While the art world reached peak navel gazing last week, I think many of you will join my inner, high-pitched voice in asking WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING IN GERMANY? WTF is happening with (our) Germany?
I have always respected Germany's openness to talk about the country's dark past. Well, not exactly talk about it, but openly and unequivocally denounce it. While it is a relatively closed culture, especially if you do not speak the language, Germany, at least Berlin, has always operated on a thick tolerance layer, applied freely, efficiently (all things considered), and equitably. And that is, in praxis tolerance, not in name only, meaning access to social benefits, free childcare, and in the years post George Floyd the funding and supporting of a lot of diverse voices and initiatives. Germany's foundation of tolerance has been considerably strained the last ten years with the influx of refugees, but it didn't (openly) break. Until now.
In the name of “unequivocal support for Israel” ( Whose Isreal I wonder. Iris Hefets, an Israeli Jew, chairperson of the Jüdische Stimme @juedischestimme was arrested on Oct 14th protesting against the genocide of Palestinians) the German Police have systematically harassed traditionally Palestinian/Muslim neighborhoods, arresting kids for wearing keffiyeh, and have prohibited and/or interrupted peaceful pro-Palestine protests as "antisemitic" with a gusto they have never shown to actual Neo Nazis. Please make it make sense.
Can we not keep two or more contradicting thoughts and emotions in our minds at the same time?
Yes we can. Tolerating complexity, tolerating discomfort is what art and intellectual discourse is all about.
It would have been funny if it wasn't so freaking worrying. The second attempt at We Need to Talk (canceled two summers ago during documenta) called We Still Need to Talk and was canceled again!!? What is the next one going to be called? We Need To Talk, You Guys, For Real This Time. You can read the organizators initial statement here
The first thing that goes down the drain in situations of “war” is the ability for nuanced thought. The second is freedom of speech. We need to speak up for both. They even canceled a meeting with Bernie Sanders over some very mild statements on observing international war laws.
THIS WEEK
Thu 26. October, 18:00 - 20:30 Artist Talk + Finissage Katarina Kudelova: “Burning Bright in the Forest of the Night” at BBA Gallery
Katarina Kudelova's solo exhibition 'Burning Bright in the Forest of the Night' is ending this week on Friday 27. October 2023. Visit BBA Gallery to see an array of narratives regarding the relationship between humankind and the animal kingdom unfold before your eyes. BBA Gallery
Köpenicker Str. 96
10179 Berlin
with Alex Quicho, CMMC (Céline Mathieu and Myrthe Christianne van der Mark), Kloxii and Philip Maughan. Curated by Jade Barget and Saki Hibino for The well tempered
Indulging in the fantasies and aesthetics of atmospheric management, Omen Central is an evening of performances set inside a future farm moments after its inexplicable collapse, within the mind of a disaster-sensing avatar, and in a tanning salon. Expect troublesome forecasts, corporate wellness, and fake tan.
Featuring the reading by Philip Maughan of his novel in development, a new performance by Alex Quicho, a sound performance by Kloxii, and artificial light sculptures by CMMC (Céline Mathieu and Myrthe Christianne van der Mark). Omen Central is part of The well tempered, a programme on atmosphere and atmospherics.
Working with community-based archives is integral to Julia Lübbecke's artistic research. The struggles assembled in these archives for the right to abortion, childcare, or fair wages remain just as pertinent today. In her solo exhibition "Kleber und Falten," she zooms in on the physical qualities of these sites of knowledge. In contrast to institutional archives, the precariousness of the content is mirrored in the materiality of the archived items: exposure to sunlight, sweat deposits, or the mix of paper and rubber all contribute to a unique patina. Depleted materials meet the depleted bodies they depict. This intertwining of materials and political battles, along with the artist's own physical presence in the archive, forms the central theme of the exhibition, which she then translates into an expansive installation.
coming up:
November 10 & 11: In cooperation with the project After Accumulation of the Excellence Cluster Temporal Communities at the Freie Universität Berlin, there will be a workshop on Touching the Archive in the context of the exhibition. The workshop will occur on 10/11/23 at the Schwules Museum and 11/11/23 at Neun Kelche.
