SoS (Soft Solidarity) Assembly

With Bini Adamczak (writer & artist), Ana Alenso (artist), Marwa Arsanios (artist & filmmaker), Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock (curator, Savvy Contemporary), BASTA! (Erwerbsloseninitiative Berlin), bi’bak (project space), Eli Cortiñas (artist), Café Cralle (women’s bar collective), Alejandro Camacho Díaz (queer video journalist), Extinction Rebellion (environmental movement), FAU (Free Workers‘ Union Berlin), Feministische Gesundheitsrecherchegruppe (artist collective), Lamin Fofana (artist & musician), Jérémy Geeraert (social scientist & activist/ Medibüro Berlin), Saraya Gomis (anti-discrimination expert & board member of EOTO e. V.), Ayşe Güleç (writer & activist), Natascha Sadr Haghighian (artist), Hände weg vom Wedding (activist urban district initiative), House of Tupamaras (performance collective), Yassin al Haj Saleh (writer), Julian Irlinger (artist), Stine Marie Jacobsen (artist), Katja Kajikhina (health scientist & activist), Gerhild Komander (art historian), Lisette Lagnado & María Berríos (curators of  11th Berlin Biennale), Klaus Lederer (Senator for Culture and Europe in Berlin), Ewa Majewska (philosopher), María do Mar Castro Varela (political scientist), MINCO (musician & DJ), Ute Müller-Tischler (Head of Art & Culture Berlin Mitte), Marina Naprushkina (artist), Arlette-Louise Ndakoze (curator), Seebrücke (civic movement), DIE VIELEN (activist not-for-profit association), VOCES de Guatemala (migrants‘ collective Berlin), Christopher Weickenmeier (curator), YAAR (Refugee Assistance for people from Afghanistan), a.o.

Curated by Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu, Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Kathrin Pohlmann

SoS (Soft Solidarity) Assembly is a gathering of local artists and activists groups based on a necessity to exchange ideas, visions and the values of solidarity. From November 12 to 14, 2020, within the framework of SoS (Soft Solidarity), a social and discursive platform is to be created in the context of the two-year exhibition program of the eponymous Galerie Wedding - Space for Contemporary Art (2019–20). 

The SoS (Soft Solidarity) Assembly serves as an opportunity to consider novel aspects to cultural and creative labour, interconnectedness, ecology and bottom-up approaches to civic and political involvement in order to frame a shared future.

November 12, 2020
Embracing Weaknesses/Degrowth focuses on the toxic capitalocene life and its production forms. As the pandemic led to socio-economic collapses all over Berlin and internationally, to embrace the weaknesses in our neighbourhood and own life for degrowth requires a fundamental change in awareness, values and habits.

November 13, 2020
New Alliances/New Solidarities highlights the need for different forms of alliance among  trans-disciplinary and—cultural networks, communities, NGOs. Which structural insights from the Wedding district’s microcosm are applicable to the European society’s macrocosm and the other way around? 

November 14, 2020
Intimacy / Body / Spaces raises new questions about the integrity and protection of bodies. What consequences can be drawn from the global pandemic-related "social / physical distancing"? Which spaces are now unsafe and which ones can be rendered safer physically, economically, politically or institutionally? 

The hosting institution: Galerie Wedding is located in the Wedding City Hall, has a dynamic curatorial profile and is artistically directed by Solvej Helweg Ovesen. The space and program is mainly known for its in-depth, context-specific solo projects with local artists from all over the world. Challengingly, the spaces of the municipal gallery have been temporarily converted to a social welfare office as part of the pandemic plan of the city hall. In 2020 a double use and juggle of the space has been made; mornings social department, afternoon exhibition space. This is however not sustainable, but a consequence of the membrane position of the exhibition space between local politics and the social collapse happening on the street. 

Historically, the surroundings of Galerie Wedding were the scene of the "Red Wedding" labor movement at the beginning of the 20th century, which was a stronghold of the KPD until the National Socialists seized power. Against the background of this history of the neighborhood, we want to meet with artists, thinkers and local grassroots organizations and initiatives to renegotiate the meaning of solidarity for us. Because we are aware we will need each other to create our futures. 

All contributions are streamed freely accessible via our website, via Berlin Art Link, and on YouTube.

The schedule is subject to potential revisions in accordance with prevailing pandemic regulations. Any updates are published continuously on our website and social media. 

Press contact
Wayra Schübel
T +49 17624854560 / sos@wayraschuebel.com

Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Fonds für Spartenoffene Förderung Berlin