An artistic research project on representation in public space of society in transition

Silke Koch’s artistic works explore, biographically motivated, how society and its utopias are represented in public to private space. She uses various media such as photography, video, sculpture and interventions in public space. All works are based on site-specific research. In the artistic realization Silke Koch creates spaces of possibility to question and expand traditional ideas and perceptions.

For the solo exhibition at Spor Klübü, the artist is showing two groups of works. One series shows images from her unpublished photo archive from 1994/95, depicting an adolescent generation playfully appropriating public spaces and status symbols in the midst of political turmoil and social change, and, as a counterpart, modern architectural facades from the 1980s.

Another series of photographs researches “in the today” in public space for its stock of signs, utopias, and notions of a society that has already blessed the temporal. It examines the promise and expectations with the social change from 1989 onwards of an “even” better world. In the process, ruptures are not left out. The analog camera focuses on spaces – seemingly unnoticed situations far away from large scenes of representation of society.

www.silkekoch.de

Sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media

„Uff – Wohlbefinden durch aggressive Scheinlösung kognitiver Dissonanz als hegemoniale Leitkultur“
Thomas Behling
01. – 08.06.2024

Eröffnung/Opening: Fr/Fri, 31.05.2024, 19:00

Öffnungszeiten/Opening hours: Sa/Sat, 01.06. + So/Sun, 02.06., 15:00-18:00
03. – 08.06. nach Vereinbarung/by appointment, Tel.: +49-(0)179-8593744

In the course of climate change, we are about to pass several tipping points, triggering chain reactions that will mean unstoppable further warming of the planet for centuries – with severe climatic changes, extreme weather, crop failures, famine and flight on an apocalyptic scale. Yes, really: if we believe the science, we are talking about the loss of human habitat on a continental scale. Everything else is superstition.

The thought of it is very unpleasant, especially if our own behavior contributes to the fact that the disaster can no longer be averted. There are various strategies for dealing with these very unpleasant feelings. One very successful strategy is to fight those who are responsible for our unpleasant feelings, such as scientists or other “climate terrorists”. This can be combined at will with various other strategies, such as various forms of superstition or board head. Many things are very popular, such as the idiocy of trying to play off the economy against environmental protection or putting the freedom of unlimited consumption above human life and elevating it to a non-negotiable achievement of humanity or using symbolic gestures to clear one’s conscience.

We are facing what is probably the most serious cultural crisis in human history: the entire human development of the last 10,000 years is in question. Do we really have to throw it all in the bin and let ourselves be starved back to the Palaeolithic Age – the darkest times of all, mind you, and in this gloom until the end of human existence altogether (in the last comparable climate catastrophes, the planet needed around 10 million years each time to fully recover ecologically). Or can we dare to make a huge transformation at the last second (i.e. now), in which we can save the really beautiful achievements of our culture without it becoming a major disaster?

Whew.

Thomas Behling‘s work deals with the question of how art can still be made in this situation. With his current works, he wants to contribute to a reflection on the situation. In order to understand the extent of the situation, we need a perspective that gives us a greater distance: His objects, often modeled on historical finds, pave the way for insight into the unmasking of appearance, deception and transfiguration. He uses outdated visual aesthetics because they conceal much more of our current world view and thinking than we are aware of and are entitled to. Using supposed remnants of an earlier time, he leads us into the crises and conflict zones of the present, so that what we have already lived through has not been in vain. In his works, he conceals much of what we would like to see and shows how we want to see. In doing so, he also takes great pleasure in making fun of himself.

https://www.thomas-behling.de

„Zuhause Atem Fenster/Home Breath Window/Ev Nefes Pencere“
Özlem Sarıyıldız
29. 06. – 13.07.2024

Opening: Fri, 28.06.2024, 19:00

Opening hours: Sat, 29.06. + Sun, 30.06., 15:00-18:00
01. – 13.07. by appointment, Tel.: +49-(0)179-8593744

“Zuhause Atem Fenster/Home Breath Window/Ev Nefes Pencere” is a solo exhibition by Özlem Sarıyıldız, featuring a multimedia installation with sound and video material. In her work, Sarıyıldız employs the complex soundscape of the night of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey both as a foundational element and as a metaphor to articulate the country’s expansive socio-political landscape, which profoundly impacted people’s lives in the ensuing years.

Built on extensive archival research of materials from the press and the Internet, the exhibition reproduces the soundscape of that tumultuous night. Sarıyıldız also gathers personal stories and narratives to create an archive of feelings, providing an emotional map of the destructiveness of the attempted coup and the violent reactions that followed. Additionally, the exhibition offers self- reflexive insights into her personal migration story and explores methods of healing from trauma, thereby positioning it as both a personal and political narrative. This invites viewers to engage with the broader implications of socio-political upheavals. The name of the exhibition, borrowed from Etel Adnan, enriches this layered narrative.

