NOWs: Eurydice, Orpheus, And The Maenads

13 July 2019 / Nows

Eurydice, Orpheus, And The Maenads

performance by Kandis Williams in dialog with Bracha L. Ettinger

13 July, 8 pm
Perfromance starts at 9pm

Spittelkolonnaden

Leipzigerstr. 49

10117 Berlin

Williams’ ongoing Eurydice project confronts the crisis of metaphorical entanglements around the aesthetic and political intersections of loss and inspiration, the ‘coming into being of artistic gestures’, echo, form, and mimesis as instances of the formal gathering of significant agential loss for the black subject. This full performance, stemming from a series of videos, collages, sculptures, and floral arrangements, makes porous the relationship between “black identity” and “mainstream culture.” The Greek myth of Eurydice is a vehicle for Williams’ inquiry into the subjects of a racialized imagination and its subsequent logics, by staging a structured engagement of blackness and spectacle within a mythic pre-Socratic configuration of the underworld. This installment will follow Orpheus from his loss of Eurydice into the hands of the Maenads.

The performance is developed in dialog with Bracha L. Ettinger, features movement by Josh Johnson and music by Patrick Belaga.

About FRAGILE

FRAGILE fosters a program of conversation, antagonism, renegotiation, and celebration.
FRAGILE is a non-profit project for contemporary artistic practices located in Berlin. It encompasses an exhibition and a residency space.
FRAGILE is guided by curations etymology, the practice of caring and was founded on the warmest summerday of 2018 by Maurin Dietrich and Jonas Wendelin.

NOWs: Display Distribute presents Light Logistics

17 July 2019 - 23 April 2020 / Nows ⟶

Display Distribute LIGHT LOGISTICIAN 何穎雅 Elaine W. Ho speaking with the panel "Publishing as Artistic Practice", part of the Publishing Maneuvers Symposium (2020) at Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi; image courtesy of Warehouse421. Publishing initiative Kayfa ta‘s series of books that “situate themselves in the space between the technical and the reflective, the everyday and the speculative, the instructional and the intuitive, the factual and the fictional” have now traversed into the realm of the exhibition, with a series of three of their “how to” model now seeping into art spaces in Beirut, Amman and Abu Dhabi. For each iteration of the exhibition, itinerant research inquiry and artist hydra Display Distribute presented its LIGHT LOGISTICS project with the “SECOND(hand)MOUNTAIN(fortress)” imprint of bootleg books and their convoluted journeys to the Middle East. Dispatch HQL-304 and its documentation were presented in Beirut for “How to Reappear: Through the quivering leaves of independent publishing” at Beirut Art Center, then carried over as HQL-123 to Warehouse 421 in Abu Dhabi for “How to maneuver: Shape-shifting texts and other publishing tactics“. The third installment of the exhibition introduced LIGHT LOGISTICS dispatch HQL-350 with a new collaborative packaging collected from posters from Hong Kong’s anti-extradition bill movement, further protected with anti-RFID signal enabled tote bags made by artist collective nztt sewing co-op. Books and bags were hand carried from Hong Kong to Berlin, finally reaching the MMAG Foundation in Amman, where they will remain in relay until 23 April 2020. The “How to” series of publications and exhibitions exhibitions are curated by Maha MAAMOUN and Ala YOUNIS of Kayfa Ta. – Detail, installation view, LIGHT LOGISTICS: HQL-304, from "How to Reappear: Through the quivering leaves of independent publishing"; image courtesy of Beirut Art Center. Display Distribute LIGHT LOGISTICIAN 何穎雅 Elaine W. Ho speaking with the panel "Publishing as Artistic Practice", part of the Publishing Maneuvers Symposium (2020) at Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi; image courtesy of Warehouse421. Publishing initiative Kayfa ta‘s series of books that “situate themselves in the space between the technical and the reflective, the everyday and the speculative, the instructional and the intuitive, the factual and the fictional” have now traversed into the realm of the exhibition, with a series of three of their “how to” model now seeping into art spaces in Beirut, Amman and Abu Dhabi. For each iteration of the exhibition, itinerant research inquiry and artist hydra Display Distribute presented its LIGHT LOGISTICS project with the “SECOND(hand)MOUNTAIN(fortress)” imprint of bootleg books and their convoluted journeys to the Middle East. Dispatch HQL-304 and its documentation were presented in Beirut for “How to Reappear: Through the quivering leaves of independent publishing” at Beirut Art Center, then carried over as HQL-123 to Warehouse 421 in Abu Dhabi for “How to maneuver: Shape-shifting texts and other publishing tactics“. The third installment of the exhibition introduced LIGHT LOGISTICS dispatch HQL-350 with a new collaborative packaging collected from posters from Hong Kong’s anti-extradition bill movement, further protected with anti-RFID signal enabled tote bags made by artist collective nztt sewing co-op. Books and bags were hand carried from Hong Kong to Berlin, finally reaching the MMAG Foundation in Amman, where they will remain in relay until 23 April 2020. The “How to” series of publications and exhibitions exhibitions are curated by Maha MAAMOUN and Ala YOUNIS of Kayfa Ta. – Detail, installation view, LIGHT LOGISTICS: HQL-304, from "How to Reappear: Through the quivering leaves of independent publishing"; image courtesy of Beirut Art Center.

