weißensee kunsthochschule berlin / HAU

The “Spatial Strategies” course at the Weißensee School of Art is concerned with artistic practice in urban space. Prof. Nasan Tur and Dr. Marianna Liosi have used the socio-political experiences under difficult circumstances, such as the pandemic, to develop a seminar series that considers digital space as part of the public sphere. In light of the capitalist structures of the internet, they ask whether and how artistic practices can overcome economic, gender and infrastructural barriers. What role does the audience play in this? What does artistic work in digital space mean if we assume that the public needs individual and collective care?

The individual or collective works presented at HAU4 take up a wide range of current questions. They are about personal and communal vulnerability as a trigger for social change, the potential and limits of digital space in addressing individual and societal memory and loss, the deconstruction of care within hierarchical structures, and the democratic accessibility and ecological sustainability of digital infrastructures. The proposed projects aim to reflect on the political transformations we can initiate in the public sphere in order to contribute to its permanent change.

Within the framework of the five-month cooperation, project ideas have emerged that the students present on the research platform HAU4. They show performances, text, video and sound material as well as social media interventions.

Ilghar Dadgostari
“Virtual Tango”

Our body as a storyteller reveals social structures in which we perceive our flesh in everyday life. Yet our relationship to the virtual world tends to be passive towards the intimacy that our body desires.

We are objectified by technologies and violated by the media and their means. The pandemic and an increasing number of virtual encounters can be a trigger to social provocations that change the way we perceive and read our bodies and the others’. These modern notions are tackled by the performance project “Virtual Tango”.

Fernanda Aloi, Jorge Baldeon, Sujatro Ghosh, Maricarmen Gutierrez, Tamara Margvelashvili, Cau Silva, Bo Xu
“Songs of Transitions”

This emptiness and songs are ours to share. There are no smaller griefs, minor or larger pains. The grief of losing a loved one is not to be measured in time or space. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the world has suffered the most dramatic circumstances, yet not been able to seek comfort in decent goodbyes. The numbers and news , like salt to our scars  leave echoing memories in our heads. By bringing shared rituals and emotions, we pray through moments of hardship and celebrate life.

Performers
Fernanda Aloi
Jorge Baldeon
Sujatro Ghosh
Maricarmen Gutierrez
Tamara Margvelashvili
Cau Silva
Bo Xu
 

Karina Pino, Ricardo Sarmiento
“Mund Auf”

“Mund Auf” (“Open your mouth”) is a social art project that investigates the panorama of migrant sex workers in Berlin over the last two years. It explores the legal framework in which they live and work, often also online. It shows the different experiences that result from the anonymity and vulnerability that a job like this implies. Part of the material compiled in direct exchange with sex workers, clients and organisations will be shown.

Margarete Kiss and Leon Lechner
“(HOW TO) be water: practical tips from a prickly doomer”

“(HOW TO) be water – practical tips of a prickly Doomer” takes you on a journey through strategies of self-defence. Against the backdrop of increasing surveillance in public and online, the question of future forms of protest arises. How can we protect our own and each other's personal rights? How can we learn from one other? We will take look at activists, smart birds, fashion designers, make-up artists and plants. Let's fight this system and get inspired.

Hoayun Chung
“Hospital”

Hospitals are sites where “health” is defined and the concept of “unhealth(iness)” is created. What is considered “unhealthy” is hidden behind the walls of the hospital. The online performance “Hospital” creates a metaphorical space in which the viewer in front of the screen also becomes the body of the patient. It shows a society that has endlessly disinfected, taken apart, recorded and transformed the body under the illusion of complete health.
 

Jongbin Park, Jae-Pyung Park
“Lost Ghosts”

Where does what we lost disappear to?

After these things disappear from the world, maybe only the pictures of an infinite absence and invisible memories remain.
Are they ghosts?
They will ask: How can you recognize and be convinced of (y)our existence at this moment?
Here is an empty stage in a box where we can encounter what has been lost.

Marina Resende Santos, Graham Livingston
“tendergarden.io”

The carbon-offset economy relates commercial production to the real harm caused to the environment by altering its biochemical makeup. “tendergarden.io” examines this connection between data, currency, carbon, and energy. A website maintains a log of its own energy usage and shows how it is converted into costs, emissions, and biomass in terms of carbon sequestration. Visitors to the website can view real-time image data of a garden and its current carbon dioxide binding.

Sujatro Ghosh
“The Cow Mask Project”

“The Cow Mask Project” is a fictional archive about women wearing cow masks as a non-verbal form of protest against the violence and crimes committed against them in contemporary India. The project visually illustrates the absurd dichotomy in the country today.
India's recent ‘Hijab ban’ violates religious freedoms. This collaboration with HAU is an effort to democratize the mask among the users of social media platforms and address the issue of Islamophobic uprisings in the country.