NOWs: Transatlantic Sounds

04 - 06 February 2021

Transatlantic Sounds

What would you say if I told you that our Black history has been denied?

as part of #Healing (Faju), New Alphabet School, HKW – Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

Thursday, Feb 4, 7.30–11pm

Sound marathon by Tomás Espinosa, Jorge Gómez, Carina Madsius and Linda-Philomène Tsoungui with Laeïla Adjovi, Margarita Ariza, Corinna Fiora, Mario Henao, Christian Howard Hooker, Ibaaku, Muhammed Lamin Jadama, LoMaasBello, Macú, Daba Makourejah, Daniela Maldonado (Red Comunitaria Trans), Plu con Pla, Johan Mijail, Yos Piña Narvaez, Ariel Palacios, Fundación Cultural Pilón, Abdulah Sow.

Partly in Spanish with translation into English

The African diaspora carries pain but also embraces transformation. Against the backdrop of trauma and violence, diasporic movements turned the Atlantic into a tunnel of cultural exchanges, where different Africas met the Caribbean, the Atlantic and the Pacific coast of Abya Yala as Indigenous people call the pre-colonized territory of what today is referred to as the American continent. They have been laying the foundations of a mestizaje that is reflected in dance, ritual practices, popular religiosity, musical instruments, drums, percussion. These manifestations have been undervalued, diluted and racialized by colonial structures of power, generating disconnections between afro-diasporic communities and a part of history – the history of the Black Atlantic.In a digital marathon, an archive of sounds, voices and experiences will be created while the participants exchange ideas, generate discussions and listen to each other. The marathon will bring together musicians, artists and other guests from Senegal, the Caribbean, Colombia and the Senegalese diaspora in Berlin. Through poems, interventions and other means, they will share their experience as members of the diaspora with the participants. This marathon lays the ground for the online transmission on February 6th.

This marathon lays the ground for the Transatlantic Sounds public event on February 6th, audio stream via hkw.de/healing. In a performance ritualbeing streamed into the digital realm, Transatlantic Sounds will be offering improvisations, live sound interventions and jam sessions based on samples from the online marathon of February 4th. Communicated through a communal radio frequency, they will open a portal and connect Tumaco with Dakar and Berlin:

Saturday, Feb 6, 2–4pm

Transatlantic Sounds: “What would you say if I told you that our Black history has been denied?”
Performance ritual by Tomás Espinosa, Jorge Gómez, Carina Madsius and Linda-Philomène Tsoungui with Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Abdulah Sow and Co.

To recognize oneself as afro-diasporic is to be aware that identities are the result of ruptures and fragmentations. This reveals that a part of history has been silenced and disconnected. These wounds are not yet repaired but might be healed through sounds and the act of listening to each other. In an audio performance ritual streamed into the digital realm, the contributors will be offering improvisations, live sound interventions and jam sessions based on samples from the sound marathon of February 4. Communicated through a communal radio frequency they will open a portal and connect Tumaco with Dakar, Berlin and other points of the partially disconnected African diaspora. The act of listening and the cathartic power of music and its vibrations permeate the body to heal the traumas of the past, to connect and vibrate together.

–

This is a poem for you

Transatlantic Sounds: What would you say, if I tell you that our black history has
been denied?

1.
If I can’ t trust the books,
incorrectly written
and hegemonic.
So I’m going to ask the stones, the heavens
I’m going to ask… the water, the ocean.
The ocean answers…
loaded
heavy
Not as much as my head,
who doesn’t want to get into more theory.
But this is something else…
Let’s go back to the ocean.
The ocean is loaded,
furious.
The ocean will not know about books,
but it does know about history
History!!
and the Atlantic becomes dark.
Transatlantico.
Transatlantic.
Transatlantisch.
Transatlantische.

2.
The history has been groped,
it is lost
the history under scopolamine
excited
drunk
telling stories.
Colonized and patriarchal.
The History is not allowed to drag
But…. What do you do when you are banned from drag?
dresses in the bathroom,
hidden.
History has been taken to study,
colonial color theory.
She learned from Europe and did not understand the rest
fell asleep
did not fall asleep!!
history has been drugged
she only can see in white
ahhh don’t tell me
history has been bleached.

