Let’s assume examining the question of art would no longer make any sense, either from the perspective of culture or art’s adjectival differentiations (as for instance “African art” or “contemporary art”), but rather from the perspective of an old, quirky and disturbing companion, who has been known to deceive tradesmen by substituting a box full of money with an empty one: Jack-in-the-box.

He is likely to be traced back to ancient times, but no one knows for certain. What is for certain, though, is the surprise the whole thing holds: Jack inside the box, a trickster, a toy, a symbol, a piece of merchandise, a marvel, a commodity – a small figure that is always kept inside; a Jack who turns into a stereotype: He becomes a distorted average-personality type, exposed to the play of light and darkness, inner and outer worlds alongside his companions Sambo, Nat, Jezebel, and Mammy, whose characters were based upon a system that denied the personal status of human property in an area where it was forbidden to look. He was not born with the name of Henry but was simply called so, as he was born a slave in the 19th century. He acquired fame under the name of Henry Box Brown in allusion to the wooden box in which he transported himself into freedom. BOXING FOR DISSIDENCE. At a later stage, when the mirror of representation was splintered, Jack-in-the-box was accompanied by the uncanny and terrifying din of his own emptiness––like the maddening echo of the Marabar caves: Ouboom is the sound of colonial nonsense, the tam-tam to which Adela might have listened to. But, there was never ever any Jackie involved. As far as she was concerned, the suppression of the right to look, of the right to the real outlived other figments of the other, so that she was constantly and persistently asked to move on, to be looked at, to represent the enigma and the secret, the new and the ancient ––as though there were nothing in her eyes to see––neither beauty nor horror. She is the living proof that there is clearly no decolonial genealogy of visuality, but only to look, to look, to see…

Art & Jack-In-The-Box
An activation in the framework of the project Künstliche Tatsachen (Artificial Facts) produced by Artefakte//aktivierung (Brigitta Kuster, Regina Sarreiter, Dierk Schmidt)

June 20, 10:30am–10pm  
HfBK Dresden (Academy of Fine Arts), Brühlsche Terrasse 1, Aktsaal

With contributions by Burning Museum, Bettina Uppenkamp, Artefakte//aktivierung (Brigitta Kuster, Regina Sarreiter, Dierk Schmidt), Susanne Leeb, Didier Houénoudé, DRESDENpostkolonial, Lisl Ponger, Anke Scharrahs, Dierk Schmidt, Elsa de Seynes, Tobias Mörike & DJ Enoka Ayemba

Full programme of Performance, Lecture, Conference:

Friday 19 June, Kunsthaus Dresden

7pm, opening of the exhibition BOUNDARY OBJECTS
9pm, Activation prologue BY BURNING MUSEUM: #colonialproblems
Saturday 20 June, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, Brühlsche Terrasse, Aktsaal

BOXING FOR DISSIDENCE
10:30am-1pm, Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (HfBK), Aktsaal, Brühlsche Terrasse 1
Welcoming Words: MATTHIAS FLÜGGE, director HfBK and BETTINA UPPENKAMP, HfBK
Introduction by ARTEFAKTE//AKTIVIERUNG (Brigitta Kuster, Regina Sarreiter, Dierk Schmidt)
SUSANNE LEEB: From Primitivism to Entanglement. Art History Writing under Colonial and Postcolonial Conditions
DIDIER HOUÉNOUDÉ: Response

1-2pm, lunch in the courtyard of HfBK

2-3pm, walkabout guided by the initiative DRESDENPOSTKOLONIAL
HfBK > Sarrasani/Elbe riverbank > Jorge-Gomondai-Square > Kunsthaus Dresden

THE RELATION OF ACTING AND BEING ACTED UPON
3-4pm, exhibition Boundary Objects, Kunsthaus Dresden, Rähnitzgasse 8
LISL PONGER: Participant Observer, a Q & A

THE DURATION WITHIN THE NECESSARILY OBSCURE BLACK BOX
4:15-6pm, Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden, Japanisches Palais, Palaisplatz 11
ANKE SCHARRAHS: Guided tour through the Restoration Workshop of the Dresden Damascus Room
ELSA DE SEYNES: Working in/from the Blind Spot

6-6:30pm, walkabout with TOBIAS MÖRIKE and DRESDENPOSTKOLONIAL
Notes on the History of “Japanisches Palais”: from Chinoiserie to Ethnography; Second Vista from the Elbe Riverbanks

THE CONSTRAINED FORCE WITHIN THE COIL
6:30-7:30pm, Kunsthaus Dresden
DIERK SCHMIDT und TOBIAS MÖRIKE: No Title – From the Remains of Racist Anthropology to the Handover of Human Remains: A Conversation on Artistic Approaches, Exchanging Glances with the Painters Hans Looschen and Carl Gustav Carus

8pm, barbecue in the courtyard of Kunsthaus Dresden
DJ ENOKA AYEMBA: All Time Pan-African Favorite Music Soundscapes

Find more information on the programme here kunsthausdresden.de

ART & JACK-IN-THE-BOX is a production by Artefakte//aktivierung (Brigitta Kuster, Regina Sarreiter, Dierk Schmidt). It concludes a series of two? Activations, following BREAK THIS UNBEARABLE SILENCE! RESTITUTION – REPATRIATION & HUMAN REMAINS (27/28 September 2014 in Cape Town/South Africa, featuring Artefakte//aktivierung in cooperation with the artist-group Burning Museum from Cape Town and Khoesmology/Memory Biwa from Cape Town), and DIS / MISSING THE LINKS! VALUE ADJUSTMENTS, CULTURAL HERITAGE & ABSENT OBJECTS (6/7 October 2014, Porto-Novo/Benin, featuring Artefakte//aktivierung in cooperation with the École du Patrimoine Africain/EPA, Porto-Novo and Didier Houénoudé, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou) ART & JACK-IN-THE-BOX takes place in cooperation with the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.

The project is supported by the TURN Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa).

Kunsthaus Dresden, Artistic Director: Christiane Mennicke-Schwarz;
Project Coordination: Bettina Lehmann, Tobias Mörike

artificialfacts.de