Decolonial and feminist perspectives on 68

Talk, Lecture Performance, Presentation, Film Screening, Workshop, Walk

15 September – 6 December 2018

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of 1968, we (alpha nova & galerie futura and District Berlin) have taken the opportunity to engage from feminist and decolonial perspectives with the protest movements in Germany in the 1960s, which also fully redefined the field of art. We are moved by the question of which histories, participants, and voices still remain invisible within the dominant narratives about 1968 and how they can be reactualized for the contemplation and creation of present and future socio-political processes and demands. With a series of events entitled Revolt She Said, we seek to reassess the production of narratives and historiography and to (re)tell the movements of this time from the perspective of their feminist, anti-colonial, diasporic, migrant, Jewish, and Black organizations. Diverse formats open the project up to a broad, inter-generational public and offer possibilities to learn about historical contexts, marginalized knowledge production and current cultures of remembrance. Furthermore, the lecture performance, lecture, film screening, conversation, workshop, and walk, invite all participants to actively take part in creating new narratives of 68.

With: Sharon Adler, Prof. Liz Bachhuber, Madeleine Bernstorff, Prof. Dr. Stefanie Endlich, Dr. Lisa Glauer, Karina Griffith, Dr. Natasha A. Kelly, Martina Kofer, Prof. Azade Köker, Dr. Corina S. Kwami, Shlomit Lehavi, Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Dr. Peggy Piesche, Elianna Renner, Robert Schmidt-Matt, Dr. Gabriele Schor, Valeria Schulte-Fischedick, Kelvin Sholar, Merle Stöver and PD Dr. Anja Zimmermann

PROGRAM

Saturday, 15 September 2018, 7 pm
Uncracking the Archive
Talk with Karina Griffith (Artist, Curator and Filmmaker), Nathalie Mba Bikoro (Artist, Curator) and Dr. Natasha A. Kelly (Curator, Author and Scholar)
Location: District Berlin

Saturday, 22 September 2018, 7 pm
Talking Blues
Lecture Performance with Dr. Natasha A. Kelly (Curator, Author and Scholar), Dr. Corina Shika Kwami (Artist) and Kelvin Sholar (Musician)
Location: District Berlin

Thursday, 18 October 2018, 7 – 10 pm
Sexual Self-determination and Anti-colonial (Liberation)Movements  
Workshop with Dr. Peggy Piesche (Literature and Cultural Studies, Gunda-Werner-Institut)
Location: District Berlin

Wednesday, 24 October 2018, 7 pm
Feminist artistic positions in the mirror of their materialities
Round table discussion with Dr. Gabriele Schor (SAMMLUNG VERBUND, Wien) and Prof. Liz Bachhuber (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)
Moderation: Dr. Lisa Glauer
Location: alpha nova & galerie futura

Feminist art from 1968 can be defined more precisely not only in terms of its thematic discussions, but also in particular through a new appropriation of media and materials. The emergence of a specifically recognizable aesthetic and expression has also been created by a new self-consciousness, to update materials with a female connotation in the production of art, and to use the female body as the primary medium of self-determination. The round table discussion examines how the concrete entanglement of materiality and media is related to the content and interpretations of feminist art production.

Thursday, 1 November 2018, 7 pm
Experiences, Ruptures, Pespectives: Jewish Feminists on Art and Politics since 68
Presentations and intergenerational round table with Sharon Adler (AVIVA-Berlin, Stiftung ZURÜCKGEBEN), Shlomit Lehavi (Artist), Elianna Renner (Artist), Elżbieta Sternlicht (Pianist and lecturer piano at the University of Arts Berlin, Faculty of Music)
Moderation: Merle Stöver (Stiftung ZURÜCKGEBEN)
Location: alpha nova & galerie futura

This series of (artistic) presentations and an intergenerational round table conversation devotes itself to the perspectives and experiences of Jewish feminists, artists, and cultural workers, who were active in 1968 and afterwards—and who met in a climate that was, also in the left, partially characterized by anti-Semitism, or at the very least was anti-Israeli. To this end, an arc will be drawn into the present in order to find out how Jewish artists and intellectuals position themselves today and which experiences were/are made in different time and social contexts.

