensive preparations for their journey to Mars, exploring new horizons for humanity. Hobza reclaims once natural habitats as a matter of course.
A leatherback sea turtle covers 7500 km in one year. We do not know exactly why it makes its journey. There are many hypotheses. Klara Hobza’s Early Endeavors take her through bodies of water, which will continue to change decisively and in ways we will only gradually come to understand within the next 20 years. In the meantime, we might encounter her on her path and be able to formulate hypotheses.