Website Özlem Sarıyıldız: https://utopictures.com/

The exhibition is part of Project Space Festival with the opening on June 28th.
https://projectspacefestival.berlin/de

Photo: „Zuhause Atem Fenster/Home Breath Window/Ev Nefes Pencere“, video installation, 2024, Özlem Sarıyıldız

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Interview with Özlem Sarıyıldız by Şehnaz Layıkel Prange – On “Ev Nefes Pencere” / “Home Breath Window” – June 2024

First of all, I would like to share that it is a great pleasure for me to conduct this interview with you dear Özlem. As someone who has been following your concerns around making art and who is especially interested in the psychic aftermath of difficult experiences, I am very happy and curious about this exchange.
Thank you for proposing this interview and giving me the opportunity to reflect on my solo exhibition ‘Home Breath Window’ together.

I would like to start with a question, the answer to which will hopefully give us a better idea about your concern regarding this work of yours. What was the moving motivation for you? And is there something specific you would like to achieve through this work?
This project has lingered in my mind for many years, a project whose direction and form I have intermittently focused on and then set aside. I have long known that I wanted to create a work based on the sounds of the coup attempt night, using that soundscape to reflect on what we experienced that night and the subsequent events. However, finding the form of the work and having the time to revisit it took a while.

In various conversations with my friends about the attempted coup night, I realised that there are many gaps in our memories of that night. Even though we discuss many recent events, we either recall that night in a way that hinders its details or avoid talking about it altogether. There are many reasons for this, which we might discuss later, but as I saw that this state of forgetting and remembering, which I initially assumed was unique to me, is a collective state, I wanted to produce a work that slightly uncovers what remains in our personal memories of that night, thereby partially airing out the memory and making the remembered a part of the collective memory. This work is the result of that desire and, if possible, serves as a naive tool for healing from that night.

As you have already mentioned, you focus on the sounds of the night more than images depicting the incident. Why did you choose sounds primarily?
In recent history, we have experienced many events largely through narratives constructed with images, and that is how we remember them. This does not mean that there are no common images in the collective memory of the coup attempt night; however, in my opinion, the way we experienced and recall that night is predominantly shaped by sounds rather than images: This night had a unique soundscape with distinct characteristics. Therefore, “Home Breath Window” aims to partially recreate the chaotic and traumatic atmosphere through the sounds of the 2016 coup attempt night in Turkey, as we primarily witnessed it through sounds. I believe that this eerie soundscape has an intensity that creates a visceral impact, like a lump in the stomach, serving as a metaphor not only for that night but also for the broader socio-political landscape of the country. The violent sounds of that night can describe the night itself through their physical effects on the body. That is why I chose to focus on sounds rather than images when discussing the coup attempt night in this work.

In terms of visuality, you introduce a totally different video footage, which might at first instance look irrelevant, in addition to making use of existing images regarding the night in the news and it is the moving image of ploughing, i.e. moving snow away in layers. Why this metaphor? What does it represent for you?
These snow ploughing images, taken from live broadcasts of cameras on snow ploughing vehicles in Ankara in February 2021, have no direct connection to the coup attempt night and depict a different season. However, as soon as I saw these images, I felt I could speak about that night through a montage created with these distant images. The image I had been seeking had arrived!

As a metaphor, ploughing also highlights the relationship between social memory and individual memory. Revisiting events that have a room in our memories but have been covered and trying to make sense of them today, returning to that day through the emotions related to that night, and bringing those emotions back to light is part of this effort. In a sense, it is remembering that night by recalling the emotions of that night. This process is part of healing and rebuilding on both an individual and collective level, both while producing the work and while watching it together.

It is obvious that you rather focus on the emotional impact of the night. In the exhibition text, it is written that you would like to create “an archive of feelings”. It reminds us of Ann Cvetkovich ́s work with the same title (“An Archive of Feelings”), through which she introduces an alternative approach to trauma by focusing on feminist and queer experiences. Doing this, one of her main concerns was also depathologizing trauma. Could you please talk
a bit about your understanding of an archive of feelings? Is it a documentation process alternative to existing national narrative that has been created around the coup attempt or is it something more than this for you as in the case of Cvetkovich?
Ann Cvetkovich’s concept of ‘archive of feelings’ has been a cornerstone in my work for the past seven years, including this project. Cvetkovich moves beyond viewing trauma strictly as a medical or psychological disorder by focusing on feminist and queer experiences. This approach highlights that trauma is both an individual and collective experience, emphasising its broader social and cultural dimensions. Cvetkovich argues that trauma reveals how personal experiences are understood within social and cultural contexts. This perspective is vital in my approach and a fundamental principle in the exhibition.

