We are currently experiencing it in multiple dimensions: our pluralistic and open society is under threat. We must actively stand up for it. This is especially evident for the arts and cultural work. We are confronted with policies of deep cuts that open up future scenarios in which a diverse independent scene has no place and institutions are fighting for their existence.
What impact does this have on our curatorial work? How can we react to current political and socio-cultural developments and how can we collectively search for answers that not only criticize, but also look progressively into the future?
Curating the Polish Pavilion – Solidarity in times of war and under the threat of PIS
Marta Czyż (English)
Marta Czyż curated the Polish Pavilion at the 60th edition of the Biennale di Venezia. There she exhibited the work Repeat after Me II by the Ukrainian collective Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Antin Varga). Using this specific work as an example, she shows us the political nature of her curatorial practice. Czyż gives us an insight into how the processes went together with the collective, how the audience reacted in the context of the biennial and the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine by russia – and what it means to share a space with this scope. She also reports on the political situation in Poland, what the period from 2015 to 2023 was like under the government of the far-right party PIS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) and what impact the party still has today. Czyż gives us an insight into an artistic understanding of solidarity as political resistance.
art during war – how to listen to Ukrainian voices and discourses
Jan Struckmeier (English)
The discourse on decolonization is an important part of expressing a diverse Ukrainian identity against colonial oppression by russia. Above all, it is a universal method of countering russian propaganda narratives in order not to reproduce them unintentionally, but to consciously name and deconstruct them. The German artist and curator Jan Struckmeier researches about progressive arts mainly in Kyiv (interdisciplinary with a focus on the non-institutional contemporary scene). Through the constant exchange with Ukrainian artists, he perceives a growing gap between what is negotiated in Ukraine and what is heard in Germany. He even questions the ability of any understanding at all if processes in German arts are not structurally changed in the way how we listen.
Keeping it real – Balancing between publicly funded events and D.I.Y. community work
Dafne Narvaez Berlfein, Eugenia Seriakov, Philipp Rhensius (English)
Does ‘D.I.Y.’ have to be privately funded? Berlin-based artists and curators Dafne Narvaez Berlfein, Eugenia Seriakov and Philipp Rhensius discuss the compatibility of D.I.Y. culture and state funding. Dafne Narvaez Berlfein is a film and video artist and organises the Sentimental Punk series, in which feminist silent films are set to live music. The series of events takes place in public spaces such as Kotti. Eugenia Seriakov is a cultural worker, DJ and radio host. With a background in visual and media anthropology, she specialises in space as a social practice. With her ongoing project Sound System Culture: On the Radical Roots of Rave, an interdisciplinary sound system conference, she invites the audience to active participation and artistic collaboration. Philipp Rhesius publishes texts and is a freelance musician and artist. As an editor at Norient, he works to create spaces of thinking and being to open up possibilities for new ideas and make the familiar unfamiliar and vice versa.
Wie Topfpflanzen politisieren? Kollektiv Arbeiten, Sorgen und Kuratieren zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit
Lina Brion (Deutsch)
How are exhibition themes such as ecology and care connected to the (re)production conditions of the exhibition itself? And how can the gap between aspiration and reality in collective work be navigated? Using an exhibition that centers plants as an example, Lina Brion explores the field of “Working, Caring, and Curating Collectively” – and, in doing so, engages with the intertwining of multiple challenges and uncertainties. As a curator, Lina Brion develops research-based, interdisciplinary exhibition and event programs at the intersection of art and discourse, with a focus on questions of memory culture and (counter-)archives, social critique, and feminist, ecological, and decolonial perspectives. In recent years, she has curated programs at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Since 2019, she has been active with the interdisciplinary artist group PARA, which creates site-specific projects at the crossroads of performance and visual art.
Leitfaden für Eltern-gerechtes Produzieren und die Zusammenarbeit mit Caretaker:innen in den Freien Darstellenden Künsten
Elisa Müller (Deutsch)
The issue of care and compatibility is a problem for society as a whole problem that affects FLINTA* in particular - not only in the arts. However, this field of work is special because independent artistic work is often associated with insecurity and precariousness, which makes it even more difficult to reconcile work and family life. How can people with care responsibilities stand up for their specific work (in)possibilities? In a preview, artist Elisa Müller will present the guideline for dealing with care responsibilities in the independent performing arts, which Emilia de Fries and she have drawn up on behalf of the NRW State Office for the Independent Performing Arts and in collaboration with the BFDK. The guideline is structured into voluntary commitments, for example for production houses and artists (groups), and into cultural policy recommendations for funding bodies and political decision-makers.
From 21:00h the event opens up to our 'Open Tables'. This is when we can discuss in small and large groups what we have heard and thought of during the event, come up with new ideas and plans as well as formulate, reconsider and discuss individual and common attitudes. Low-priced drinks will be available at the bar of the Vierte Welt.
Free entry.
For the parts of the programme in German an optional ‘whispered translation’ into English can be offered.
Unfortunately, sign language interpretation or audio description cannot be provided.
The access to the Vierte Welt is possible via a staircase or by arrangement via an elevator.
We will be collecting donations for the Polylux e.V. network at the event.
Graphic Design by Aline Braun & Jeannette Petrik