Emptying flags: Public installations by artist Sonja Hornung across Berlin

‘Emptying flags’ by artist Sonja Hornung ran over a period of several months in 2013. Public space played a central role in this exhibition project, insofar as the artist uses her work to bring into focus concepts of statehood and the significance of territorial spaces. Using installation and public intervention, Sonja Hornung attempted to approach a representation of a borderless political space. In the process, the artist annexed used and unused flagpoles within the city, hoisting flags that have no meaning whatsoever. Ordinarily, flags carry cultural, religious, ethnic or ideological messages. Loaded with historical and geographical significance, they are symbols of domination and power, predetermining identity, including some and excluding others. Sonja Hornung (*1987) is a Melbourne-born artist with an installation-based practice who uses public space to redefine the relation between humans and their environment.