The garden of the Georg Kolbe Museum is being revitalised: with an annual commission created by contemporary artists especially for this location, the garden on Sensburger Allee is returning to its function as a site of artistic production. Hoda Tawakol (*1968, London) is the first artist invited to complete this commission and has created a large-scale textile work as a space for reflection in the historic sculpture garden.
The work Feed Me the Milk of Your Eyes (2024) is inspired by the garden of Georg Kolbe’s building ensemble. It floats above the heads of visitors on the underside of a newly erected tent constructed in the museum’s garden and depicts a palm crown studded with sparkling eyes. The German French artist Hoda Tawakol, who lives in Hamburg, is known for her impressive textile works. This work is also created from a material unusual for the outdoors, thus creating an interesting combination of textile, architecture and sculpture.
Taking the idea of the garden as a refuge further, Tawakol associates the palm tree with protection and care, as the plant is a provider of shade, food and wood. It is also closely linked to the theme of gender. This is because the palm is one of the few plants that can change its gender to ensure the preservation of a palm grove. Tawakol herself grew up with three women who shaped a view of femininity that is closely interwoven with forms of motherhood. The artist unfolds and reassembles these two closely linked constructs using textile materials and the motif of the palm tree.
The palm tree is also a symbol of the artist’s identity. The plant connects her with Egypt, the country of her heritage, where the date palm is omnipresent. While the palm tree symbolises an ‘exotic’ distance from a Central European perspective, for the artist it is a tree of longing for a distant motherland in which she herself has never lived and yet which is a defining part of her identity. ROOTS, the title of the garden exhibition, deals with roots as a physical form but also as a concept that refers to the continuous growth of identities and cultures. Starting with a palm tree, which finds its place without roots in the historical sculpture garden, a narrative of longings and memories, of similarities and differences, and of gender and belonging unfolds.
Curators: Emma Borwieck and Eva da Silva Antunes Alves
Press release from the Georg Kolbe Museum
Image: Hoda Tawakol. Detail from Feed Me the Milk of Your Eyes at ROOTS, Georg Kolbe Museum, 2024. Photography by Enric Duch