Registration until 31.10.: info@stiftung-zurueckgeben.de
In cooperation with Stiftung ZURÜCKGEBEN – Promotion of Jewish Women in Art and Scholarship

Saturday, 17 November 2018, 1:30 – 5 pm
Sound Stone Water – Artistic Forms of Redesigning West Berlin After 68 
1:30 pm moderated walk to the sculpture series
2:30 pm conversation in the gallery
With Prof. Azade Köker (Artist), Prof. Dr. Stefanie Endlich (Commentator on politics and current affairs, Honorary professor UdK), Robert Schmidt-Matt (Sculptor)
Moderator: Martina Kofer (Literary Scholar)
Location and meeting point for the walk: alpha nova & galerie futura

A walk with the artist Prof. Azade Köker to the projects Menschenlandschaft and Cuvrybrunnen, created in the 1980s, is intended to commemorate the artistic and local history of the group of sculptures. At Schlesisches Tor, eight artists enlivened the then barren terrain. Both projects contain stories of the political, artistic, and intercultural coexistence that was specific to Kreuzberg, yet today are largely forgotten. A moderated conversation follows with Azade Köker, Prof. Dr. Stefanie Endlich, and Robert Schmidt-Matt – significant participants in the Kreuzberg art scene.

Thursday, 22 November 2018, 7 pm
Revolt She Felt.
Film(s) and conversation with Karina Griffith (Artist, Curator and Filmmaker) and Madeleine Bernstorff (Film Curator, Author, Lecturer)
Location: alpha nova & galerie futura

In her book Ugly Feelings, Sianne Ngai introduces irritation as an affect of restrained rage. This film program explores how profound irritation, stripped of its ambiguity, was an agent for political change in the film works made in and around 1968 and thereafter. The anchor of this program is the film KATHLEEN UND ELDRIDGE CLEAVER IN ALGIER. Here the two activists develop their ideas about resistance at the Black Panther Party office they formed while in exile in Algiers. Filmed by feminist filmmaker Claudia von Alemann in January 1970, the Cleavers speak through clenched teeth about their political fight, linking it to West German policies. Irritation subverts the stereotypes of the “angry black woman” or the “hysterical housewife” to present a more palatable position of prolonged annoyance. Employed in moving image works, the feminist approach of translating anger into irritation is an effective and affective strategy for provoking friction, discourse and an engagement with revolutionary demands.

film program:

DIE KOLLWITZ UND IHRE KINDER
[© HFF, Regie: Christa Mühl, 1971, 10 min]

KATHLEEN UND ELDRIDGE CLEAVER IN ALGIER
[© Alemann Filmproduktion Köln, Regie: Claudia von Alemann,1969, 22 mins]

DIE SCHÖNHEITSVERSCHWÖRUNG
[© DFFB, Regie: Tsitsi Dangarembga, 1994, 14 min]

LANDING
© DFFB/Okpako, Regie: Branwen Okpako, 1995, 10 min]

Thursday, 6 December 2018, 7 pm
1968ff – Art, Feminism, Politics
Book presentation and lecture with PD Dr. Anja Zimmermann (ed. FKW, academic author, ZFG Oldenburg), Valeria Schulte-Fischedick (Art Historian, International Studio Program, Künstlerhaus Bethanien)
Location: alpha nova & galerie futura

Presentation of the latest issue of 1968ff – Art, Feminism, Politics, the magazine for gender research and visual culture. It addresses the history of the publication as a feminist revision and connection to 1968, as well as a concrete example: queer-feminist art criticism before, during, and after 1968, which makes it possible to see that 1968 is not so 68 and post-minimalism is not so post as it initially seems.

Wednesday, 30 January 2019, 8 pm
CTM Vorspiel: Purple Panic: 43
Lecture-Performance mit Pınar Öğrenci
Location: District Berlin

The series Revolt she said is curated by Andrea Caroline Keppler (District Berlin), Dr. Katharina Koch and Dorothea Nold (alpha nova & galerie futura) in conversation with , Karina Griffith (District Studio and Research Grant holder Decolonizing 68) Sharon Adler, Madeleine Bernstorff, Dr. Lisa Glauer, Dr. Natasha A. Kelly, Martina Kofer, Dr. Corina S. Kwami, Dr. Peggy Piesche, Kelvin Sholar, Merle Ströver and PD Dr. Anja Zimmermann.

Team
Communication: Johanna Ekenhorst, curatorial assistance: Luisa Jürgens, graphic design: Stephanie Rau (operative.space), translation: Jesi Khadivi

Revolt she said is a cooperation by alpha nova & galerie futura and District Berlin. With the kind support of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.