This is ÁL VARO TAVARES D’GUILHERME’s (b. 1992, Luanda, Angola; lives and works in Berlin) debut solo show with the gallery. It includes a new series of large-format acrylic and oil compositions on canvas and a mirrored installation and drawing reflecting the hanging in the main gallery space.
D’Guilherme identifies as part of a Neo Brut movement—a cocktail of New Brutalism and art brut—creating visual landscapes, tablescapes, and nightscapes depicting city life in Berlin while also taking inspiration from the substantial time he spent developing his practice while living and working in Lisbon, Portugal.
“Writing, for me, is omnipresent. Writing is palpable in a textural way in my works, for example, through materials that protrude from the canvas, such as wood, that form letters or words. I refer to my poems as science and laws in space. But if you call it poetry, maybe some poets will get mad at me.”—Ál Varo Tavares D’Guilherme in conversation with Claire Koron Elat, 032C, 2022
Fri Oct 27 Opening Day of 3hd Festival Let Them Eat Cake
The festival will expand over four venues from 27 Oct – 4 Nov
We have two tickets for “Pleasure of Pain” on Nov 2nd at Heimathafen Neukölln- forward this email to a friend and ask them to subscribe to our list to be one of the lucky two!
Otherwise, get your ticketshere
– 27 & 28 Oct: “Eat the Rich” banquet at HAU Hebbel am Ufer opens the ninth edition of the interdisciplinary festival with an eight “course” cast of artists, cooks, and performers responding to its call to delightful resistance, featuring Arvida Byström, Caique Tizzi, Cassie Augusta Jørgensen, Élie Autin, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, Krista Papista, Ludwig Wandinger, Martins Kohout, Odete
– 27 Oct - 4 Dec: “I’m Spartacus!” film program launches IRL and online at Berlinische Galerie and 3hdTV and aims to revise and reconsider canon and convention through intersectional narratives with films by Akinola Davies Jr., Christelle Oyiri, Ndayé Kouagou, The Institute of Queer Ecology, Vika Kirchenbauer
– 29 Nov: "Salon de Sticks and Stones" problematizes the notion that words are harmless with two panels moderated by Steph Kretowicz, and a lecture on forced feminization of technology discourse by Alex Quicho
– 2 Nov: “The Pleasure of Pain” at Heimathafen Neukölln has artists BULLYACHE, Astrid Sonne, Baptist Goth, and harpist Ahya Simone sharing their own unapologetically provocative and self-aware performances of queer eroticism and corrupt sensuality
– 3 Nov: “Fools and Their Folly” closing club night at Berghain and Panorama Bar sees performers and DJs 33EMYBW, Bloodz Boi, CLIP, Dinamarca, E-Saggila, felicita, Goth Jafar, Himera, Jubilee, münki, Sarahsson, Sarra Wild, TAYHANA, Tokyo Hands & Larry, Wanton Witch create an emancipatory club space
Saturday, October 28, 16 h Toni Mauersberg ENTRE NOUS Guided tour by the artist
and LAST CHANCE to visit the show.
The exhibition ENTRE NOUS of Galerie Nothelfer follows this intuition with pairs of paintings by Toni Mauersberg (*1989). She combines portraits with non-representational paintings: More or less familiar beings from the rich fund of art history meet geometric or gestural forms, mostly quotations of abstract masters. By comparing the two, she uncovers the levels on which painted images become legible. From a symbolic and arthistorical point of view, new connections between expressions, colors, forms and painting styles emerge. And perhaps even open up a different sense to the subtle language of abstract painting, whose origins also lie in the search for new representations of spirituality and liberation.
A catalogue entitled ENTRE NOUS will be published by DCV Verla in conjunction with the exhibition.
SLIDING SELF ON SHELF by Marianne Mueller at Display
This autumn, Display is back in its former permanent space to open Marianne Mueller's exhibition Sliding Self on Shelf. While she will invest in the art space, its architecture, and its past, present, or future elements, sound contributions from our guests will intensify the project throughout the month.
Oct 18 - Nov 19, 2023
