NOWs: UNnatural

12 July - 09 August 2019 / Nows

graphic design © Charlotte Hansel: & color design © Susi Hinz unnatural

unnatural

group 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

NOWs: Eurydice, Orpheus, And The Maenads

13 July 2019 / Nows ⟶

Eurydice, Orpheus, And The Maenadsperformance 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. Eurydice, Orpheus, And The Maenadsperformance 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: Quissac by Yalda Afsah

07 - 24 July 2019 / Nows ⟶

Quissacsolo exhibition by Yalda Afsah Still from Yaldah Afsah, Vidourle, 2019 Opening 6 JULY 2019, 5 – 9 pm FRAGILE Leipzigerstraße 63 10117 Berlin FRAGILE is pleased to announce the solo exhibition Quissac by Yalda Afsah. The exhibition brings together two films that were developed in relation to each other, their location both being a small town in the south of France where the narrative follows a bizarre sequence of bullfights. The films “Vidourle” and “Tourneur” both portray and fictionalize the setting for expressions of supposed dominance between human and animal, gestures of provoked violence and performed masculinity. Between strategies of construction and reality scenes unfold in which man and animal, rage and performance collapse into one another. Vidourle, 2019, 10 min Tourneur, 2018, 14 min 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. Quissacsolo exhibition by Yalda Afsah Still from Yaldah Afsah, Vidourle, 2019 Opening 6 JULY 2019, 5 – 9 pm FRAGILE Leipzigerstraße 63 10117 Berlin FRAGILE is pleased to announce the solo exhibition Quissac by Yalda Afsah. The exhibition brings together two films that were developed in relation to each other, their location both being a small town in the south of France where the narrative follows a bizarre sequence of bullfights. The films “Vidourle” and “Tourneur” both portray and fictionalize the setting for expressions of supposed dominance between human and animal, gestures of provoked violence and performed masculinity. Between strategies of construction and reality scenes unfold in which man and animal, rage and performance collapse into one another. Vidourle, 2019, 10 min Tourneur, 2018, 14 min 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.

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