Wu Tsang: There is no nonviolent way to look at somebody / Walking Through Walls

Following a year-long residency at the Gropius Bau, Wu Tsang’s solo exhibition There is no nonviolent way to look at somebody presents a survey of her unique filmmaking practice and is the German premiere of her new film installation, One emerging from a point of view (2019). Fusing the registers of fiction and documentary, the artist deploys magical realism as a strategy to reimagine racialised, gendered representations beyond the visible frame and to encompass the multiple, shifting perspectives through which we experience the social realm. In the exhibition, films are shown in dialogue with the artist’s sculptural practice, working with the interaction of glass, light and text, and including a new stained glass commission conceived for the Gropius Bau. 

Curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Director, with Clare Molloy, Assistant Curator
Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund

Walking Through Walls takes the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall as a point of departure for capturing the emotional, psychological, and physical impact of tangible and metaphorical structures of division. Bringing together 28 artists from 21 countries across the globe, it provides a current panorama of a diverse range of artistic practices that evoke the polarizing realities of separation and exclusion. The exhibition is conceived as a comprehensive, non-linear encounter, constructed around three interwoven strands of inquiry: the architectural nature of walls, the impact they have on those who live with them, and the struggle to overcome them. The Gropius Bau’s historically charged location provides a further point of reference with many symbolic sites located in direct vicinity of the gallery spaces. Several artworks were specifically commissioned for the exhibition, and some were reconceived as site-specific installations adapted to the architecture of the building. Through works that create a range of visual, spatial and immersive experiences, the exhibition is liberated from its German specificity, making it a nuanced response to the national, economic, gender and racial injustices that persist across the politically charged landscape of our world.  

With works by Marina Abramović and Ulay, José Bechara, Sibylle Bergemann, Tagreed Darghouth, Jose Dávila, Willie Doherty, Smadar Dreyfus, Melvin Edwards, Dara Friedman, Dora García, Zahrah Al Ghamdi, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Michael Kvium, Gustav Metzger, Reem Al Nasser, Christian Odzuck, Emeka Ogboh, Anri Sala, Fred Sandback, Aki Sasamoto, Regina Silveira, Siska, Javier Téllez, Samson Young, Yuan Yuan and Héctor Zamora

Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, Art Reoriented, Associate Curators Gropius Bau
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

For further information and events of the public programme please visit our website: www.gropiusbau.de
Press contact: Annie-Claire Geisinger, presse@gropiusbau.de

Gropius Bau is part of Berliner Festspiele.
The Berliner Festspiele are funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.