Understanding Gloria E. Anzaldúa through Artistic Practices

Fri, 2 Apr 2021 11:00

On view
2 Apr-28 May 2021

Understanding Gloria E. Anzaldúa through Artistic Practices

with works by Paloma Ayala, Imayna Caceres, El Boum (Jasmina El Bouamraoui), Alexandra Hernández Ceaicovscaia, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, Karen Michelsen Castañón, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Nicole Suzuki and Sophie Utikal

Curated by Verena Melgarejo Weinandt in cooperation with Alexandra Hernández Ceaicovscaia and Andrea C. Keppler

**The opening is in compliance with and subject to the infection regulations passed in the Senate as well as the Update from March 30: The visit to the exhibition is currently only possible with a daily negative test. Please also book an appointment in advance to visit the exhibition and wear an FFP2 mask.**

Expected opening hours: Wednesdays, 12-5 pm and Fridays, 3-8 pm. Please book an appointment here

The starting point for the exhibition “Picking out images from my soul’s eye” is the translation of the book Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria E. Anzaldúa into German. Anzaldúa (1942-2004) described herself as “Chicana, tejana, from the working class, dyke-feminist poet, author-theorist”. Paving the way for decolonial criticism and queer theory from the perspective of a woman of color, she is still a clearly underrepresented voice in the German and multilingual world. In addition to the linguistic translation of one of her most important works, the exhibition is also dedicated to another translation process. We approach Anzaldúa from a variety of artistic perspectives and look for connections beyond the linguistic level to see how her work speaks to us and the different realities of life in which we move. The exhibition presents a selection of artistic positions that build on Anzaldúa’s work, refer to it, are inspired and moved by it in order to relate one’s own artistic practice, thinking and creation to oneself and the area. As a theoretician and poet Anzaldúa produced knowledge out of her own marginality and always sought possibilities to acknowledge and work with knowledge beyond the linguistic-theoretical level. She based her method of knowledge production on creative and spiritual processes of image generation and attributed a central role for decolonial transformation and collective healing processes to artistically creative practice. We, too, take the artistic positions assembled in the exhibition seriously as producers of knowledge. For us, they make knowledge about Anzaldúa accessible in a unique way and show from different perspectives how they describe, expose and transform themselves and their realities with and through Anzaldúa.

 

PROGRAM

21 April 21, 7–8:30 pm (CET)
Nepantla Bibliothek: A collective translation of Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s work
Lecture by Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, followed by a Q&A
In English
over Zoom, register via the website of KW Berlin

The exhibition is part of Wissen über Brücken – Conocimiento sobre puentes, a project by Verena Melgarejo Weinandt and District*School without Center. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

Sophie Utikal, Curando // Catching my own tears, 2020, Foto: Joanna Legid
Sophie Utikal, Curando // Catching my own tears, 2020, Foto: Joanna Legid