Auf Wiedersehen Berlin!
August 25th – August 26th, 2009
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14a
10249 Berlin DE
phone: 030 28 04 79 73
magdalena [at] e-flux.com
After three years in Berlin, we feel that the time has come to close shop and let other initiatives fill the space that has been created by all of us throughout this time. For our final closing event, we are turning the building over to our public in Berlin for a special two-day program of presentations, screenings, shows, parties, lectures, performances, drawing classes and much more; all starting this Tuesday, August 25th at 4PM and finally ending Wednesday, August 26th whenever the last person leaves the building.
This final program will include a presentation of A Brief History of Curating, a new book by Hans Ulrich Obrist, who will engage in a late night public conversation with Berlin-based curator and art historian Elena Filipovic. Things will end with the second Berlin concert of La Stampa, and with the very last of our basement bar parties.
Program:
TUESDAY AUGUST 25TH
6 – 12 PM Building Sounds (radio tramnsmission)
Angel Nevarez / Valerie Tevere
icecast.v2v.cc:8000/neurotransmitter.m3u
6 – 12 PM a selection of very fine Zombie Movies
“for those who will stay in Berlin after the Building, something that may help them to deal with the empty site: to screen some zoombie movies”
Movies chosen by Chus Martínez.
6 – 8 PM Happier hour!
Free drinks at the basement bar to warm things up
6 – 8 pm Screening
“The World Question Center TV” recording by James Lee Byars (1969).
Selected by Chus Martínez
7 – 8 pm Pedagogy as Potentiality in Reverse. 12 gestures and a short study.
Drawing class by Alix Rule with Cecile Evans, David Levine Armen Avanessian, Gideon Lewis-Kraus
7:30 – 8 pm “Untitled”
A video screening by “No Credit”
8 – 9 pm From Nucleus to the Fireworks (UN organization chart.)
A lecture by Branka Cvjeticanin, for better understanding the scale, scope and purpose of the particular segment of the UN organization involved in the processes of the urbanization in so called post-war cities.
9 – 9:30 pm Mini Israel (Screening)
“Mini Israel” is a faux feature-film trailer drawing on the aesthetic formal structures of Nouvelle Vague trailers from the late 1960′s –Yvette Mattern.
9 – 12 pm Revisiting (informal screening at the Basement Bar)
Video program selected by Daniela Comani and Magdalena Magiera, comprising 8 works made by Berlin-based artists on the years immediately following the fall of the Berlin wall (1990 – 1996).
Works by:
Antje Dorn / Christoph Keller / Martin Pfahler / Florian Zeyfang / Daniela Comani / Franz John.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 26TH
4 – 12 PM WUNP / NEUROTRANSMITTER
Radio transmission of closing activities. (Angel Nevarez / Valerie Tevere)
4 – 12 PM a selection of very fine Zombie Movies
“for those who will stay in Berlin after the Building, something that may help them to deal with the empty site: to screen some zoombie movies”
Movies selection by Chus Martínez
4 – 5 PM A Trail of Images (Workshop)
5 – 7 PM A Trail of Images (City walk, 10 people max.)
!Mediengruppe Bitnik
After a short introduction to Sousveillance and CCTV film making, we will set out on a walk through Berlin. Equipped with CCTV video signal receivers we will let the incoming surveillance camera signals lead us through the city. The CCTV video signal receivers will catch surveillance camera signals in public and private spaces and make them visible: surveillance becomes sousveillance. By making images visible which normally remain hidden, we gain access to the “surveillance from above” enabling us to use these images for a personal narrative of the city. Workshop with construction manual for later DIY!
6 – 7 pm Reterritorialization of Transit Space – A Short Guide
to Project Art
A lecture by Christopher Faulhaber
7 – 8 pm Instructions for a Drawing Class
Instructions printed as posters are offered as an experimental form of art school syllabus sent by post to the participants. The ‘course’ is six weeks long and will begin on-site at The Building. – Chloe Briggs
7 – 8 pm Freedom Festival
A video essay about biennials by GRID (a collaboration between Paolo Caffoni and Jose Roberto Shwafaty)
8 – 9 pm Incompleteness of the narrative (screening)
A video program put together by Aykan Safoğlu
9 – 10 pm “Toppled”
A lecture by Florian Göttke. “Toppled” is an archive, a large collection of images of the statues of Saddam Hussein collected from the Internet. Through ordering and closely examining these images several storylines emerge. Göttke presents these images and their stories in a slideshow lecture which explores the conceptual, magical, and political links between the person (Saddam) and his representation.
10 – 11 pm What can we achieve together? (screening and circle sit)
The rare footage of Buckminster Fuller at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco surrounded by hippies in the late 60s captures time-capsulated moment. The curious generation of free love, sex and drug exploration, questions Fuller on his perceptions of the future and his utopian visions of how to make the planet earth a better place. In thirty minutes Fuller and the hippies pose 58 questions of our contribution to the existence of human life on the planet. In order to answer the question of ‘what can we do?’ this exercise will attempt to create a circle sit formation. — Sepake Angiama
11 – 12 pm A Brief History of Curating
A public conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Elena Filipovic about Walter Hopps and the eleven ground-breaking curators gathered together in Obrist’s most recent book, A Brief History of Curating (JRP|Ringier)
Special thanks to Bettina Korek.
12:00 pm La Stampa (concert)
La Stampa is a five piece band from Berlin and Hamburg formed in 2007: they’ve got tunes, they’ve got rhythm, they’ve got rhymes about feelings and facts. Helplessly happy, unashamedly moody and mouthy, they are Jörg Heiser (voc/git), Thomas Hug (piano), Reznicek (synths), Jan Verwoert (voc/bass), and Jons Vukorep (voc/drums).
1:00 am The final Geschmeckt!!!
The last of our glorious basement parties: DJs, alcohol, dancing, etc….
Other work and contributions that will be at the building:
Federica Bueti — Less/express (publication)
Vanessa Lopez & Israel Cordero – “Le mystère des temps composes” 2009. Offset print on paper. Take-away paper stack.
Willi Brisco – 705 A7865. Vancouver Public Library. August 17 2008 (photo)
Dana Wajda – Photocopied image
***
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14A was originally rented by e-flux in 2006 to house unitednationsplaza project in the wake of the cancellation of Manifesta 6. Following unitednationsplaza, we turned our building into The Building, where we presented numerous screenings and discussions as part of a year long installation of the e-flux video rental project, maintained a public reading room of several thousand books on contemporary art contributed by more than 500 art institutions and individuals from all parts of the world, and commissioned a year long lecture series by Berlin-based critic Jan Verwoert. The Building hosted many other events such as seminars, magazine and book launches, as well as memorable drunken dance nights at our basement bar.
We wish to deeply thank all the people who contributed their ideas and time to The Building.
We will miss you!
Julieta Aranda, Anton Vidokle & Magdalena Magiera
The Building
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14a
10249 Berlin DE
phone: 030 28 04 79 73
magdalena@e-flux.com
