6 October 2016
Uncertain States. Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency
Exhibition and Special Events Programme
Opening Weekend with Volker Koepp, Michael Krüger, Norman Manea, Jeanine Meerapfel, Jochen Oltmer, Ingo Schulze, Serhij Zhadan, et al.
14–16 October 2016, discussions, lectures, music
Press Event: Thursday, 13 October 2016, 11 am
On Friday, 14 October, Akademie President Jeanine Meerapfel will open the exhibition Uncertain States. Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency. Uncertain States turns the Akademie der Künste’s artistic focus on current political, societal and individual upheavals and uncertainties. It also commences the three-month special events programme accompanying the exhibition.
In his lecture at the opening, “Exil und Kreativität”, Romanian author Norman Manea addresses the ambivalence of existential experiences of flight. In 1986 he left Romania for political reasons; today he lives and works in New York. The percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, born in 1978 in Isfahan (Iran), came to Germany at age 22. He’ll play the tombak (goblet drum) at the opening events.
On Saturday, 15 October, the Ukrainian writer and musician Serhij Zhadan, in conversation with Ingo Schulze, will introduce his new book Warum ich nicht im Netz bin, in which he assembles “poetry and prose from the war”. Afterwards, he will perform together with the eight member Ska Punk Band Sobaky v Kosmosi from Kharkiv as a singer and songwriter.
On Sunday, 16 October, the lecture series DISKURSE will begin. Twelve well-known representatives from migration research, political science, sociology, philosophy and visual arts studies will dedicate themselves to central questions affecting the present. Migration researcher Jochen Oltmer, from the Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück, will open the sessions with a talk on “Migration und Flucht: Die Vergangenheit der Gegenwart”.
On 16 October, there will also be an artists’ talk with Norman Manea, the filmmaker Volker Koepp and the author Michael Krüger about Manea’s essay collection Wir sind alle im Exil and Koepp’s film Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz, in which the filmmaker accompanies émigrés and their children on their return to Chernivtsi, their native city.
In the exhibition past experiences of flight and exile between 1933 and 1945 provide a framework for analysing and coming to terms with current states of emergency. Select objects and documents from the Akademie der Künste archives – by Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Valeska Gert, Lea Grundig, Heinrich Mann, Bruno Taut, Kurt Tucholsky and others – correspond with contemporary artworks by Francis Alÿs, Ayşe Erkmen, William Forsythe, Mona Hatoum, Isaac Julien, Sigalit Landau, Nasan Tur, Micha Ullman, et al.
Opening Programme
Friday, 14 Oct., 7 pm
Opening
With Jeanine Meerapfel and Johannes Odenthal
Lecture: Norman Manea, “Exil und Kreativität”
Music: Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, Tombak
Saturday, 15 Oct., 5 pm
Serhij Zhadan, Warum ich nicht im Netz bin
Book premiere and discussion with Serhij Zhadan and Ingo Schulze
Saturday, 15 Oct., 9 pm
Zhadan i Sobaky v Kosmosi
Concert: Ska Punk from Ukraine
Sunday, 16 Oct., 12 noon
DISKURSE. Migration und Flucht: Die Vergangenheit der Gegenwart
Lecture: Jochen Oltmer
Sunday, 16 Oct., 5 pm
Wir sind alle im Exil
Artists’ Talk with Norman Manea and Volker Koepp. Moderation: Michael Krüger. Film clips: Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz (Volker Koepp, D 2004)
Events in German
The complete programme online: www.adk.de/uncertain-states
Press material: www.adk.de/de/presse/pressematerial.htm
Uncertain States. Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency
Exhibition and Special Events Programme
15 October 2016 – 15 January 2017
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin, Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 30 200 57-2000
A project of the Akademie der Künste
Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation)
With the kind support of the Society of Friends of the Akademie der Künste. In cooperation with: the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (DISKURSE) as well as Affective Societies, FU Berlin; FLAX Foreign Local Artistic Xchange; Goethe-Institut Damaskus I Im Exil; Polis180