The archive aims to make visible the traces left by that night in our memories through personal stories and narratives. While official narratives are often shaped by political and military perspectives, my archive emphasises the emotional experiences of individuals. This approach aligns with both Cvetkovich’s conceptual framework and my political objectives.

I also would like to talk a bit about the title of the work. “Home Breath Window”. Of course, it has many associations. But I would like to hear it from you. Why, how and at which point did you decide upon this title?
The day I saw the snowplows and fully decided on the form of the work, it had a completely different name. The initial name referred to the inability to access knowledge in the short term, and the resulting unease in both the body and sociopolitical life. However, this name changed over time, paralleling the impact the work had on me. Gradually, I thought the name of the work should function intermittently, referring to ruptures, different openings, and breath intervals. The trio of words that appeared in English translations of the two different texts by Etel Adnan had already been circling in my mind for a long time as a striking image. However, encountering these words in the Turkish translations of the texts as ‘Ev Nefes Pencere’ (Home Breath Window) created a closer and more profound connection for me due to both the sounds of the words in my native language and the impact of hearing them in my mother tongue. This trio could describe both my experience of the coup attempt night in Istanbul and all the decisions and states I went through afterward; it pointed to a constriction and an opening. This name expanded the work and seamlessly attached itself to it.

If we think of the title once again, all the words are directed in a way towards the inside. The first association that comes to my mind is someone sitting at home that night, listening to their own breath in the midst of all the chaos and looking outside through the window to try to understand what is going on. Does this association resonate with what you try to do?
Yes, this analogy reflects one aspect of the work. The name “Home Breath Window” avoids distinguishing between inside and outside, yet sitting at home on that night, trying to understand what was happening amidst the chaos outside, perfectly captures the fundamental emotion at the heart of the work.

Could you please tell us a bit more about the process of the work? How did you decide on the
form and the content? How did you choose and inform your subjects? How did you manage the process? In other words, how did this all evolve for you?
I’ve already mentioned that the project lay dormant for a long time, but I began to find its form when I encountered the snowplows. This work could have been designed as a single-channel video; however, from the start, I had a clear vision of how I wanted the viewer to experience the piece. I knew I didn’t want the viewer to be locked into a single position while watching; instead, I wanted them to move physically between the sounds and images. Just as we lost our sense of direction in the unsettling atmosphere of that night, I wanted the viewer to lose their sense of orientation within the space. Therefore, I decided on a multi-screen design that spreads throughout the space. I established the dominant soundscape, a collage of noises from the internet, television, and streets, as the fundamental sound spread throughout the space. In this way, I created a sound that would kick the stomach of anyone who entered the space.

Apart from this archival research, I asked approximately 50 friends to record audio of their experiences from that night. I persistently choose to speak with my friends for this kind of work. These experiences do not aim to represent the entirety of that night; rather, they are a small effort to name and share the experiences we often discuss or avoid in casual conversations. Some of my friends said they didn’t want to revisit that night, so they didn’t send recordings. However, over 40 people shared their stories. I decided that the way these narratives were listened to had to be different from the sound collage spread throughout the space; to hear an individual voice within that chaos of sound required a deliberate, intentional gesture, not something passively experienced. Therefore, I chose a more intimate listening mode for these individual stories, one that could only be heard up close with headphones. In this way, the viewer would have the experience of listening at different levels with different gestures.

So, you gathered from your subjects what they lived through and what they remember about that night. Although we already know that traumatic memories are usually blurry and have gaps as you have also mentioned, it is remarkable how vivid and detailed most of their memories regarding that night are, perhaps due to the outstanding character of the experience and the processing of them afterwards. What would you like to say about these narratives? Is there anything specific you would like to share with us?
These experiences are very precious to me. Their content provides a compelling reason to rethink. They emphasise erasing the dichotomy between the collective and the individual, highlighting their interconnectedness and constant multi-directional osmosis. Before sharing their recordings, I messaged, called, or met with each friend in person. Many thought their experiences of the attempted coup night were too ordinary to be ‘useful’ for this project. Others felt that their accounts might not be meaningful since they experienced the attempted coup outside of Turkey. Interestingly, there was a proximity in the ways people described their environment and atmosphere when they heard about the coup. They often depicted a clear divide between before and after. They mostly drew a detailed happy, peaceful summer scene, followed by a rupture that struck like a lightning bolt, bringing indefinite and bad news. These discussions and conversations helped us delve into the scope and meaning of the archive of feelings, as defined by Cvetkovich, which focuses on the emotional and psychological experiences of individuals. I am grateful to my friends for sharing their stories with me, as their openness made this work possible.

