To the rottenness Hamburg

To the rottenness I say you are my brother. And to the worms my sister and my brother.

Performance
with Josepha Merz and Lena Düspohl
2026
Kunsthaus Hamburg

In the context of Melike Kara’s exhibition at the Kunsthaus Hamburg, artist Toni Ehrhardt presents a performance that conceives of archaeology and history as fluid, and always speculative, narratives. He weaves together scientific findings on animal communication with the imagination of a prehistoric civilization, thereby questioning the established hierarchies between humans and animals. Fire serves as a central element in this work.

Like certain trees, plants, and fungi, we are so-called fire-adapted pyrophytes.
Fire has had a lasting impact on our evolution and way of life and has, in a sense, “domesticated” us.
If domestication is defined as the inability of certain plants or animals to survive or reproduce independently without human support, then this also applies to fire in a certain way: In the course of our evolution, humans have adapted so profoundly to the use of fire that our species could scarcely survive without it.
It forms the basis for humanity’s growing influence on the natural world—as a seemingly universal defining characteristic and a decisive advantage of our species over all other entities.

In the subtle gestures of the three performers, however, this story does not appear to be complete.
Drawing on fictional cultural practices, they explore the transformative power of fire from a more-than-human perspective.







photos: joyaphotos