FRENETIC HOMELAND
Revisiting the Asia-Pacific at Haus der Kulturen der Welt:
Art, Literature, Music in the framework of the 7.
Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin 2009
08.10.2009 – 10.01.2010
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
Opening Night: Thursday, October 8, 2009, 7 p.m. in Berlin
Is home a stable retreat? This question seems to belong to the now long forgotten past. And although the artists from FRENETIC HOMELAND‘s interdisciplinary program come from such diverse cities as Jakarta, Osaka and Beijing, they share much in common. Their respective societies are changing very rapidly. Frenetic Homeland brings together two exhibitions, literature and music. China’s diversified process of change is the focus of the literary and discursive events. The music program combines Aronas’s punk-jazz, the garage rock of THE 50 KAITENZ, and Goodnight Electric’s synthpop. Both artists, Tadashi Kawamata and Qiu Zhijie explore the diversity of a homeless homeland on the the cutting-edge of velocity and frenetic attitudes. Suketu Mehta from New York will launch both the series of events and the cultural program of the Asia-Pacific Weeks. He has dedicated an extraordinary work to the city of his childhood: “Maximum City – Bombay Lost and Found”, a book about the megalopoli of the future.
The program Writing China introduces new literary voices, bringing together concepts from both an internal and external perspective of China.There Xu Lu and Li Dawei will share the stage with the renowned authors Yang Lian and Li Er. Several scholars and journalists will complement the readings with commentaries and reflections. German-speaking writers are increasingly discovering the People’s Republic as a literary topic, exploring it has produced unexpected results such as the work of Liao Yiwu. With a talk by cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han on “Zeit der Heimat” to create the right mood, the round table that follows will be discussing contemporary images of China as seen from the inside and outside. In The Pace of Change – China’s Modern with Xiaolu Guo and Hans Christoph Buch, a lecture and discussion, hosted by Tilman Spengler, they discuss how the country is gaining power and influence in the world; but at the same time asks what do decision-makers and intellectuals think about the future of their own society?
Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata creates nests of civil disobedience with his “Berlin Tree Houses” that spread from the Haus to the trees in the park, while simultaneously interrogating the architecture of modernity. His “social sculptures” were exhibited at both Documenta 8 and 9, the Venice Biennale and Shanghai. Reflections on the consequences of rampant globalization and on the urgent need for spaces of contemplation and dreams. Born in the final phase of the Cultural Revolution, Qiu Zhijie captures his own “Twilight of the Idols” in sculpture and performance-based installations that show the ambivalent nature of the Nanjing Yangtze Bridge, a symbolic monument of modernization and ideology – and also the scene of thousands of suicides. Qiu Zhije represented China this year at the Venice Biennale.
The Indonesian synthpop band Goodnight Electric continues where the successful sound of Depeche Mode left off, evolving ur-British music into the next big thing in Asia. Aronas plays an explosive combination of live dance, jazz and South Pacific grooves. The 50 KAITENZ come directly from Osaka, Japan, embodying a jovial, if not un-ironic attitude towards the sound of adolescent angst and anger.
Further programs that complete FRENETIC HOMELAND are the Gallery-to-go platform for creatively thinking about the exhibitions, as well as artists’ talks and the conference: Negotiating Difference – Contemporary Chinese Art in the Global Context, focussing on the working conditions for artists and the relationship between the local and global in Chinese contemporary art.
FRENETIC HOMELAND takes place from October 8 to October 16, 2009 at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in the framework of The Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin 2009. All further details to be seen at : www.hkw.de or www.APWberlin.de
The Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin is an initiative of the Mayor of Berlin.
The Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin is supported by the German Lottery Foundation, Berlin.
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien on the basis of a resolution adopted by the Deutscher Bundestag as well as by the Auswärtiges Amt.
Further information:
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
Contact:
Anne Maier
Press Officer
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
+49 (0)30 39787 153
anne.maier@hkw.de