3.
Neither one, nor the other, nor the other!
But yes the mixture of many.
Also the trauma of all.
They tell me that I am not the coca leaf,
that I am not the yam,
that I don’t own the plantation.
I am a Diaspora.
Disconnected !
Racializada
Vibrate! or don’t you have a voice?
Don’t you feel it?
Speak up!
I can’t find it…
Do you want to talk about Colonialism?
Let’s talk about fragmentations and ruptures.
Of movements.
Of movement in one direction!
Because this one doesn’t come back nor is it expected.
Glorious movement!
Glorious?
Painful. Painful.
Exchange.
Robbery!
Let’s talk about the drum! because I can’t hear it.
African, Caribbean, South American, Pacific, Europe!
Disconnected, fragmented.
Without a visa but with the gold somewhere else.
The forbidden language. The story that has not been properly told.. The bastard daughter. The
distant one.
History disguised a miracle.
Miracle?
rupture!
and does it hurt?
it didn’t hurt
It hurts.

With Joy,

Carina Madsius, Linda-Philomène Tsoungui, Jorge Gómez and Tomás Espinosa and the rest of the #Healing team

NOWs: Hypochondria Heart by Nina Schuiki

09 - 27 February 2021 / Nows ⟶

Nina Schuiki: Sorrow Window, 2020. Spray paint, existing window panes FORUM STADTPARK, Graz curated by zweintopf What we don’t want to do here is to place an eloquent text in front of the work of art, outlining the only correct and exclusively rational approach to the work. The installation created by Nina Schuiki for Forum Stadtpark attempts to carefully expose all that is hidden behind objects, and the text is also intended to emphasise this transparency of the work. “Transparency” writes Susan Sonntag “means experiencing the luminosity of the object itself, of all the things in its essence”[1]. Text should not interfere with the sensual experience of art. Instead, the viewers should be given the opportunity to re-activate their senses. Susan Sonntag’s statement “We must learn in order to see more, to hear more and to feel more”[2]provides clear instructions for visiting the exhibition. “The space should remain as empty as possible; I want to emphasise the dialogue that takes place between inside and outside“ wrote Nina Schuiki in February 2020 when describing her site-specific installation. The exhibition originally would have been opened in May, so it was already set up before that. And still, one has to view the work at present both through the lens of the pandemic and in context with it. It is not possible to separate the two, because the work fits quite naturally within the framework of experiential and emotional references that we have been given during this momentous year. Good works of art often manage to make life more understandable to us in new ways. But sometimes it’s the other way around: Life or even a pandemic can enable us to understand art in a new way. As a watchword for the visual arts programme in Forum Stadpark, KUNST [ART] today means exactly that: Good art is always current. And its contemporary nature, its strategic position at a crossroads within society – with all of its trends and problems – also inspires Nina Schuiki in important ways. Her works walk the tightrope between comfort and discomfort and serve as an example of a “therapeutic use of art”. Aristotle cited this use in his philosophy: By challenging us, art brings hidden emotions to light and purifies them.[3] The phrase “Hypochondria Heart”[4], chosen as the title of the exhibition, has been taken from a book by Svetlana Boym. It refers to nostalgia as an incurable illness, as a longing for another time and a primordial form of experiencing the sense of self, free from forced progress and productive time management. In this context, Nina Schuiki‘s persistent preoccupation with transience and continuity also adopts a utopian dimension – after all, she is searching for a time beyond time. In her central work Sorrow Window, Nina Schuiki takes a characteristic window façade and creates a pattern based on photographs of broken panes of safetyglass that she found in public space; these images are then sprayed directly onto the pane. This thin membrane that is revealed between the art venue and the – in part politically and deliberately problematised – public sphere exposes a seeming fragility, which we may never have noticed before. Perhaps it has always been present. As Susan Sonntag writes, it is as if Nina Schuiki reduced the content of her work precisely for this reason, until the matter itself was exposed: the essence of this relationship between space, art and society. The English term sorrow indicates sadness, but also suffering, pain and grief. Sorrow Window thus becomes an existential wailing wall that subtly but urgently reveals what we potentially have to lose. In terms of places and relationships. So much has fallen by the wayside this year. And yet: We will get these back. zweintopf 2020 [1] Susan Sonntag, Gegen Interpretation, in: Susan Sonntag, Kunst und Antikunst. 24 literarischeAnalysen, Frankfurt, 201511, p. 21 [2] ditto, p. 22 [3] ditto,p. 11 [4] Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, 2001 Video concept: Claudia Gerhäusser, Constantin Lederer, Nina Schuiki; Camera, Edit: Constantin Lederer Realtime Films; Text: Who Is Speaking, Bettina Landl, 2020; Speaker: Bettina Landl und Anja Korherr; Audio Recording: Arne Glöckner; Exhibition guard: Anja Korherr WORKS: DarknessSpoken, 2020. This work takes the idea of the spoken newspaper and runs with it. Emil Breisach used this format in the opening week of Forum Stadtpark to express current political commentary. Nina Schuiki has invited artists to provide her with text fragments at dark times. In the exhibition, these texts are kept deliberately short and are spoken into the space at a certain interval by a member of the supervisory staff. Selected texts by Melanie Ender, Elaine Wing-Ah Ho, Mihret Kebede, Bettina Landl and Catharina Szonn are performed orally within the exhibition. For silence is a desolation