Über die Kritik der Zukunft: Eine Abschlussveranstaltung in Zusammenarbeit mit Konstfästen, Västra Götalandsregionen und der schwedischen Literaturzeitschrift 10TAL über die Gegenwart und Zukunft von Kulturkritik. Über die Kritik der Zukunft: Eine Abschlussveranstaltung in Zusammenarbeit mit Konstfästen, Västra Götalandsregionen und der schwedischen Literaturzeitschrift 10TAL über die Gegenwart und Zukunft von Kulturkritik: Auf welche Visionen und Tendenzen hofft die kulturkritische Debatte, für welche Ideale kann und will sie einstehen? Der Autor und Übersetzer Jan Henrik Swahn debattiert mit seiner deutschen Kollegin Isabel Cole (Herausgeberin der Literaturzeitschrift No Man’s Land) über Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede der Kulturdebatte in Schweden und Deutschland – auf der Suche nach sowohl kritischen als auch korrekten Wegmarkierungen und Stolpersteinen. Es diskutieren: Andreas Åberg (Autor), Madeleine Grive (Herausgeberin 10TAL), Fredrik Svensk (Kunstkritiker) und Kim Einarsson (Konsthall C, Stockholm).

Ab 19.30 Uhr Finissage-Party mit “politisch-korrekten” Häppchen & Wein.
Jeder Besucher der Veranstaltung erhält ein Freiexemplar der Projektdokumentation ACTION-AGENT und eine CD mit der Soundinstallation von Olof Dreijer.

Nach der Eröffnung durch die schwedische Kulturrätin Ulrika Holmgaard und Kurator Adnan Yildiz wurde das Spektrum der Kritik mit einem breiten Programm ausgelotet – lukullische, intellektuelle und humorvolle Kost sorgte für eine angeregte und lebendige Atmosphäre im Felleshus.

Die Ausstellungen im Felleshus, Nest und in der Galerie Opdahl Berlin sowie die Soundinstallation von Jens Haaning laufen bis zum 2. November. Noch bis zum 18. September haben Sie die Chance, das one week special screening mit Nilbar Güreş und Nathalie Djurberg zu besuchen!

Herzlich willkommen zu unseren Veranstaltungen in den nächsten Wochen. Alle Termine finden Sie in unserem auf CRITICAL CALENDAR.

Liebe Freunde und Partner,
wir möchten Sie und Euch hiermit herzlich zu unser Ausstellungseröffnung am Sonntag, dem 12. September 2010, um 14 Uhr im Felleshus der Nordischen Botschaften (Rauchstraße 1, Berlin-Tiergarten) einladen.

Exklusiv zur Ausstellungseröffnung lädt die Künstlerin Asako Iwama zu einer „Ontologie des Essens“ ein. Ausgehend von der Ethik der Nahrung, unserer Verantwortung und Verbundenheit mit der Natur hinterfragt Asako Iwama mit ihrem schmackhaften Essen gängige Auffassungen von Ernährung. Genießen Sie die Semiotik unserer kritischen Küche!

Kommen Sie also, solange unsere „kritische Suppe“ warm ist und während Sie diese genießen, vergessen Sie nicht: correct us if we’re critical!

Ihre und Eure Ulrika Holmgaard
& die Kulturabteilung der Schwedischen Botschaft

… and put your car on cruise and lay back cause this is summertime

— Will Smith

Berlin summers never fail to deliver their own magical moments, the kind that make you remember why you’re here, why you chose this place. Perhaps these moments are more pronounced because the memory of Berlin winters (and this previous one in particular) make one soak up all the sun, the heat, the colors, the grass, the night-swimming, the sunrises by the canal, the sunsets in the park, the days by the lake and the impromptu studio barbeques with an urgency that can only exist in places where these things are luxuries, and fleeting ones.

Berlin summers never fall short of art tourists either, and this year is no exception — the city is full with internationals stopping in anywhere from a weekend to three months to enjoy what’s best about it — the perks of being simultaneously an art world hub and the so-called “slacker capital of the world.” There are, however, some visitors who have gather no moss. During the three weeks of programming that New York’s Triple Canopy put together this month in collaboration with Program Gallery and Nine Eglantine Yamamoto-Masson, there was simply no time for lazy summer activities. Triple Canopy facilitated six evenings, most consisting of multiple events such as podium discussions, artist’s performances, dinners, workshops and topics, reflecting their collaborative organizational approach.

