Showing Me Home – Art as a Landscape of Belonging

[Lars Schumacher]

Showing Me Home – Art as a Landscape of Belonging

A mail-art exhibition explores identity, memory, and the meaning of home in a transforming urban space

On March 12, 2017, the international mail-art exhibition "Showing Me Home" opened in the newly developed Carlshöhe district of Eckernförde, Germany. Initiated by artist Lars Schumacher, the project brings together postal contributions from artists, activists, and thinkers across the globe, each responding to the deeply personal and emotional theme of home.

Set within a newly revitalized part of the city—on the former grounds of the German Navy—the exhibition's location is more than symbolic. The Carlshöhe district, overlooking the Windebyer Noor, reflects a contemporary urban vision: a neighborhood defined by openness, generational diversity, and a harmonious blend of historical architecture and modern housing. Where once rigid military structures dominated the landscape, a dynamic space for dialogue, creativity, and community is now emerging.

In this context, "Showing Me Home" creates an artistic and emotional interface between public space and personal identity. The exhibition features a rich tapestry of collages, illustrations, assemblages, and text works—sent through the mail from across the world. These contributions act as visual fragments of memory: childhood homes, street corners, family handwriting, and recurring symbols of belonging. They collectively build a living archive of emotional geography.

Curated by Lars Schumacher, the exhibition includes 99 framed excerpts displayed in the Carlshöhe atelier houses, particularly House 60, which also houses the Forum Freiraum. Through these works, visitors are invited not only to look, but to reflect and question: What defines home—and what does it mean to arrive there?

About the Artist:

Lars Schumacher approaches art as a participatory and communicative process. His choice of mail-art as a medium is deliberate: decentralized, democratic, and intimate. For Schumacher, art is less about material objects and more about shared experience. He sees artistic practice as a way of listening, connecting, and honoring quiet voices that might otherwise go unheard.

His conceptual work centers around one recurring question: Who defines home? Rather than offering answers, Schumacher creates space for others to respond. In doing so, he transforms art into a tool for mapping emotional landscapes and social displacement.

International Participants of “Showing Me Home”:

Amelia Secas I Andrea Patricia Pop I Andrea Roeff I Angela Behrendt I Anca Graterol I Anette Behlau I Bela Ruehmt I Burkhard Hußmann I Cathy Beck I Chris Link I Claudia van Bommel I Claudio Grandinetti I Cristina Denzler I Clemens Wiedel I Diana On I Dòrian Ribas Marinho I Franziska Greite-Schillert I Family Meyer I Guido Capuano I Guido Vermeulen I Hans-Georg “Schorsch” Wenke I Horst Tress I Ingeborg Rath I Iveta Vladovičová I Keiichi Nakamura I Kleanthi Liodi I Klaus Störch I Line Hübotter I Lene Lovich I Lilit Stepanyan I Lutz Beeke I Marina Hlubek I Maya Lopez Muro I Meral Ağar & Türkan Elçi I Mirta Navas I Monika Mori I Negin Pirouzmandi I Nika Baum I Otto D. Sherman I Pascal Coupechoux I Poul Poclage I Ralf Sommer I Renate Golde I Rosa Gravino I Ryosuke Cohen I Sarina Wert I Serse Luigetti I Siggi Weinert I Simone Foedrowitz I Stefan Balog I Stefan Heuer I Stefan Mahnke I Susanne Schumacher I Timm Kronenberg I Tzvetanka Koykova I Ute Rönnpag-Lohmeyer I Valentina Stefanescu I Victor Gingiu I Wolfgang Kraus aka Welfchen

Exhibition Details

• Title: Showing Me Home – An International Mail-Art Project
• Curator/Artist: Lars Schumacher
• Venue: Carlshöhe Atelier Houses (Nos. 44, 60 & 78)
• Address: 24340 Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein
• Duration: March 12 – April 30, 2017
• Online Access: All works can also be viewed online 

"Showing Me Home" is more than an exhibition. It is a poetic and political statement about emotional rootedness in a shifting world. Through quiet, heartfelt exchanges—delivered by post—it offers a thoughtful meditation on identity, loss, memory, and the universal search for belonging.