Meet: Mariana Hahn
- Written byGiada Maestra
- Published date 21 February 2024
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We caught up with CSM graduate and performance artist Mariana Hahn to discover what she’s been doing since graduating and the different paths creativity can take.
Tell us about yourself and your background.
I grew up in Germany, next to a forest. I would look at trees and talk to the clouds. I also had quite a few imaginary friends (which I think are still there, haha!).
I have 4 brothers and my father died when I was 3. It wasn’t easy for my mother to bring us up by herself. I grew up with my grandmother, who was a deeply sad woman, yet amazing; a truly talented and poetic person.
You graduated from Central Saint Martins (CSM), in 2012; what was your experience like?
I loved studying at Central Saint Martins! At the time we were still based in Charing Cross Road, so I ventured out into Soho all the time. I loved the mixture of people…it’s something I love so much about London. And I felt welcome.
Were you drawing or interested in art before attending CSM?
I have always drawn, I grew up in a family who supported that. But I didn’t think of being an artist, I thought it was just normal to draw. Until I studied and really started to look at art, I had no idea about anything, really.
What have you been doing since graduating?
I have been working nonstop basically. I immediately started having art shows and I’ve never stopped, with some years that were calmer than others of course.
What inspired you to pursue a new path in your artistic career, specifically performance art?
Once in Paris, I visited a show called Danser sa vie at the Pompidou, where I saw a video of Cafe Müller by Pina Bausch. That was like an explosion in my mind and heart. For the first time, I understood the potential of our body, and I wanted to look at it more closely, to meet with my own body. Body as a space, carrying memories, traces, and echoes. Now I do a lot of installations too.
You have been chosen as an artist for the Franco-German pavilion at the Malta Biennale 2024. Could you tell us more?
This is a beautiful project dedicated to the salty sea waters. I found 16 doors in a derelict fish market, that were touched over decades by the sea air and salt and the hands of the fish mongers. I rescued them and changed their vertical position into a different one. like the proposition of changing a perspective. I cant say too much about it yet but I feel it will be a strong installation. I didn’t want to produce something new if it wasn’t necessary, and then I found the doors. It felt so perfect.
What are your plans for the future?
I promised my dog we’d find a place in the nature to live. She’s unhappy in the city.
What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in the arts?
I don’t really know what to answer here, probably because I never saw it as a career but something I just really needed to do. There’s a quote by an artist which is great, it ‘s something like: ‘when I go into my studio to work, I forget my wife, my friends, and if I’m lucky I forget myself’. When you go really deeply into it you feel that the more you make the work, the more the work makes you.
Where can people see your work?
On my website Mariana Hahn and Instagram @mariana.hahn.