scream inside your heart, 2020. Text, installed in three display windows in the outer façade I still see you in everything (II), 2020. Tears, glass objects (hermetically sealed) I still see you in everything (III), 2020. Eight-part photo series, direct print on white glass, each 20 cm in diameter WoundsItch, 2019. Wax, colour pigments. According to an ancient custom practiced in Jerusalem, candles are cut to the exact height of a child and lit to ward off illness or stress. Nina Schuiki used black-coloured wax to assemble seven long, white candles from fragments. Nina Schuiki: Sorrow Window, 2020. Spray paint, existing window panes FORUM STADTPARK, Graz curated by zweintopf What we don’t want to do here is to place an eloquent text in front of the work of art, outlining the only correct and exclusively rational approach to the work. The installation created by Nina Schuiki for Forum Stadtpark attempts to carefully expose all that is hidden behind objects, and the text is also intended to emphasise this transparency of the work. “Transparency” writes Susan Sonntag “means experiencing the luminosity of the object itself, of all the things in its essence”[1]. Text should not interfere with the sensual experience of art. Instead, the viewers should be given the opportunity to re-activate their senses. Susan Sonntag’s statement “We must learn in order to see more, to hear more and to feel more”[2]provides clear instructions for visiting the exhibition. “The space should remain as empty as possible; I want to emphasise the dialogue that takes place between inside and outside“ wrote Nina Schuiki in February 2020 when describing her site-specific installation. The exhibition originally would have been opened in May, so it was already set up before that. And still, one has to view the work at present both through the lens of the pandemic and in context with it. It is not possible to separate the two, because the work fits quite naturally within the framework of experiential and emotional references that we have been given during this momentous year. Good works of art often manage to make life more understandable to us in new ways. But sometimes it’s the other way around: Life or even a pandemic can enable us to understand art in a new way. As a watchword for the visual arts programme in Forum Stadpark, KUNST [ART] today means exactly that: Good art is always current. And its contemporary nature, its strategic position at a crossroads within society – with all of its trends and problems – also inspires Nina Schuiki in important ways. Her works walk the tightrope between comfort and discomfort and serve as an example of a “therapeutic use of art”. Aristotle cited this use in his philosophy: By challenging us, art brings hidden emotions to light and purifies them.[3] The phrase “Hypochondria Heart”[4], chosen as the title of the exhibition, has been taken from a book by Svetlana Boym. It refers to nostalgia as an incurable illness, as a longing for another time and a primordial form of experiencing the sense of self, free from forced progress and productive time management. In this context, Nina Schuiki‘s persistent preoccupation with transience and continuity also adopts a utopian dimension – after all, she is searching for a time beyond time. In her central work Sorrow Window, Nina Schuiki takes a characteristic window façade and creates a pattern based on photographs of broken panes of safetyglass that she found in public space; these images are then sprayed directly onto the pane. This thin membrane that is revealed between the art venue and the – in part politically and deliberately problematised – public sphere exposes a seeming fragility, which we may never have noticed before. Perhaps it has always been present. As Susan Sonntag writes, it is as if Nina Schuiki reduced the content of her work precisely for this reason, until the matter itself was exposed: the essence of this relationship between space, art and society. The English term sorrow indicates sadness, but also suffering, pain and grief. Sorrow Window thus becomes an existential wailing wall that subtly but urgently reveals what we potentially have to lose. In terms of places and relationships. So much has fallen by the wayside this year. And yet: We will get these back. zweintopf 2020 [1] Susan Sonntag, Gegen Interpretation, in: Susan Sonntag, Kunst und Antikunst. 24 literarischeAnalysen, Frankfurt, 201511, p. 21 [2] ditto, p. 22 [3] ditto,p. 11 [4] Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, 2001 Video concept: Claudia Gerhäusser, Constantin Lederer, Nina Schuiki; Camera, Edit: Constantin Lederer Realtime Films; Text: Who Is Speaking, Bettina Landl, 2020; Speaker: Bettina Landl und Anja Korherr; Audio Recording: Arne Glöckner; Exhibition guard: Anja Korherr WORKS: DarknessSpoken, 2020. This work takes the idea of the spoken newspaper and runs with it. Emil Breisach used this format in the opening week of Forum Stadtpark to express current political commentary. Nina Schuiki has invited artists to provide her with text fragments at dark times. In the exhibition, these texts are kept deliberately short and are spoken into the space at a certain interval by a member of the supervisory staff. Selected texts by Melanie Ender, Elaine Wing-Ah Ho, Mihret Kebede, Bettina Landl and Catharina Szonn are performed orally within the exhibition. For silence is a desolation scream inside your heart, 2020. Text, installed in three display windows in the outer façade I still see you in everything (II), 2020. Tears, glass objects (hermetically sealed) I still see you in everything (III), 2020. Eight-part photo series, direct print on white glass, each 20 cm in diameter WoundsItch, 2019. Wax, colour pigments. According to an ancient custom practiced in Jerusalem, candles are cut to the exact height of a child and lit to ward off illness or stress. Nina Schuiki used black-coloured wax to assemble seven long, white candles from fragments.

