Repeating: Filmic Activism in Times of War and Revolution
Workshop at the Archive of the GDR-Opposition
29 Nov 2024, 4 – 7 pm.
With: Philipp Goll, Olexii Kuchansky, Elske Rosenfeld
Please register with elskerosenfeld@gmail.com before 22 Nov
The workshop is limited to 15 participants and will be held in English. A cooperation with Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft e.V.

Address: Archiv der DDR-Opposition
Ruschestraße 103, Haus 17 (ehemalige Stasizentrale)
10365 Berlin-Lichtenberg

Interrupting: Troubling Archives
Talks and Screening  at Projektraum des Flutgraben e.V. 
15 Dec 2024 5 pm, Screening 7 pm
With: Christine Brecht, The Watch (Jo Zahn ), Elske Rosenfeld und the film ‘A Year in the Life of the Country’ by Tomasz Wolski
Talks in German, film Polish with English subtitles

Address: Flutgraben e.V.
Am Flutgraben 3
12435 Berlin Alt-Treptow

ARCHIVE OF GESTURES (www.archiveofgestures.net) is a research platform and archive by Elske Rosenfeld with district*school without center about the embodiment of revolt and revolution. It finds its starting point in the revolution of 1989/90 in the GDR and Eastern Europe. The events accompany the launch of two new “gestures:” the online collages Repeating and Interrupting.

The Workshop Repeating: Filmic Activism in Times of War and Revolution looks at the estate of the late documentarist of the East German Round Table, Klaus Freymuth, which is now held by the Archive of the GDR Opposition. After a short tour of the Archive, Elske Rosenfeld will present Freymuth’s filmic-activist practice through her visual research for the gesture “Repeating.” The media researcher Philipp Goll will present the work of the Polish experimental filmmaker Piotr Bikont who documented the strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard. His films give testimony not only to the tensions between Solidarność leaders and grassroots activists from the dissident movement in socialist Poland, but also offer a glimpse into the rituals around the so called Round Table talks. The Ukrainian media researcher and curator Olexii Kuchansky will present the travelling group exhibition ‘To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2022/3)’ which she curated together with filmmaker and writer Oleksiy Radynskyi at Coalmine–Raum Für Fotografie (Winterthur, Switzerland, 2022) and BAK–basis voor actuele kunst (Utrecht, the Netherlands, 2023). We would like to invite participants into a discussion about the artistic and activist uses of images during and after wars, revolts and revolutions. Participants who work with image archives themselves are especially welcome.
(Additional info: After the event is it possible to attend the performance „Seid doch laut!“ about the Women for Peace movement in the late GDR, which will be shown in Haus 22, around the corner. https://seiddochlaut.de/)

The talk and screening Interrupting: Troubling Archives picks up on the themes of the workshop. The venue, Flutgraben e.V. is itself a historical site: having been part of the Berlin Wall, it is also the custodian of one of the last remaining border watchtowers in Berlin. An introduction to the story of this place by historian Christine Brecht kicks off the event, followed by Jo Zahn’s presentation of ‘The Watch’ one of several artistic reuses of the tower since it was ‘saved’ by the punk and anarchist Kalle Winkler. Research for the Archive of Gestures and the gesture ‘Interrupting’ also began in the former border tower in 2011 – we are delighted to be returning to this location with a presentation of the project and the new online collage. Afterwards, we will show the film ‘A Year in the Life of a Country’ by Tomasz Wolski – a found-footage portrait of the year in which martial law was imposed in Poland to suppress the Solidarność movement. (https://kijorafilm.com/year-in-the-life-of-a-country/) Elske Rosenfeld’s video ‘To Repeat: Versuche/Framed’ will be on view from 4.30 pm throughout the evening.