Give Us The Future.
1 March–20 April 2014
Kajsa Dahlberg
n.b.k. Showroom
4 March–17 April 2014
Opening: Friday 28 February, 7pm
Giving Contours To Shadows
28 February
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)
Chausseestraße 128 / 129
10115 Berlin
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday noon–6 pm,
Thursday noon–8 pm
Give Us The Future.
Artists: Carsten Fock, Niklas Goldbach, Elín Hansdóttir, Bettina Hutschek, Sylbee Kim, Sara Lehn, Achim Lengerer, Pia Linz, Adrian Lohmüller, Marina Naprushkina, Mario Pfeifer, Anatoly Shuravlev, Sabina Maria van der Linden, Ming Wong, Amir Yatziv
With the exhibition Give Us The Future., Neuer Berliner Kunstverein takes on the task to showcase the scholars of the Berlin Senate scholarship of Fine Arts. The exhibition marks the launch of some innovations, as there will be, in comparison to previous shows, new emphases, both thematic and curatorial. It will be a presentation of fifteen outstanding positions of the contemporary art scene in Berlin. The international artists, who are living and working in Berlin, in various ways deal with ideas of the present and the future. The title of a punk song by the British band One Way System from 1982 has become the motto for the exhibition Give Us The Future. At the time the song was meant to be a furious attack against the conservative Thatcher government; however, today, the eponymous exhibition takes a specific look at the present. In videos, photographs, paintings, sculptures and installations, the artists take up social issues and reflect failed utopias as well as approaches of a critical understanding of current and past life plans. They shine a light on the recent developments of Berlin as a center and a trendsetter of the arts and a production site. Accompanying the exhibition, the public program invites to panel discussions, talks on art practice and to theme-based performances.
Curated by Frank Wagner
Publication
Within the n.b.k. book series “Berlin,” a publication will be published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, with a foreword by Marius Babias and André Schmitz, as well as essays by Kolja Reichert, Frank Wagner and Silke Wittig.
Program
Saturday, March 1, 2–5pm
Proben zu Peter Weiss (Rehearsing Peter Weiss)
Public reading rehearsal and performance with Achim Lengerer (artist, Berlin)
Thursday, March 13, 6pm
An Economy of Narcissistic Reward
Performance with Sabina Maria van der Linden (artist, Berlin) with Gabriel Walsh (actor, Berlin)
Artist talk: “Give Us The Future”
Frank Wagner (curator, Berlin) in conversation with Niklas Goldbach (artist, Berlin), Marina Naprushkina (artist, Berlin) and Ming Wong (artist, Berlin)
Émissions de l’Art Visionnaire. Eine Ansage an den Rundfunk. (An Announcement To The Radio)
Performance with Sara Lehn (artist, Berlin) and Remote Control (artists’ collective, Berlin)
Thursday, April 3, 7pm
Zur Lage der Bildenden Kunst in Berlin (On the situation of the fine arts in Berlin)
Panel discussion with Axel Haubrok (collector, Berlin), Heike Catherina Mertens (Director of Arts & Culture, Ernst Schering Foundation, Berlin), Dr. Ingrid Wagner (Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs, Berlin) and Corinne Wasmuht (artist, Berlin), moderated by Marius Babias (Director n.b.k.)
Kajsa Dahlberg
n.b.k. Showroom
Kajsa Dahlberg (born 1973 in Gothenburg, lives and works in Berlin), in her art practice, reflects the media of video, text and sound as well as their history of reception in view of the construction and communication of narrative structures in the context of political representation, history and identity. For her solo exhibition at the n.b.k. Showroom, Dahlberg produced a new cinematic piece that deals with the issue of work and focuses on the phenomenon of time as a central aspect of negotiation in the confrontation of the needs of workers and employers. The examination of time is also reflected on a formal level—referring to video as a time-based medium—and interrelated to the time experienced by the viewer.
Curated by Kathrin Becker
February 28
Giving Contours To Shadows
Project launch and Satellite Project No. 1 at the 5th Marrakech Biennale
In collaboration with the exhibition project If You’re So Smart, Why Ain’t You Rich?
École Supérieure des Arts Visuels, Marrakech
www.givingcontours.net
Giving Contours to Shadows takes its cue from the Glissantian concept that history, a ‘functional fantasy of the West,’ cannot be left in the hands of historians only. In that sense, the project looks at ways by which artists, curators and thinkers relate to their own epoch, to times past and to the drawing of prospective trajectories, thus weaving alternatives to established narratives—from embodiment practices to possibilities of pre-writing of history. Unfolding into a group exhibition at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and SAVVY Contemporary and a performance program at Maxim Gorki Theatre and Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, a round table series in Nairobi and Berlin, a series of satellite projects in Marrakech, Dakar, Lagos and Johannesburg, Giving Contours to Shadows creates space for diverse epistemologies, casting light on discourses that transcend the Western perceptions of history, and proposing contemporary narratives that brave the colonial/post-colonial discourse.
Giving Contours to Shadows is a project by SAVVY Contemporary and Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, funded by the TURN Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, supported by Ernst Schering Foundation.
Curator: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung; Co-curator: Elena Agudio; Roundtable Series Co-curator; Storm Janse van Rensburg; Curatorial Assistant: Maria Gracia Guimarães; Project Coordinator: Susanne Husse