How did you plan the editing of the video footage and the sound recordings? How did you decide upon the sequence? Is there a specific feeling you would like to transfer through the editing? Another aspect that I noticed in the narratives is that the flow of the night was disrupted due to the coup attempt. In most of the narratives there is a depiction of before and after. Do you think that this disruption had an influence on the editing process of the work?
When planning the editing of this work, I aimed to reflect the fragmented and disrupted nature of the attempted coup night. The night was full of ruptures in both the flow of events and people’s experiences, lacking a linear flow, and its editing and presentation should reflect this. Therefore, I highlighted this fragmentation in the montage. This work attempts to create a montage using multiple monitors rather than one flat surface. While sequencing the audio and images, I considered the chaos, constant interruptions in information flow, and prevailing uncertainty. This was to ensure that the audience could recall or at least sense the same disruption and uncertainty. In individual recordings, people also separated their memories into before and after the events. I highlighted this fragmentation in the overall collage.

The work also has a triggering character due to its intensity. It brings us back to that night in a way with all its unbearable side. At the same time, we know that it is not so often that we talk about what had happened or what we lived through since the incident in such detail. Can we say that your work is in a way an attempt of opening “the black box” or starting a conversation, especially when we think of the nonverbal memory around traumatic events? In other words, is it an attempt of symbolising the nonverbal traces of the event?
Yes, absolutely. The work aims to start a conversation, both verbally and through its relation to nonverbal memories of traumatic events. Verbal conversation is important because words matter. However, the work also draws on nonverbal memories associated with such trauma.

Overall, not discussing the coup attempt for long led me to explore how sound impacts the body. In my view, recognizing nonverbal memory’s importance is essential for creating spaces and methods to express and process these memories, aiding healing and recovery from trauma. Nonetheless, this work also seeks verbal communication to discuss what remains in our memories and from our experiences and to write our histories with our narratives.

In contemporary queer theories on trauma, “rupture” is a frequently used concept together with its potentialities, especially for creating cracks in official narratives. You also mentioned the concepts of “rupture” and “healing” up to now. How do you view “rupture” as an experience in that sense? Do you also think that ruptures have a potentiality and if so can we call this a potentiality for “healing”?
Definitely! “Rupture” is a significant concept used to challenge and create cracks in official narratives, allowing diverse experiences and identities to emerge. This idea disrupts monolithic representations and fosters new spaces for understanding and healing.

In my work, in line with these approaches, I view rupture as a critical tool for engaging with the past and envisioning new futures. Rupture, in this sense, is a crack for me, a way of claiming the world as a whole rather than asking for bits of it. By focusing on the sounds and fragmented memories of the coup attempt night, I aim to create a space for exploring these ruptures and initiating healing, aligning with queer trauma theories that see rupture as a site of potentiality for new forms of solidarity and understanding.

As far as I know, you experienced that night also in Turkey. Is there a resonance between your subjects ́ experiences and yours? Do your subjects perhaps in a way speak also in the name of you? Or put in another way, was formulating a statement of yours a concern for you while editing their experiences or do you situate yourself rather as a mediator?
Yes, I experienced the night of the coup attempt in Istanbul, amidst the very sounds depicted in the sound collage. I can say I resonate with each described individual experience. In this sense, I feel more like both the owner and listener of these experiences, rather than just a mediator. Ownership here is closer to taking responsibility than possession. These are not the exact experiences I had during the coup attempt, but they could have been mine; not the same, but close; not mine, but neighbouring experiences…

As you also know, the context that the work is exhibited always adds another level of meaning. What does the fact that the work is exhibited in Berlin, Wedding in summer of 2024 mean to you? How does this or might influence the work and its impact?
It’s hard to say. The context is established not only by the fact that this work is being done in this city today but more so by the fact that I am in this city today. This work allows me to reflect on the start of my migration to Germany and reconsider a common milestone for the ‘new wave’ of migrants. Creating a piece about that night means returning to the start of my migration journey and temporarily concluding the migration-related works I’ve pursued for the past ten years. In this sense,
this work serves as the epilogue to my oral history-based migration trilogy. An epilogue that reverses the process, constructing the future or the outcomes of the story by insisting on its memory, saying, ‘let’s do and let’s see.’ However, I have to underline, this work is not about migration.