NOWs: UNnatural

12 July - 09 August 2019 / Nows ⟶

graphic design © Charlotte Hansel: & color design © Susi Hinz unnatural unnaturalgroup show with Mark Dion, Duy Hoàng, Saskia Krafft, Silvia Noronha, Nina Schuiki, Markus Wirthmann; curated by Julia Modes Kleine Humboldt Galerie Lichthof Ost Unter den Linden 6 10117 Berlin Opening 12 July, 6.30 to 9 pm Programme keynote lecture: July 12, 5.15 to 6.30 pm Prof. Dr. Philipp Sarasin: Darwins natural selection Lecture: August 7, 6.15 to 8 pm Prof. Dr. Anke te Heesen: Kastenräume. Zur Geschichte eingefriedeter Pflanzen unnatural is dedicated to the dichotomy of humans and nature, by exploring the human fascination with, as well as our influence on natural cycles and the consequences of this activity in the age of the Anthropocene. The biologist Charles Darwin defined natural selection as the principle of survival and reproduction of any variation that provided advantageous, no matter how small. His evolutionary theory plainly explained the mechanisms of species’ variation in the plant and animal kingdoms. Humans were no longer the pride of creation but rather part of a protracted process in which they prevailed over other species. However, within their culturally created social structures, humans are subjected to very different, everyday mechanisms of selection – and further, they themselves do the selecting. When humans attempt to comprehend the forces of nature, acquire them, and utilize them for their own needs, they make decisions based on their own value systems, which affect nature in turn. In this manner, human activity has become a crucial factor within the evolutionary process. Can the conscious selection by humans still be regarded as natural or does it have to be understood as unnatural? The exhibition unnatural is dedicated to this dichotomy of humans and nature. Six contemporary artists will explore the human fascination with, as well as our influence on, natural cycles and the consequences of this activity in the age of the Anthropocene. Their works will discuss natural catastrophes caused by human action, attempts to imitate natural processes, and the practice of collecting organic materials in order to instigate a discourse on natural and unnatural selection mechanisms. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Kleine Humboldt Galerie’s curatorial practice at Lichthof Ost, the show will be on view until August 9! Künstler*innen/ artists Duy Hoàng (New York) Saskia Krafft (New York) Nina Schuiki (Berlin) Silvia Noronha (Berlin) Markus Wirthmann (Berlin) Mark Dion (New York) Kuratorin/ curator: Julia Modes Kuratorische Assistenz / assistant: Lotte Wilhelm graphic design © Charlotte Hansel: & color design © Susi Hinz unnatural unnaturalGruppenausstellung mit Mark Dion, Duy Hoàng, Saskia Krafft, Silvia Noronha, Nina Schuiki, Markus Wirthmann; kuratiert von Julia Modes Kleine Humboldt Galerie Lichthof Ost Unter den Linden 6 10117 Berlin Eröffnung 12 July, 6.30 to 9 pm Programm Keynote Lecture: 12. Juli, 17:15 to 18.30 h Prof. Dr. Philipp Sarasin: Darwins natural selection Lecture: 7. August , 18.15 bis 20:00 h Prof. Dr. Anke te Heesen: Kastenräume. Zur Geschichte eingefriedeter Pflanzen unnatural widmet sich der Dichotomie von Mensch und Natur, indem die Ausstellung die menschliche Faszination für, wie auch seinen Einfluss auf natürliche Kreisläufe und deren Folgen im Zeitalter des Anthroprozäns thematisiert. Der Naturforscher Charles Darwin definierte die natürliche Selektionals Prinzip der Erhaltung jeder kleinsten, sofern nützlichen Variation. Seine Evolutionstheorie erklärt auf einfache Weise den Mechanismus der Artenvariation im Pflanzen- und Tierreich, der den Menschen nicht als “Krone der Schöpfung”, sondern als Teil eines natürlichen Ausleseverfahrens beschreibt. Doch der Mensch unterliegt in dem von ihm eigens hervorgebrachten sozialen Gefüge heute ganz anderen, alltäglichen Selektionsmechanismen – und mehr noch: er selbst selektiert. Während der Mensch zwar die Gesetze der Natur seit jeher zu durchdringen versucht, sie sich aneignet und für seine eigenen Zwecke nutzt, trifft er Entscheidungen auf der Grundlage eines eigens erfundenen Wertesystems, denen sich seine Umwelt beugen muss. So wurde er zu einem entscheidenden Selektionsfaktor der natürlichen Auslese. Kann jedoch das bewusste Selektieren des Menschen noch als ein natürliches oder muss es als ein unnatürliches verstanden werden? Im Rahmen des Festivals unselect greifen in der Ausstellung unnatural Sechs Künstler*innen durch ihre Arbeiten die vom Menschen verursachten Naturkatastrophen, den Versuch, Prozesse der Natur nachzuahmen und das Prinzip des Sammelns organischer Materialien auf, um zum Nachdenken und Diskutieren über natürliche, wie unnatürliche Selektionsmechanismen anzuregen. Die Ausstellung wird anlässlich der zehnjährigen Ausstellungspraxis der Kleinen Humboldt Galerie im Lichthof Ost bis zum 09. August zu sehen sein! Künstler*innen/ artists Duy Hoàng (New York) Saskia Krafft (New York) Nina Schuiki (Berlin) Silvia Noronha (Berlin) Markus Wirthmann (Berlin) Mark Dion (New York) Kuratorin/ curator: Julia Modes Kuratorische Assistenz / assistant: Lotte Wilhelm

Search for people or projects:

NOWs: Eurydice, Orpheus, And The Maenads

Eurydice, Orpheus, And The Maenads

Other entries filed under Nows: