Performance Lab Berlin

20 Uhr Shannon Sullivan / Performance Lab Berlin: Emergence- an improvisational study with white cube and eggshells

Performance: Shannon Sullivan

Dramaturgy: Joey Juschka

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Shannon Sullivan ist Poetin und multidisziplinäre Performerin. Ursprünglich zur professionellen Tänzerin ausgebildet, schloss sie zusätzlich ihre Schauspielausbildung an der American Musical und Dramatic Academy ab. Sie ist Gründerin und künstlerische Leiterin des Performance Lab Berlin sowie Initiatorin des jährlichen Events SWAN Day Berlin. Ihre Arbeit wurde u.a. in Berlin, London und New York gezeigt. Ihr neuestes Stück “13 poems in a body” feierte vor kurzem Premiere beim “frisch eingetroffen” Festival, Mannheim.

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Joey Juschka studierte Anglistik und Germanistik. Sie arbeitet als Autorin, Performerin und Dramaturgin. Dazu ist sie auf den Gebieten Fotografie, Film und Webdesign tätig. Ihre Kurzfilme wurden auf internationalen Festivals gezeigt, mehrere ihrer Kurzgeschichten veröffentlicht. Sie ist Mitgründerin des Performance Lab Berlin und aktiv an der Konzeption und Durchführung neuer Projekte beteiligt.

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Performance Lab Berlin ist ein interdisziplinäres Performance-Projekt, ansässig in Berlin. Es wurde 2006 von der Choreografin und Regisseurin Shannon Sullivan und der Schriftstellerin und Performerin Joey Juschka gegründet. Performance Lab Berlin führt eigene Produktionen durch und präsentiert jährlich das Event SWAN Day Berlin (Support Women Artists Now Day). Dazu bietet es Fokus-Workshops für PerformerInnen zu unterschiedlichen Themen. Das “Lab” in Performance Lab Berlin kommt von “Labor”: unser Fokus ist auf das Experimentieren und die Entdeckung ungewöhnlicher Kombinationen und Mischungen mit kraftvollen Auswirkungen gerichtet. Wir fördern Grenzüberschreitungen, gegenseitige Inspiration und die Erfindung neuer Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten.

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www.performancelabberlin.com

Fotos: Performance Lab Berlin

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Finissage: Performance Evening

Finissage 24.10.09: Performance Evening featuring…

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20.00h

Shannon Sullivan / Performance Lab Berlin:

Emergence – an improvisational study with white cube and eggshells

Performance: Shannon Sullivan

Dramaturgy: Joey Juschka

www.performancelabberlin.com

More about Performance Lab Berlin

20.30h

Robert Würz and Lin Hui Chun: free improvising duo

www.myspace.com/robertwuerz
www.myspace.com/linhuichun

21.30h

CIE N.N.

(Cilgia Gadola, Simone Grindel, Romana Ramer):

Contemporary Dance Performance – Consciences and Frontiers

22.00h

Grischa Lichtenberger:

Experimental electronic music, Glitch, Digital

http://www.raster-noton.net/main.php?action=artists&dat=102

www.myspace.com/grischalichtenberger

22.30h

Elke Graalfs + Marco Goldenstein:

Performance »Schleifen Quanten Gravitationstheorie oder… hallo?«
www.elke-graalfs.de

www.marcogoldenstein.de

23.00h

Live Music with Rober Wiydn, Aaron Dall, Mal Skene

www.myspace.com/aarondall

www.myspace.com/wiydn

www.myspace.com/malskene

24.00h

After Party with DJ Zhao / Ngoma Soundsystem

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Programme

Programme

02.10.09 Vernissage

- 18-20 h Jazzology – Concert of Musikschule Paul Hindemith Neukölln

- 20:30 h Official opening of the exhibition

- 21:30 h Dance Performance by Cie. N-N

- 22:30 h Performance by Diego Lis Materon and Floating Island

- since 24 h After-Party with DJ Zhao / Ngoma Soundsystem

9.10.09 since 20 Uhr

- 20.00 h Live Music with Mal Skene

- 21.00 h Dance Performance by Cie. N-N

- 22.00 h Live Music

16.10.09 since 19 Uhr

- 19.00 h Reading by Johannes Groschupf (from his Neukölln-novel „Hinterhofhelden“), accompanied by Christopf Denstädt, Saxophone

- 20.00 h Dance Performance by Cie. N-N

- 21.00 h Live Music with Aaron Dall

24.10.09 Finissage

- 20.00 h      Big Performance Evening featuring Performance Lab Berlin, Cie.N-N, Robert Würz and Lin Hui Chun, Grischa Lichtenberger, Elke Graalfs and Marco Goldenstein

- 22.00 h      Live Music with Robert Wiyden and Aaron Dall

- 23.00 h     After Party with DJ Zhao / Ngoma Soundsystem

Artist: Emmanuel Eni

Emmanuel Eni: Israel and Palestine, Installation, 2006 © Emmanuel Eni

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Website Emmanuel Eni

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Emmanuel Eni was born in Igbanke, in mid-west Nigeria

After primary and secondary school, from 1971-1982 he attended Igbobi College Lagos Nigeria and left with HSC (Higher school certificate) specializing  in fine arts.

From 1982-1984 He visited Auchi polytechnic where he graduated with OND ordinary national diplom. in fine arts.

1986 -1991 he obtained BA degree in fine arts (Sculpture major) from University of Benin Nigeria.

1991-1993 MA (Sculpture) Royal academy of Arts, London

He has undertaken an extensive travel  teaching, performing and presenting art through public, private, institutional, and governmental invitation. He has participated in various biennials Like Dakar, Lyon.

In 2007 he presented “Death of the curator” installation and performance parallel  to documenta 12 in Kassel Germany.

Last employers and partners include:

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) department of Sculpture by Prof. Ellen Driscoll., Providence, New – Hamshire USA.

Centre Monroe for the Arts, Hoboken, New Jersey USA. Others include:

Goethe institute Lagos, Dakar, and the Institute for African studies

Bayreuth University Bayreuth, Germany (IWALEWA HAUS).

Present employer:

Sculpture department of Faculty of arts, Berlin Art University Weißensee Berlin. Germany.

Emmanuel Eni lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

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Selected Exhibition / installations / Performances

2009

“Israel & Palestine” i8 installation and performance to 250 year –SLACHT BEI MINDEN- Austtellung. Minden Porta Westfalica.

“Blackman in European kitchen- To Black history month 2009 poetic musical performance America-Haus Berlin.

Enimatic band night to Black history month. America-Haus Berlin 2009.

Enimatic- The poet- Berlin Karneval der Kulturen 2009.

2008

“Enimatic- Enimatic” 12 track blue/funk music Release by Rough trade London, Appointment as guest Prof. of sculpture. Kunsthochschule Weißensee Berlin, Germany.

“Africanize” Installation – Grassi Museum for Ethnology Leipzig, Germany.

“Africanize” Installation – KUNSTBANKEN Museum Hamar, Norway.

“Blackman in European kitchen” performance. KUNSTBANKEN Hamar, Norway.

“African Legends performance” – Werkstatt der Kulturen / Workshop of cultures, Berlin, Germany.

“Blackman in  European kitchen” Performance – Schwartzsche Villa Berlin, Germany.

“Enimatic Enimal” 9 track blue funk music album release. MKZWO, Rough trade London

2007

“Blackman in European Kitchen”- Installation/Performance Goethe institute Lagos, Nigeria

“CharakterLAGOStika” Installation- Goethe Institute Lagos, Nigeria.

“Death of the curator” Installation/Performance parallel – Documenta 12 Kassel Germany.

“CrossCulture” Installation/performance” Goethe institute Dakar Senegal

Publication “Death of the  curator”- Drama by E.N.I publishers Berlin Germany.

“Black Paris” Group Exhibition on position of African contemporary art in Diaspora- Paris, France, and IWALEWA Haus Bayreuth Germany.

2006

“Israel and Palestine” Installation/Performance Dak art ‘06 Biennial of       contemporary Art 2006  Dakar, Senegal.

“Junking of the Elephant”- The destruction of a 20 ton “Elephant” monument    made by the artist- in front of a live audience- because of the damaged ecology and     nature – Berlin Germany.

2006/05

„Death of the curator”, Installation/performance, Grassi Museum Leipzig, Germany.

2005

Visiting Professor of Sculpture – Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), USA

2005

“Masqueradeundressing” (poems, tales and stories), Publication; Publisher: CPN publishers England

“Wasser Brennt” (Water burns) exhibition/installation on position and need for water world wide in the new millennium-Galerie Habari, Vienna, Austria.

2003-2000

Making of  “Elephant” (20 Ton heavy munument for Nature) and “Leaf” (9 Ton  monument for nature) Material: Re-enforced concrete

“Form for you”, Terra cotta door sculpture gallery, Berlin, Germany

“Life in A4″ Terra cotta door-sculpture gallery, Berlin, Germany

1998

“The rest from the last hunting”, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

1997

“Characteristics of living things”, Castle Colombi Park, Freiburq, Germany

“Time Tides”, 47. Gallery Soho New York,

1996

“Parts of CIay”, Centre Monroe for Arts, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA

“Clear Walls”, Lisa Parker fine Art. 584 Broadway, New York, USA

1994

“Image Splash”, Art Service Gallery, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

1992

“Parables”, National museum Lagos, Nigeria

1991

“Sculptures and Drawings”, Nairobi, Kenya

1990

“Labyrinths”, B.A. project exhibition: University of Benin, Nigeria

“Art Expo ‘90″, Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Art and Light”, Spectral, Freiburg, Germany

“Unveiling”, Kulturfabrik, Sasbach, Germany

“Creation Story”, Albertus-Magnus-Haus. Freiburg, Germany

1989

“Drawing School”, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Artist: Tuca Vieira

Tuca Vieira:  Paraisópolis    |   Concordia Square

© Tuca Vieira

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Website Tuca Vieira

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*1974, São Paulo, Brazil

2002 to 2009     Photographic reporter for folha de s. paulo

1998     Graduated in language and literature from University of São Paulo

Since 1991     Professional Photographer | Studied with Cláudio Feijó, Eduardo Castanho, Nair Benedicto and Eder Chiodetto.
Worked at Museu da imagem e do som (mis) and n-imagens photo agency.

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Solo exhibitions

2008                 street photography, Centro Cultural Mariantonia, São Paulo, Brazil

2007                 street photography, fotoarte Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

2006                 são paulo: contrasts of a metropolis without limits, Galeria Citicorp, São Paulo, Brazil

2002                 a walk in the indies, Galeria Paul Mitchell, São Paulo, Brazil

1994                 light in the land of the sun, Galeria Consolação, São Paulo, Brazil

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Group exhibitions

2008                

multiple city, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

drivers of change, London Festival of Architecture, London, UK

urban space, Berlin, New York, Buenos Aires, Argentina

são paulo A300mm, instituto Cervantes, São Paulo, Brazil

2007

16th pirelli/masp collection, São Paulo Art Museum, São Paulo, Brazil

urbanopolis, Musée de la Civilisation, Quebec, Canada

são paulo A300mm, Galeria de nuevos ministerios, Madrid, Spain

transitional landscape, Galeria Porto Seguro, São Paulo, Brazil

global cities, Tate Modern, London, UK

2006                

city, architecture and society, International Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy

photojournalism retrospective 2005,  senac, São Paulo, Brazil

2002

photo são paulo, Espaço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil

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Publications

2007

16a coleção pirelli/masp, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

fotografia de rua, Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, São Paulo, Brazil

2005    

as cidades do brasil: são paulo, Publifolha, São Paulo, Brazil

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Awards

2005

First prize, grupo nordeste photography award, Recife, Brazil

são paulo state department of culture, photography competition, São Paulo, Brazil

2004

folha journalism prize, photography category, São Paulo, Brazil

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Collections

Pirelli/masp Collection, São Paulo Art Museum, Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo Contemporary Art Museum (mac)

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Artist: Sofie Arfwidson

Sofie Arfwidson: Outlaws, Oil on Canvas, 140 x 150 cm, 2009 © S. Arfwidson

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Website Sofie Arfwidson

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* 1976 Sweden

lives and works in Berlin, Germany

2006                 Royal University College of Fine Arts Stockholm

2003                 UDK Berlin, Master of Arts,  Prof. Bernd Koberling

2002                 UDK Berlin, Bachelor of Arts, Prof. Bernd Koberling

1997-2000         Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Prof. Jörg Immendorff

1996-1997          Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague

Awarded with Crafoords Stipendium, Lunds stads kulturstipendium, Lindeqvist donationsfond, Dorotha Konwiartz Stipendium, Milk energy Stipendium

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Selected Solo Exhibitions

2009

News from the wicked garden, Galleri Thomas Wallner, Brantevik, Sweden

Rinasce piu Gloriosa, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany

Blaukäppchen und die rote Frau, Project SpaceGrünerhund, Berlin, Germany

2008                

Unter dem Himmel, Infernoesque, Berlin, Germany

Sakral, St Christophorus, Berlin, Germany

A Normal Day, Galleri Thomas Wallner, Malmö, Sweden

2007                

Visiondrive, Swedish Embassy, Berlin, Germany

2005

Kabusa Konstall, Thomas Wallner, Sweden

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Selected Group Exhibitions

2009

Swedish Consulate, Berlin, Germany

Plastic #4, Kantine, Berlin, Germany

48-Stunden Neukölln, Kindl Brauerei, Berlin, Germany

2008

Swedish Consulate, Leipzig

The Joy of Painting, Maurus Gmür, Berlin, Germany

2007

Kunstraum t27, Berlin, Germany

Arnstedt & Kullgren, Sweden

Knäpper + Baumgarten, Stockholm, Sweden

2006

Art Basel, Liste, ALP Peter Bergman, Basel, Switzerland

Knäpper + Baumgarten, Stockholm, Sweden

Anhalt Berlin, Arnstedt & Kullgren, Sweden

ALP Peter Bergman, Market, Stockholm, Sweden

Northern Light, Stockholm, Sweden

2004

Bunker, Berlin, Germany

2003                

Schaustelle 8, Giesler & Partner, Berlin, Germany

2002

Schaustelle 7, Eva Poll, Berlin, Germany

Dorothea Konwiartzstiftung, Berlin, Germany

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Collections

Norrköpings Konstmuseum, SAK, Aura, Private Collections

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Artist: Nicole Cohen

Nicole Cohen

Van Fantasy, Video still, 2006

How to make your windows beautiful, Video Projection onto a vintage magazine, 2008

© Nicole Cohen

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Website Nicole Cohen

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*1970 Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA

lives and works in Berlin, Germany

1999                 MFA, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
1992                 BA, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Exhibitions at the Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, MA), the Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia, PA), and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  She has also shown internationally in Berlin, Germany; Bergen, Norway; Denmark, Paris, France; Harajaku, Osaka, Kobe, and Tokyo, Japan; and Shanghai, China.

2011                 Solo exhibition at the Katzen Art Center at American University in Washington, D.C..

2007-09          Commissioned solo exhibition at The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California

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Solo Exhibitions

2011

Circles & Beamers, Working Title, The Katzen Art Center at American University
Museum, Washington, D.C.

2009                

French Connection, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2008

First Impressions, Curated by Corrina Billert, Autostadt, Volkswagen (VW),   Wolfsburg, Germany

Make yourself at home, The New York  Public Library, Mid-Manhattan Library, curated by Arezoo Monseni

2007-09

Please Be Seated: A Video Installation by Nicole Cohen, curated by Peggy Fogelman, The J. Paul  Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2007

Rap Rococo, La B.A.N.K. Galerie, Paris, France

2005

How To Make Your Windows Beautiful, Luxe Gallery, New York, NY

2003             

40-Love, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

My Vie en Rose, Media Field, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

2001

Van Fantasies, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, NY

2000

Fantasy Space & Crystal Ball: Dreamhouse, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

1998             

Video Drawings, Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

1992                

Guards, Harold Johnson Gallery, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Group Exhibitions

2009

BORDERS, Curated group show, Berlin, Germany

2008

BAC! The International Festival of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, The Center of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Neu Im Paradies, curated by Nora Klumpp, Kontemporar Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

Test Tone – Sound & Image, Spor Festival, curated by Brandon La Belle,
Denmark

2007

CRG Video Series, CRG Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Angela Dufresn

All the Way, Luxe Gallery, New York, NY

What a Great Space you have…LA, curated by Marc Glode, The Claremont Unversity Gallery, Claremont, CA

Reality Crossings, curated by Christoph Tannert, Photo Festival Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg, Germany

Seen and Imagined, Peter Fingesten Gallery, Pace University, NYC

2006                            

A Sense of Place, curated by Tami Philion, LouAnne Greenwald, USC Roski School School of Fine Arts, LA, CA

What a great space you have…, curated by Marc Glode, Luxe Gallery, NY

Pixel Visions, The University of Alabama Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama

2005           

SLURP!, curated by Lisa Dorin, Assistant Curator at the Chicago Art Institute, Interactive Gallery, New Media Caucus, CAA,  Boston, MA

Chthonic Cartographers, curated by Jenny G. Sheppard, Chesapeake Gallery, Harford Community College, Bel Air, Maryland

It’s Not About Sex, Luxe Gallery, New York, NY

Fair Play, PLAY_Gallery for still and motion pictures, Berlin, Germany

2004

DOMICILE:  A Sense of Place, CoCa, curated by Jim O’ Donnell, Seattle, WA

Simply Drawn, Luxe Gallery, New York, NY

The Garden Lab Experiment, co-curated by Fritz Haeg and Francois Perrin, Wind Tunnel, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA

Stop & Stor, Luxe Gallery, New York, NY

USA Today, Galleri s.e., Bergen, Norway

Too Jewish – Not Jewish Enough, Bell Family Gallery, The Jewish Federation, Los Angeles

2003            

WPA, Corcoran Museum of Art, Art in Embassies, Washington D.C.

Sunday Morning, U.S. Embassy in Paris, Paris, France

NUEVA, curated by Matthew Clark, Laforet Museum, Harajuku, Japan, Kobe, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo (traveling exhibition)

Signals from a Deserted Outpost, Chapman University Gallery,  Orange, CA
Threading Technology, curated by Christina Valentine The Brewery Project, Los Angeles, CA

Surface Tension, curated by Cassandra Coblentz, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Light and Spaced-out, curated by Carlos Cartenas, Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris, CentreD’Art Passarelle, Brest, France (Traveling exhibition)

Still Life – Still Here, curated by Jaime Villaneda, The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA

2002

Seeing, LACMA Lab, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

2001            

Summer 2001, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

I See You 2, organized by Sam Messer and Kiki Smith, Fredericks Freiser Gallery, New York, NY

Travelogue, The Orange County Museum for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA

2000

Seizure!, Artplace, Los Angeles, CA

Video Blowout, Crazy Space, 18th Street Complex, Santa Monica, CA

Non Satis Scire, Harold Johnson Gallery, Hampshire College, MA

Dream House, Miller Durazo, Los Angeles, CA

Spurgeon, Santa Ana, CA

IN formation, curated by Arzu Arda Kosar and Gul Cagin, Claremont University Gallery, Claremont, CA

Privatized, Artist Space Independent Grant Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY

re: Moved, Brewery Project, Los Angeles, CA

It’s About Time, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA

Juried 2000, Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Art In Motion, Interactive & Multimedia Event, Helen Lindhurst Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

1999

Video Show, Museum Hotel, Wellington, New Zealand

Basic Drawing: Complex Projects, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA

Portfolios, Saddleback College Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA

Trajectories, University of Southern California MFA exhibition, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Live Fictions, School of Cinema and Television, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

CAA Juried Exhibition, LA Municipal Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, CA

Art for Art Sake, Threadwaxing Space, New York, NY

Ninety-Nine, Miller Durazo, Los Angeles, CA

Media coverage – Feature Stories

2007

CNN, Getty Center Documentary on the making of the exhibition, The J. Paul Getty Museum, LA, CA, Channel 7, ABC News,  Channel 4 NBC News, CNN International News,  KCRW Channel 62 TV,  Edward Goldman’s Art Talk, KCRW Radio in Los Angeles, CA, Channel +, Morning Show in Paris featuring show

Distinctions

Nov 6, 2008

Visions and Voices event, Please Be Seated: Film Screenings at the Getty, A USC
Event at the Getty Museum,

2007

Go Native, Nicole Cohen Solo Juror for Experimental Film Festival, 825 Gallery,
coordinated by Peter Mays, Panel Discussion, Center of Democracy, LA, CA

2000

Artist Space Independent Grant, Privatized, Brooklyn, NY

1999

Southern California Worldwide Grant, SC/W, University of Southern California, Los
Angeles (to curate ten exhibitions worldwide in alternative spaces)

Artist: Berit Zemke

Berit Zemke: EQ (Anja | Christian)

Video (Loop for 2 screens), HD 22:05,  2009

© Berit Zemke

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Website Berit Zemke

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* in Rostock, Germany

lives and works in Berlin, Germany

since 1996

Studies of psychology, Technical University of Berlin, finished with a diploma, then work as an
assistant at the university for four years.
At the same time she began her autodidactic studies of sculpture and film. She visited various
seminars at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee and conducted several internships with artists
and filmmakers to develop her own style and to improve her skills in video art.

2004

MA in Psychology, Technical University Berlin, Germany

since 2008

Work as a professional video artist
Her focus of attention is the perception and sense of the human being in relation to its identity
and its integrity in different cultures and systems.

Berit Zemke is an active member of several artists groups, which develop exhibitions and research projects in/with other cultures (e.g. WL-Project | Berlin Hong Kong and Nettélla Ghabí at Listros Berlin).

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Selection of exhibitions

2009                           

EQ. Installation for two screens
Borderline. Installation for urban screen. Group Exhibition
Checkpoint Charlie + shown at the online Edition of ”Die Zeit”, 21.09. – 9.11.09
Polar Vector. Video Sculpture. Group Exhibition
Arachnophobia. Installation for single screen
20 different places around Germany in 2009 and 2010
Surrogatmarker I. Webjockey Live perfomance with content from the Internet on three screens.  25.04.2009 European Media Art Festival
Trip Tychon. Installation for three screen.
80×100. Video Sculpture

2008

Room 506. Installation for single screen
Cambodian mango. Essay for single screen
Downwind. Experimental documentary
Life 2.0. Experiment with teenager, documentary
Rémi-En-Scence. Experimental movie

Concept: Consciences and Frontiers

Introduction

Our psycho-social existence has been very much attuned to boundaries and differences within and without: Not only do we have the physical boundary of the skin which separates our interior from the exterior, but also have we built virtual frontiers of our consciences within as well as non-virtual barriers without ourselves.

Internal barriers

Inconsistencies of the “voice within” might lead to emotional difficulties, which are known to put our internal unity asunder. The effects range over many shades from discomfort or non-productivity to aggression, which are further reflected to our environment in so contradictory forms like remorse, fear, violence or rectitude and integrity.

In the same way, personality conflicts, whose causes and courses are as well multiple, not only lead to a swanking of humours – from melancholic to sanguine, choleric to phlegmatic as defined by the ancient Hippocratic school – but might express themselves further as frustration and intimidation. This thus can cause a personality complex of the napoleonic order, as viewed by Alfred Adler or of the narcissistic order, as defined by Erich Fromm or Sigmund Freud.

These internal conflicts culminate in confrontations within the faculty that distinguishes whether our actions are right or wrong – the human conscience – and thus to other grave consequences that might build a bridge to external barriers like aggression or segregation issues.

External barriers

Apart from building boundaries between countries, tribes and races, we misuse the internal difficulties and conflicts of our conscience as masks to justify our prejudices and misconceptions. As much as Iuvenalis’ “Mens sana in corpore sano” is of validity, so accordingly is “an unhealthy esprit in an unhealthy body” valid and in a global context “unhealthy conflicts of the conscience result in an unhealthy environment”. This resonates in the immediate environment as frontiers of all kinds: Ideological debates about Muslim women wearing headscarves or not, if Africans rob Germans of their jobs and women, if all Arabs are sympathizers of Al-Qaida, if Poles rob Germans of their cars and jobs, if juvenile delinquent Germans of foreign origin should be deported, if the “black sheep” in Switzerland are responsible for >70% of rapes and other criminal offences, if some human beings are superior to others just because of the colour of their skin?

These are just a few of these external barriers that arise from our deep-rooted inner disruption and prejudices.

Conscience in Arts, Frontiers of Arts

Artists of all times have thematized human conscience and the frontiers it poses, being it allegorical, emblematic or symbolical depictions of a personified Conscientia, or – more prevalent – the depiction of related moral faculties, like Justitia or virtues and vice, as well as metaphorical narrations of situations when conscience decisions have to be made. For example, the “Hercules at the crossroads” who, having to choose between a comfortable and seducing life or a virtuous, yet a life of labours, opts for the “arête” and honour. Such is the case with the numerous confrontations of a life in virtue versus a life in vice established in Christian iconography.

Maybe even more extensive are the art works that where created out of artistic conscience – they do not thematize the human conscience itself but rather show its consequences. Artists have always used arts possibilities/power to document, comment, criticise political and social circumstances. Most famous are Francisco de Goya’s “Disasters of War”, a still staggering comment on the Napoleonic wars on the Spanish peninsula. In the 1920s, artists like George Grosz or Otto Dix chose a veristic approach to the state of their time, suffering from the aftermath of WW I.

Of course, contemporary artists, too, have created striking comments on the circumstances of their world, such as Daniel Richter’s “Tarifa” paintings or Romuald Hazoumé’s “Dream” presented on the last Documenta XII. Both works also touch on the theme of frontiers. Richter depicts, sublimely or even ghostly, boatpeople trying to leave Africa in the hopeful search for a better life in Europe. Hazoumé’s installation of a boat made of plastic canisters points to the fate of refugees, in a more subtle way, but is also a comment to the many slave ships that raided the shores of Africa.

The omnipresent social differences are still a vital topic in contemporary art. Tuca Vieira’s remarkable photography of São Paulo, showing a ghetto and a rich quarter literally wall to wall, is of symbolic character – the dividing force of a simple wall could hardly be more striking. In a similar way, Yishay Garbasz’s photos of “The Fence” portray the reality of the Israelian-Palestinian barricade with its human and economic consequences.

Manifestations of frontiers, like the named walls, provoke arts’ reactions. The graffitis on the left-over of the Berlin wall are still an impressive evidence of Germany’s recent past. In a similar way, yet of more disturbing actuality, Banksy’s wall paintings on the Israeli Wall try a picturesque break through the concrete.

Painting on-site locations, street artists like Jean Michel Basquiat, Blek le Rat or Banksy have also broken one of the most elemental frontiers painters experience: the limitations posed by their material and painting ground. Some artists of the 20^th century had already reacted on this, in abstaining from the traditional frame, the visible frontier between painting and surroundings. In this spirit, Lucio Fontana, for example, literally cut through the canvas’ limitations with his “Concetti Spaziali”.

Aim of exhibition

The group exhibition Consciences and Frontiers is a part of an exhibition tryptich based on the complex topic of the human being and the world as his/her home. This multi-facetted thematic, which was opened with the exposition This world is not my home, Kunsthaus Tacheles Berlin and ranges through Settled Nomads to Consciences and Frontiers, is not intended to provide answers to our worldly circumstances but grant a forum or stage for reflection and debate about important issues that, due to our daily routine and their omnipresence, have sunken into the mediocracy of normality. The aim of this group exposition is to challenge national and international artists to articulate themselves on issues concerning the yawning gap between our conscience and our frontiers as well as the barriers within and without ourselves.

In this light, the chosen artists are invited to produce new works for the exposition based on the concept of the exposition but also planted on their diverse nationalities, cultures and positions. Of great importance is the representation of the numerous media in art, including painting, photography, installation, performance, street-art and video art. The conception of art as a language and the perception that in the multiplicity or diversity of its forms and nature there will be a higher probability of building a bridge of communication between the artists’ positions in their art and the audience.

The spatiotemporal emphasis of this exhibition trilogy as well as the artists’ rotation is meant to obtain different space- and ideology-specific perspectives for the expositions. While a few artists feature throughout the trilogy, new artists are brought on board to pick-up, re-pose, refresh as well as rephrase questions posed in the previous expositions. Furthermore, the interaction between the works and the audience in different contextual spaces and cities is expected to tickle a new dynamic and communication.