On July 22, “Print and Demand” — one of the events in the series — brought together editors and representatives of four publications for a podium discussion on the changing nature of print and online publishing. Participants included the Norway-based XYM ,whose content is solely downloadable in pdf form, Berlin-based bi-annual publication 032c, the Canadian art magazine/journal Fillip and Triple Canopy’ s several associated web-based publications. Given the diverse nature of the participants, formats, readership, and funding models (including “no” budget, public grants, and traditional ad-based financing), the discussion was lively and fortunately not heading towards a print vs. digital polemic (which would have been really boring). The panel members offered a unified response to a question from the audience about missing comment functions or ways that readers could respond to the content of the publications; interestingly, none of the participants encourage this type of anonymous feedback. Panel members agreed that their readership and contributors often overlap – instead of writing comments or letters to the editor, readers with ideas should think about contributing. They also pointed out that they all thought of their respective projects as curating spaces which can affect “community building”– no matter whether these communities coagulate through websites, downloadable pdfs or within a magazine format purchased in art bookstores or newsstands.

One of the ways that curator Adnan Yildiz speaks about his own curatorial practice is in the role of a “blogger.” He recently launched the website for his upcoming project Correct Me If I’m Critical, hosted by the Swedish embassy of Berlin in collaboration with several Berlin spaces and institutions, which will reflect the process of the exhibition with ongoing changes and new posts on related events and issues. Even though the exhibition doesn’t open until September 12, on June 13, “Critical Sunday” – a one-day event at the Nordic Embassies’ Felleshus – represented the project’s launch. This included a solo presentation by Romanian-born artist Daniel Knorr, a lecture by the collective Slavs and Tatars, and discussions on the possible presence of a “Berlin style” (in terms of artist-curator relationships and exhibition-making). The question of definable characteristics of Berlin exhibitions (or a common curatorial “grammar,” as Yildiz calls it) is interesting also in terms of local politics. At the moment, the city of Berlin tries hard to brand itself in a certain way, focusing heavily on its creative potential with the “Be Berlin” campaign. The campaign has been running for about 15 months now, and yet no one is quite sure what “Be Berlin” is supposed to… mean… or exclude? Can you not “Be Berlin”?

But back to exhibition-making. In his talk, “Summertime” (no relation to the hit single as far as I know), which took place on July 28 at Galerie Opdahl, Yildiz spoke about his ideas behind planning an exhibition with “critical” artists, and what that can entail. While the type of artistic criticality he is hinting at certainly has serious undertones — for example in terms of social critique — Yildiz also uses the word fully aware of its alternative meanings (such as a “critical” alcohol level after a party or a “critical” deadline in planning the exhibition). And so Correct Me If I’m Critical, whilst not being ironic about the issues it touches upon, also becomes a play on words that does not take itself too(ooo) seriously and leaves room for alternate interpretations.

An essential aspect of the show will be the collaboration and connection between different institutions and venues in Berlin – something that happens all too seldom in the city. The two main venues of Correct Me If I’m Critical, the Nordic Embassies’ Felleshus / Pan Nordic Building and the café/gallery space NEST, might be seen as two possibilities at opposite ends of the spectrum of exhibition spaces. These two main venues are accompanied by three “attachements,” as Yildiz calls them: Galerie Opdahl, Supportico Lopez, and Program Gallery, which will host three respective solo projects by artists Viron Vert @ Galerie Opdahl, Nilbar Güreş @ Supportico Lopez, and Markus Degerman @ Program Gallery.

With the exhibition largely taking place in the district of Kreuzberg, Yildiz is careful to point out that he will not be “bringing” art to new spaces currently used in other ways. Should we read this as an intentional gesture that stands in contrast to the approach of such events as the current Berlin Biennale, which is largely “re-using” spaces in Kreuzberg previously empty or being used for non-art events? Yildiz does not step into the Fettnäpfchen of making some obvious statement about gentrification (as those living in Kreuzberg have heard so many times) by positioning himself on either side of the sometimes harshly drawn line between old and new local factions. Like many of Kreuzberg’s residents, he is neither a new arrival to the area or an old squatter of a factory building. Nor does he pretend to be.

German-born Anna Milandri is an artist currently based in Berlin, where she recently completed her MA. Her research interests include 19th century landscape garden architecture, early optical devices and anthroposophic cults of the Pacific Northwest.

http://blog.art21.org/2010/08/05/lives-and-works-in-berlin-summertime/

CRITICAL PICNIC/ 29 August 2010
from 2 PM at Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum, Kommandantenstraße/Corner Alte-Jakob-Straße, 10969 Berlin
As part of the summer studio, Asako Iwama will present a critical recipe, and cook for the participants proposing an alternative way of making picnic that is not based on filling the stomach or consuming a lot, and later Jonathan Cejudo’s unplugged music performance will provide inspiration for further discussion.

