Precarious Art: Protest & Resistance

The exhibition and event series “Precarious Art: Protest & Resistance” explores the forms of structural and everyday racism in Berlin’s cultural scene. The event deals with issues of intersectionality, i.e. the interconnectedness of several identity markers (e.g. race and gender) which need to be examined at the intersections instead of individually so that we can actually understand social constructs and their effects as a whole.
With few exceptions, especially Black and of Colour female artists and curators are neither decision makers in the Berlin art and cultural scene nor are there a substantial number of self-designed spaces where they can present themselves or feel represented. Black women and women of Colour do not only experience the structures of the art and cultural scene as racist but also as gender discriminating and therefore experience their area of work, “art”, as exclusive and precarious in several aspects.
Based on questions around possibilities of appropriation, infiltration or producing alternative contexts, the aim is to create a dialogue on the different strategies Black women and women of Colour as cultural producers (can) employ to counteract structural racism, everyday racism, sexism and the experience of marginalisation and not being represented in the white art scene. At the same time there will be a discussion looking at how (art) spaces can facilitate genuine inclusion and which practices of solidarity this requires. “Precarious Art: Protest & Resistance” seeks to pinpoint discriminating structures and practices of representation, to break them down and to eventually change them.
Exhibition, film, spoken word, music, lectures and discussions with:
Bahati, Melody LaVerne Bettencourt, Chantel C, Christa Joo Hyun D’Angelo, Dr. Daniele Daude, Karina Griffith, Julia Lemmle, Jeannine Mayani, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, Bona Ngoumou, Gonza Ngoumou, NJ, Dr. Onur Suzan Nobrega, Rena Onat, Iris Rajanayagam, Lerato Shadi, Danielle Marie Shillingford
- Exhibition: THE COMPANY WE KEEP (12. September -16. October 2015).
opening & artist talk: 12 Sept. 2015, 7 p.m.
- Film + discussion: 16 Sept. 2015, 7 p.m.
- Spoken word: 18 Sept. 2015, 7 p.m.
- Symposium: 26 and 27 Sept. 2015
- Music: 27 Sept. 2015, 8 p.m.
Detailed programme: www.alpha-nova-kulturwerkstatt.de/projekte/
“Precarious Art: Protest & Resistance” is curated by: Dr. Stacie CC Graham (Graham ‘N Graham), Katharina Koch & Anne Kohl (alpha nova & galerie futura)
Design and curatorial assistance: Dorothea Nold
The symposium takes place in collaboration with Bildungswerk Berlin of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, financed with funds from Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin.
alpha nova & galerie futura is an exhibition and event space working at the intersection of art, science and political practice from a gender-critical perspective.
alpha nova-kulturwerkstatt & galerie futura
Am Flutgraben 3, 12435 Berlin
www.alpha-nova-kulturwerkstatt.de