Sommersemester 2023, Theorie und Geschichte +dimensions , Ausstellungen , Hochschule , Textil_Startseite_Forschungsmitarbeitende , theorie_geschichte_forschung
Mingled Living Forces
MINGLED LIVING FORCES, a contemporary art intervention in the exhibition 'Leerstellen.Ausstellen' at the Humboldt Forum presents new students' works developed in the context of the tandem seminars 'Colonial Presents: Artistic and Curatorial Interrogating' (led by Juana Awad in the department of Theory and History) and 'Zeichnen Farbe Fläche - Spatial Drawing' (led by Elaine Bonavia in the department of Textil und Flächen Design) at the weißensee school of art and design berlin during the Winter Semester 22 /23 and Sommersemester 23.
11.03.23 – 25.07.23
At Leerstellen.Ausstellen in Humboldt Forum
With works by: Imad Alfil, Bar Esh, Paulin Fichtner & Conrad Kunze, Quang Vinh Giang, Mohamad Halbouni & Aline Suter, Melis Kiran, Hami Mehr, Jasmin Sermonet, Inyeong Song, Raras Umaratih, Jelisa Weber
Detailed work descriptions and bios here: plusdimensions.kh-berlin.de/veranstaltungen/mingled-living-forces
How to reflect artistically on the evidence of colonial violence? How to intervene in an ethnological museum while the restitution of looted material culture takes place? How to draw speculative futures?
Engaging with these questions, new artworks in a variety of media and formats including performance, installation, print, sculpture, painting, video and VR find their way into the ethnological museum. MINGLED LIVING FORCES, the title of the intervention, is a quote from Suzanne Césaire’s DISCONTENT OF A CIVILIZATION where she makes an urgent call to engender a new future. It is as an homage to her teachings that this intervention follows her text, which is both an analytical study of a present/past and a poetic assertion for the possibility of something new. MINGLED LIVING FORCES also refers to our coming together during these last months: a coming together of different peoples, coming together with texts, coming together with the inhabitants of the museum. It is the mingling of these forces that we are invoking.
Beyond this summoning, this intervention has several conceptual entry points: it investigates the museum's raison d'être by engaging artistically with what it means to collect and to exhibit within a framework of domination; it approaches the museum’s perpetuation of colonial violences through material and sound interventions; and through spatial drawing, it engages with artistic speculations as a means to inhabit a future museum once beings and material culture are returned.
The intervention presents these artistic works in an already inhabited space, entering into dialogue with the materials and documents exhibited in Leerstellen.Ausstellen – a temporary exhibition within the ethnological museum, whose concerns and approach to colonial history we believe should be made permanent. The superimposition of MINGLED LIVING FORCES and Leerstellen.Ausstellen, with their meeting and collision points, is ultimately an experiment in spatial dialogue among objects, bodies, and exhibition practices.
Curatorial development & Teaching: Juana Awad, Elaine Bonavia
Curatorial support: Bar Esh, Raras Umaratih