My intention was also to conclude the interview with two related questions. I know that your works mostly have a sociopolitical emphasis. What does it mean to you to do work on the sociopolitical issues of Turkey?
For me, this primarily means continuously establishing and rebuilding a connection with Turkey. However, I do not consider Turkey a self-contained entity; I evaluate it in the context of this work. This represents a position that emerges from the sum of my experiences and places of residence over the years. I am here now, but I am also there. There is no separation between these positions. I feel obligated to address the issues I care about, whether here, there, or in between. The claim is significant, but I always insist that we should not shy away from it: My works constantly question the impact of power on knowledge production and how it shapes social structures, insisting on writing our own history. In doing so, they become tools for establishing political subjectivity and aligning with those who seek to shape history. These works are a means of resistance and solidarity, a method for addressing the burning issues inside me, and a way to bring individual and collective memories closer together—a way of inhabiting the world. Talking about Turkey, in this sense, is part of this framework.

Lastly, I remember that, in one of our conversations, you mentioned that this is your last work on migration. Would you like to share with us why you reached this point and where your journey leads to?
For nearly ten years, I have been producing works utilising various materials and media, focusing on various aspects of migration, both in Turkey and Germany. Throughout this process, I believe I have addressed numerous issues that had accumulated and needed to be expressed. I cannot say exactly how long this process will continue, but for now, it feels like this period is coming to a close. That is why I refer to this work as an epilogue, the end of my migration trilogy. Now, it is time to focus on other things.

Thank you so much for sharing all this generously and I wish an impactful journey to your work.
Thank you! On this occasion, I want to thank Matthias Mayer from Spor Klübü and the workers of the Project Space Festival for hosting ‘Ev Nefes Pencere.’ Also, I thank all my friends once again for sharing their stories with me.

Ulu Braun Videoscreening/Talk
Fr., 10.11.2023, 19:30

The three video works shown („Die Flutung von Viktoria“ 2004, „Architektura“ 2015, „Burkina Brandenburg Komplex“ 2018) represent Ulu Braun’s broad spectrum. They explore the intersections between painterly-performative video art and hybrid auteur film and illuminate the influences of social, economic and media globalization on our civilization in a poetic- ironic way.

Ulu Braun (1976 ) lives and works in Berlin and Lieksa (Fi). He studied painting and film at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Art Academy Helsinki and Film University Babelsberg. His work has been shown regularly in art institutions and at film and media festivals since 2004.

More info: www.ulubraun.com

Die Flutung von Viktoria (22 min, 2004)

A group of tourists travels by bus for the last time through the dreamlike world landscape, where ancient ruins and futuristic greenhouses testify to the faith in progress of human culture. The utopian place of Victoria becomes the setting for a surreal drama in which archaic motifs and modern life worlds collide. This contrast is also evident in the protagonists: while the urbane tour guide Henkel plans a diving expedition into future underwater worlds, the traveler in the yellow suit longs for the water as a return to the origins. The realization with miniatures removes the oppressive scenario into a playful, fairy- tale atmosphere, which is carried by the expressive faces and the real moving figures. (Videonale 10)

Architektura (15 min, 2015)

Rather than reinventing the wheel, Ulu Braun re-envisions the structural potentiality of the brick, in this revisionist fable of mankind’s urbanization of our planet. Employing playful and visually dense digital collages, Braun’s associative tableaux collate an ‘alternate’ vision of our world, where nature invades the urban (and vice-versa). We’re transported by a comforting narrator through post-apocalyptic, post-capitalist habitats, where the material co-exists with the metaphysical, the literal alongside the figurative (soap-bubble buildings stand alongside ruined churches turned car dealerships). Architektura echoes our civilization’s childlike ingenuity in creation and destruction, as we question the inheritance we pass on to our future generations. (Andrei Tănăsescu, Bucharest)

Burkina Brandenburg Komplex (19 min, 2018)

A presumably African village, inhabited by Germans. The film Burkina Brandenburg Komplex describes a geographical construction that makes use of ‘our’ medial and collective image of Africa and puts it to the test through inaccuracies. An archaeological find is made in a mine: a Ferrari. We tag along with Joachim on his everyday rounds. He has his heart set on realising a common energy project. The Museum of Prussian Cultural Heritage is run by a black woman. She presents artefacts from Western consumer culture with a special emphasis on German products. Joachim is involved in the ritualistic production of energy in the village, but gets excluded when the ceremony is nearing its finale, finally catapulting himself out of the ‘story/history’. (68.Berlinale, 2018)

