Henrike Naumann

Henrike Naumann (1984, Zwickau – 2026, Berlin, Germany) explores how interior design and everyday objects reflect historical conditions and socio-economic change. In the aesthetics of domestic life, she discerns the ideological tensions and questions of identity that shape contemporary German society. Aufbau West (2017) was created for an exhibition of the same name in Cologne, in which Naumann transformed an abandoned storefront by reconstructing it as a second-hand shop. Using furniture and household trinkets – materials rich in cultural memory – she infuses the space with layers of sociopolitical meaning. One piece from this project features an improbable mirrored shelf in the shape of a cloud, holding a selection of vintage items. These objects are characteristic of the former Federal Republic of Germany, though some, such as the pack of ‘West’ cigarettes, were also popular in the former East. The title Aufbau West subverts the slogan Aufbau Ost, a phrase used after German reunification in 1990 to describe the state-led ‘reconstruction’ of the Eastern federal states, a process often viewed as paternalistic and marked by widespread disillu- sionment. Born in former East Germany, Naumann experienced this period firsthand, including the rise of political extremism that accompanied it. Aufbau West becomes a portrait of an ostensibly prosperous Western consumer culture, one that, in her view, offers only a diluted version of itself.