During August 2010, the conference room of Skulpturen Park_Zentrum / KUNSTrePUBLIK will be used by the artists, Aykan Safoglu, Judith Raum, Markus Li Stensrud und Egemen Demirci as a meeting place for production/discussion, and it will also host some presentations from promising practices – about their work in progress, and ideas for future. The project “correct me if i’m critical” is organised by the Swedish Embassy Berlin and curated by Adnan Yildiz.

PRESENTATITON FOR FUTURE AUDIENCE @ Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum/KUNSTrePUBLIK, conference room, 5th floor, Köpenicker Strasse 36-38, Berlin

EPISODE 1 / 10 AUGUST 2010
16:00 Aykan Safoglu, www.aykansafoglu.wordpress.com
17:30 Judith Raum, www.judithraum.net

EPISODE 2/ 28 AUGUST 2010
16:00 Markus Li Stensrud
17:30 Egemen Demirci

CRITICAL PICNIC/ 29 August 2010
from 2 PM at Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum, Kommandantenstraße/Corner Alte-Jakob-Straße, 10969 Berlin
As part of the summer studio, Asako Iwama will present a critical recipe, and cook for the participants proposing an alternative way of making picnic that is not based on filling the stomach or consuming a lot, and later Jonathan Cejudo’s unplugged music performance will provide inspiration for further discussion.

FELLESHUS der Nordischen Botschaften, Rauchstrasse 1, 10787 Berlin-Tiergarten15:00 – FILM SCREENING “No Call From Devrim” / Oktay Ince (Karahaber Video Action-Workshop)  @ The documentary titled “No call from Devrim” by Oktay Ince from Karahaber Video-Action Workshop, consist of interviews on homophobia held with LGBT, witnesses people and organizations. What gives momentum to the film is Devrim’s faith in the Pink Revolution. The film will be introduced by Aykan Safoglu (Kaos GL).

GALERIE OPDAHL BERLIN, Lindenstrasse 35 18:00 – TALK “Summertime” Berlin based freelance curator Adnan Yildiz will focus on his research process for the exhibition project “correct me if i’m critical”, and discuss how he is taking this summer as an open-ended process for production and discussion as well as ‘work-holiday’ -and what it actually means… Questioning the ways of working as a cultural producer and collaborating with different institutional frameworks, he will talk about the political organization of time, time/crisis management, and how Negri’s “Time for Revolution” changed his perspective about his own creative labor. During the talk, Yildiz will also launch the web site for the project “correct me if i’m critical” with its new content, and talk about the coming exhibition (Fall 2010).

JUNE 13th 2010
ONE DAY EVENT / LAUNCH OF THE EXHIBITION “correct me if i’m critical”

FELLESHUSET Nordische Botschaften Gemeinschaftshaus Rauchstrasse 1 14:00 SOLO PRESENTATION: Daniel Knorr welcomes the audience! 15:00 LECTURE by Slavs and Tatars: 79.89.09 is an intimate visual, oral, and written study of two modern moments – the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Solidarnósc of Poland – and a narrative strategy to read our recent past. The talk shows how these two events serve as bookends to two of the most important geopolitical issues of the last and current century, Islam’s confrontation with modernity and the fall of Communism.

Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum / KUNSTrePUBLIK e.V. Koepenickerstr.36/38 17:00-19:00 DISCUSSION: “Is there a Berlin style?” in collaboration with Program Gallery and Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum. Do the flux of artist-curator community in Berlin, and the transformation of the city into a art-center give us an alternative form of discussion language or context-specific grammar? Is there any specific way of discussing, producing, and working in the context of Berlin? What are the strategies and tactics behind some non-profit initiations such as Program gallery, Skulpturen Park etc. in relation to alternative economies, and autonomous structures; moreover how do these strategies/tactics influence the circulation of the artistic practices in the city? In comparison with 90’s, how does Berlin art scene look like from outside/inside? Can we describe the social, political and cultural aspects of this community

Matthias Einhoff, Philip Horst, Markus Lohmann, Dan Seiple und Harry Sachs (KUNSTrePUBLIK e.V., Berlin), Prof. Marion von Osten (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien), Carson Chan (Program Gallery, Berlin), Kim Einarsson (Konsthall C, Stockholm), Cagla Ilk und Cicek Bacik (Hrsg. Intercity Istanbul Berlin)

BASSO 22:00 FILM SCREENING “The Bus” (Tunç Okan, 1976) 00.00 PERFORMANCE: Annika Eriksson’s Hannah Arendt Band 01.00 AFTER PARTY: Olof Dreijer (The Knife) & Mt. Sims