“ZERO TOLERANCE”
One Night Group Show

Fri., 24.11.2023, 19:00

Artists:
Boris Abel, Michelle Alperin, Franck-Lee Alli-Tis aka V Stylianidou, Volker Andresen, claudia balster & hannah goldstein, Robert Barta, Norbert Bauer, Matthias Beckmann, Thomas Behling, Antje Blumenstein, Sascha Boldt, Gunnar Borbe, Ulrike Buck, Johannes Bünemann, Kai Bornhöft, Astrid Busch, Ulu Braun, Daniela Lehmann Carrasco, COUNCIL OF MANY (Alexine Chanel + Mickaël Faure), Rolf Czulius, Lea D’Albronn Allexandre, Henrike Daum, Annedore Dietze, Mirjam Dorsch, Stefan Draschan, Stefan Ebner, Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez, Knut Eckstein, Irena Eden & Stijn Lernout, Tania Elstermeyer, Roland Fuhrmann, Roman Frechen, Anne Gathmann, Ingo Gerken, Robert Gfader, Monika Goetz, Karø Goldt, Massoud Graf-Hachempour, Harriet Groß, Berenice Güttler, Stephanie Hanna, Theemetra Harizani aka Dimitra Charizan, Andrea Hartinger, Michael Hauffen, Andreas Helfer, Christian Hellmich, Thomas Henriksson, Birgit Hölmer, Stephan Homann, Esther Horn, Fabian Hub, Henrik Jacob, Hubi W. Jäger, Thomas Jocher, Uwe Jonas, Silke Koch, Sebastian Körbs, Karen Koltermann, Erika Krause, Käthe Kruse, Philipp Lachenmann, Simone Lanzenstiel, Anett Lau, Niina Lehtonen Braun, Sabine Linse, Catherine Lorent, Antonia Low, Mahony, Nadja Verena Marcin, Matthias Mayer, Ulrike Mohr, Thomas Monses, Matthias Moravek, Peter Müller, Paula Muhr, Leo de Munk, Berit Myrebøe, Joe Neave, Rainer Neumeier, Lorcan O’Byrne, Jennifer Oellerich, Jürgen Olbrich, Lydia Paasche, Manfred Peckl, Wolfgang Plöger, Luisa Puschendorf, Kathrin Rabenort, Nika Radic, Benjamin Renter, Regine Rode, Römer + Römer, Maja Rohwetter, Julia Rüther, Özlem Sarıyıldız, Michel Santos, Sabrina Schieke, Adrian Schiesser, Marco Schmitt, Iris Schomaker, Richard Schütz, Michael Schultze, Veronika Schumacher, Olivia W. Seiling, Heiko Sievers, Heidi Sill, Johanna Smiatek, Erik Smith, Elisabeth Sonneck, Petra Spielhagen, Hans-Peter Stark, Gabriele Stellbaum, Ralf Tekaat, Anja Teske, Thea Timm, Miriam Tölke, Kata Unger, Sencer Vardarman, Gabriela Volanti, Yvonne Wahl, Klaus Walter, Line Wasner, Anja Weber, Marcel Friedrich Weber, Linda Weiss, Bettina Weiß, Julia Werhahn, Anke Westermann, Markus Willeke, Ila Wingen, Markus Wirthmann, Norbert Witzgall, Ina Wudtke, Sibylle Zeh, Rosa Zettl, Ella Ziegler, Michaela Zimmer

Since 2005, quotes from past decades (mostly from the 1980s) headlined the annual One Night Group Shows at the end of November at Spor Klübü. Other projects and especially the pandemic had led to a 4-year break of this show format. This year the thread is picked up again. “ZERO TOLERANCE” stands as a term for many dubious strategies – especially as a strategy of crime fighting and crime prevention. This allows the police – preventively, so to speak – to intervene or crack down hard on regulatory violations below the crime threshold, so-called petty offenses. It became known in the 1990s with the “New York Model”, championed by Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police chief Bill Bratton, who based it on the “Broken Windows Theory” that had already emerged in the 1980s. As a result, the zero-tolerance strategy became a worldwide export hit and also partly ended up in German criminology and politics. The success and efficiency of the strategy remained doubtful and were apparently never clearly proven. The negative sides, however, were obvious: exaggerated restrictions on freedom, the emergence of excessive police arbitrariness and violence, the establishment of a control and police state, and so on. In the 1990s, running a red light on a bicycle in Manhattan or openly consuming alcohol on the street meant fearing that one could end up in jail. Another zero-tolerance strategy was pursued by the U.S. government under President Trump many years later with regard to immigration to the United States. If legal or illegal immigrants as well as asylum seekers had, among other things, an entry in their national or foreign criminal records, they were immediately detained and deported or turned away. Families, e.g. children from their parents, were also separated from each other without consideration.

What if you turn zero tolerance around and look at it from a different angle? For example, precisely against these political intentions and actors and in the political demarcation against the right. It is unacceptable that a party like the AfD, for example, is tolerated in Germany just because it reaches people and wins votes, but is based on far-right, National Socialist, racist, anti-Semitic and queer-hostile ideas, among other things. Anyone who abandons his zero tolerance limit at this point, who enters his firewall, succumbs to complicity and makes right-wing extremism more acceptable.