NOWs: Future archaeology – a return from the moon by Fabian Anselm Orasch

03 - 25 October 2020 / Nows ⟶

photo by the artist Fabian Anselm Orasch: Future archaeology - a return from the moonat msu– Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb During his residency in Zagreb in July 2019, the artist researched the specificities of contemporary Croatian art, the permanent collection at MSU, but also the city of Zagreb. He was especially attracted by the open character of the Kožarić Studio, as well as by Zagreb’s modernist architecture and the way in which its elements were present in the development of the city. Installations and sculptures he is preparing for this exhibition in his Berlin studio will reference the atmosphere and the invisible structure of Zagreb. During his numerous walks in the streets of the city, he noticed the exhaust pipes of the underground steam pipeline and the manholes that extended from the heating plants to the consumers. They were partly invisible because they were located in the underground zone of the city. The surreal atmosphere—reminiscent of the reflection of the Moon on the Earth’s surface—will produce a device that will generate steam in the installation space. The steam will come out of sculptural elements that visually reference the abovementioned exhaust pipes. Fabian Anselm Orasch creates works that are based on research into the local context. They function independently, but also in relation to other elements of the exhibition display. The exhibition artifacts come from a familiar world, but form wondrous and new ensembles, which are strange to us, and which we cannot easily identify. In doing so, he uses aesthetic and functional aspects that are familiar to him from architecture, urban planning, science, nature, and from the context of the place where the exhibition is created. This encourages the viewer to establish personal imaginative and associative worlds. Fabian Anselm Orasch is a German artist of the middle generation (Berlin, 1981). After studying philosophy and art history at the FU Berlin, he studied sculpture at AdBK Karlsruhe, where he graduated under Professor Harald Klingelhöller in 2013. From 2013 to 2014, he continued his studies with Klingelhöller. He has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions both at home and abroad and has won awards and scholarships (2014 Baden-Württemberg Scholarship for a stay in Warsaw). Curator of the exhibition: Nataša Ivančević, Museum Advisor photo by the artist Fabian Anselm Orasch: Future archaeology - a return from the moonat msu– Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb During his residency in Zagreb in July 2019, the artist researched the specificities of contemporary Croatian art, the permanent collection at MSU, but also the city of Zagreb. He was especially attracted by the open character of the Kožarić Studio, as well as by Zagreb’s modernist architecture and the way in which its elements were present in the development of the city. Installations and sculptures he is preparing for this exhibition in his Berlin studio will reference the atmosphere and the invisible structure of Zagreb. During his numerous walks in the streets of the city, he noticed the exhaust pipes of the underground steam pipeline and the manholes that extended from the heating plants to the consumers. They were partly invisible because they were located in the underground zone of the city. The surreal atmosphere—reminiscent of the reflection of the Moon on the Earth’s surface—will produce a device that will generate steam in the installation space. The steam will come out of sculptural elements that visually reference the abovementioned exhaust pipes. Fabian Anselm Orasch creates works that are based on research into the local context. They function independently, but also in relation to other elements of the exhibition display. The exhibition artifacts come from a familiar world, but form wondrous and new ensembles, which are strange to us, and which we cannot easily identify. In doing so, he uses aesthetic and functional aspects that are familiar to him from architecture, urban planning, science, nature, and from the context of the place where the exhibition is created. This encourages the viewer to establish personal imaginative and associative worlds. Fabian Anselm Orasch is a German artist of the middle generation (Berlin, 1981). After studying philosophy and art history at the FU Berlin, he studied sculpture at AdBK Karlsruhe, where he graduated under Professor Harald Klingelhöller in 2013. From 2013 to 2014, he continued his studies with Klingelhöller. He has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions both at home and abroad and has won awards and scholarships (2014 Baden-Württemberg Scholarship for a stay in Warsaw). Curator of the exhibition: Nataša Ivančević, Museum Advisor

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NOWs: Transatlantic Sounds

Transatlantic Sounds