Archive Exhibitions 2003-2022:
https://goodold.koloniewedding.de/sporkluebue/index.html

In space it is silent

In Mirjam Dorsch’s spatial installation, two worlds are interwoven that could not be further apart. Do they have anything in common? What do these worlds make up? A floor installation made of carpet and absorbent cotton, which can be walked on via a stage catwalk and is reminiscent of our Milky Way, is juxtaposed with a sound from an individual world, a state in which the senses are asleep and unconscious life takes place.

Similar to the principle of equivalence, with which Albert Einstein opened up the theory of relativity, there is also a cosmic frame shift in snoring. The sound, which is obstructive to sleep, both to the sleeping person and to the person lying awake, allows quite different associations in the black-bedded public space.

The absorbent cotton lies like star mist over the black high pile. Acoustic material moves at regular intervals through the 42 square meter exhibition space. With a steady hum and coo, the universe seems to breathe. Can we suspect something alive in the cosmos? And if so, is it asleep? Might we not be alone after all? And couldn’t that be reassuring? Suspicions of extraterrestrial life go back to the 1970s in a scientific context.

Poetic and playful narratives have long replaced the powerful, religious narratives and always create material for new flights of fancy. The title of the exhibition can also be a glimmer of hope, a mantra: “in space it is silent”- when the sound of sleep, the snoring of another, robs you of your own sleep.

Statment Mirjam Dorsch

“In my sculptural work I encounter various materials and techniques that accompany me in my work routine and combine, overlap or detach. Elements of art production and the art business are thematized and sometimes playfully exchanged or shifted in order to show their characteristics and to enable new perspectives. The perspective is thereby a shifting frame that directs the view to that which is not immediately perceptible and appears as a gap. The analysis and treatment of natural and processed materials reveal connections that can be questioned and are inspiring to my creative process.”

Further Infos: https://npiece.com/mirjam-dorsch?l=de

Opening: Fr, 29.09.2023, 19:00

Opening times:
Sat, 30.09. + Sun, 01.10., 15:00-18:00
and by tel. appointment: Tel. +49 (0)179 8593744

KOOK: Festival zu zeitgenössischen Positionen der Visuellen Poesie
/Festival on contemporary positions in visual poetry
27. 09. – 17.10.2024
kuratiert von/curated by Kathrin Bach & Erec Schumacher

mit Arbeiten von/with works by: Kathrin Bach, Anke Becker, Mara Genschel, Victoria Hohmann, Elena Kaufmann, Titus Meyer, Mario Osterland, Johann Reißer/Ursula Seeger, Simone Scharbert, Carsten Schneider, Erec Schumacher und Andreas Töpfer

Eröffnung/Opening: Fr/Fri, 27.09.2024, 19:00
19:30 Lesung/Reading, Performance, Gespräch/Conversation mit/with Katrin Bach, Mara Genschel, Mario Osterland, Erec Schumacher

Veranstaltungen/Events:
Di/Tue, 08.10.2024, 19:30
_Lesung/Reading, Performance, Gespräch/Conversation mit/with Victoria Hohmann, Titus Meyer, Simone Scharbert und Carsten Schneider

Finissage: Di/Tue, 15.10.2024, 19:30
_Lesung/Reading, Performance, Gespräch/Conversation mit/with Anke Becker, Elena Kaufmann, Johann Reißer/ Ursula Seeger und Andreas Töpfer

Öffnungszeiten/Opening hours: Di/Tue-Do/Thu: 16:00-19:00, Sa/Sat: 15:00-19:00

On September 27th, the small, fine KOOK festival “Das lässt sich sehen – contemporary positions in visual poetry” begins in the project space Spor Klübü in Berlin-Wedding with the opening of a group exhibition. With Kathrin Bach, Anke Becker, Mara Genschel, Victoria Hohmann, Elena Kaufmann, Titus Meyer, Mario Osterland, Johann Reißer/ Ursula Seeger, Simone Scharbert, Carsten Schneider, Erec Schumacher and Andreas Töpfer, a total of 13 artists are showing their works of visual poetry in the exhibition.

Visual poetry is hybrid, diverse and dynamic and is one of the most exciting and diverse forms of expression in contemporary literature. Visual poetry leaves the pure text level and acts graphically, typographically, photographically, reduced, non-linearly, experimentally, subversively, radically, skeptically, playfully, sociopolitically, enigmatically, narratively. Visual poetry makes interrelationships visible and manifests collective artistic work. It deconstructs, reassembles, zooms in and out, turns everything into material, collages, recycles and composts.

The festival “Das lässt sich sehen – contemporary positions in visual poetry” brings visual poetry, which mainly takes place on the Internet, in all its diversity into the analogue space. In a group exhibition and three events with readings, performances and talks, the artists deal with different approaches, working methods and artistic processes, with collectives and networks – and their poetic potential.

At the vernissage on September 27th, the artists and authors Kathrin Bach, Mara Genschel, Mario Osterland and Erec Schumacher will give insights into their work and artistic practices in discussions, readings and performances.

In the minimalist and poetically enigmatic collages of the poet Kathrin Bach, objects enter into strange symbioses and are an expression of a vulnerability between departure, hesitation and the desire to be interwoven. The writer Mara Genschel questions the mechanisms of the literary world with visual, conceptual and performative poetry, whether as discourse tourist Cindy Press, as a mustache wearer at the Bachmann Prize, as a self-publisher of reference surfaces or in her video “Work”, which shows her working in front of her computer. The poet Mario Osterland mixes lyrical prose, poem fragments and poetic notes in his collage series “HALOs”. Thematically, he deals with comforting imagery and secularized holiness based on his experiences of the Corona period. The writer and publisher Erec Schumacher plays through a wide variety of methods of visual and conceptual poetry in his now 26-part chapbook series. He poeticizes the German Civil Code, arranges poems from doorbell signs, writes typewritings, pictograms and collages and experiments with poster art or instant cameras.

A project by the independent artists’ network KOOK e.V.
In cooperation with Spor Klübü. Project management: Erec Schumacher

With the kind support of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.

Press contact: Jutta Büchter, buechter@kookverein.de
KOOK im Netz/KOOK on the web: kookverein.de | facebook.com/kook.verein

„Failures NOIR – (Kriege) im Post-Truth“
Stefan Römer
26.10. – 09.11.2024

Eröffnung/Opening: Freitag/Friday, 25.10.2024, 19:00

Öffnungszeiten und Veranstaltungen/Opening hours and events:
Sa/Sat, 26.10., 15:00 –18:00, Lesung #1/Reading #1, 16:00
So/Sun, 27.10., 15:00 –18:00

Finissage: Sa/Sat, 09.11., 15:00 –18:00, Lesung #2/Reading #2, 16:00
geöffnet/open: 28.10. – 08.11. nach tel. Vereinbarung/by appointment: 0179-8593744

In his exhibition “Failures NOIR – (Wars) in the Post-Truth” at Spor Klübü, Stefan Römer is showing new works: Film stills from “Der Gelbe Film” and date paintings on canvas.

“Der Gelbe Film” by Stefan Römer is an artistic commentary on the current multiple wars and crises and is currently in the production phase. Filmmaker Derek Jarman bid farewell with his last film “Blue” before he died of HIV. And Hartmut Bitomsky analyzed the connection between economics and semiotics in the production of films in his book “Die Röte des Rots von Technicolor”. “Der Gelbe Film” now extends these two different film approaches to the warlike present, which is characterized by political arbitrariness and lies. Yellow as a bright positive color attempts a poetic/ethical synthesis in image and sound. The non-representational abstract yellow film stills, characterized by a visual delicacy, are placed in a historical framework of powerful events by the new cycle of date paintings: Failures NOIR

The yellow film stills and the date paintings form arrangements on the exhibition walls, to which theme-oriented works by other artists such as Louise Lawler and Thomas Ruff are also added. The exhibition also features the installation “The Artistic Mind of S. R.”, in which videos and films can be seen alongside text printouts by Stefan Römer.

Bio
Stefan Römer is a de-conceptual artist. His works are known for their critical use of different media. They combine practice and theory in visual, musical, spatial and performative practices. He is concerned with a critical examination of conceptualism and new media, aiming to address a social and political audience. He researches topics with high social relevance: “Strategies of Fake”, “Conception of an Image Archive for Migrants and Refugees” or the documentary film “Boulevard of Illusions. Differentiated Neighborhoods”.
In his art, he experiments with a transmedial approach in post-panoptic, feminist and post-colonial references. Artistic writing serves him as: Self-exploration, self-empowerment and self-defense. Among other things, this can also lead to the composition of pop songs.

Ausstellungen zuletzt solo//Recent solo exhibitions:
„Failures NOIR”, Chambre Directe – SCHUBIGER, St. Gallen/Schweiz 2024
„ReCoded Failures – A Transcategorial Retrospective”, Periode project space, Berlin 2022 „DeConceptualize – the project”,kjubh Kunstverein, Köln 2021

Gruppenausstellungen//Group shows:
„Dystopia Sound Art Biennale”, Berlin 2024
„Broken Music Vol. 2″, Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 2023

https://stefanroemer.com/de