Shadowily in different tongues

The exhibition Shadowily in different tongues brings together artists and local communities that resist the social and political processes that are driving planet Earth and its human and non-human inhabitants to the verge of exhaustion. These voices from various regions – from Mexico or Greenland among others – stand up against the exploitation of nature and people – like destructive mining activity, the poisoning and waste of water, the monopolization and extraction of knowledge: acts that change and destroy habitats. They defend a plurality of languages and forms of life.

The participating artists and communities develop counter-worlds that draw on deep time and localized memories, which still can be inhabited. They create spaces of togetherness that engender action, and they make perceivable how our bodies are entangled with every-body that surrounds us: through movement, language, the telling of stories, and passing on knowledge or eating communally. By observing, recording, creating new configurations, and speculating, the artists create pictorial worlds, knowledge, and forms of witness. They renew memories and shape futures that are reinforced through community by creating moments of togetherness. The practices that unite Shadowily in different tongues appeal to solidarity and justice as opportunities to connect with each other and to celebrate different forms of cohabitation.

The collectives Tequiocalco, Calpulli Tecalco, and Colectiva Milpa urbana activate strategies to defend the territories and languages they inhabit, lands besieged by relentless extractivism. These geographies have long been home to their communities. Yet today, capital forces extract minerals, intoxicate water, and privatize seeds and ancestral knowledges, turning inherited wealth into disposable commodities. Similar struggles unfold in Greenland, where Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway document the conflict in Narsaq, where a mountain, rich in uranium, is at stake. Crisanto Manzano Avella, a Zapotec film-maker, has accompanied his community over several decades with his camera, documenting traditions, festivities, music, and also the community’s political struggles. Tina Modotti’s photographs keep alive memories of life in the 1920s and 1930s in Mexico, with its revolutionary movements and also the ways of life and traditions of the indigenous population and of working-class people. The work of both artists is a form of memory and a portal to forgotten stories and shared battles.

The works of Minia Biabiany, Katya Mora, Edith Morales, and Karen Michelsen with Luz Y Color and Alejandra Ambukka Tafur articulate an intimate connection between body and territory. They challenge dominant systems of cognition and lead into the realms of spirituality, intuition, and poetry, exploring colonial continuities and tracing traumas embedded in bodies and the scars they have left behind. They follow the diasporic paths of people and give voices a space to tell hidden, suppressed or unheard stories, confronting structural inequities and seeking moment of healing. In works by Susanne Kriemann and the Panósmico collective the material speaks as witness, reflecting on the connections between capitalism, colonialism, and the petrochemical industry. New specimens and objects are created that document the biological and cultural permeation of plastics in our consumer culture and continue as speculations into the future.

The artists Bruno Varela, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Keiko Kimoto and Gabriel Rossell Santillán draw on diverse perspectives and visual worlds, from ancestral Abya Yala (American) knowledge and critical indigenous thinking to contemporary concepts such as queer theory, cyborgs, and posthumanism. Their speculative works question existing norms, are rebellious and exuberant, and expose the wounds left by the colonial-imperial system and the violence associated with it.

This exhibition sees itself as a place of resistance and reflection. It invites visitors to come to terms with the past, to develop new perspectives and to search for fairer ways for a common future.

Exhibition curated by Bettina Korintenberg, Mauricio Marcín, Gabriel Rossell Santillán in the context of the one-year programme Agua Quemada (Burnt Water) at ifa Gallery Stuttgart.

With contributions by: Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway, Minia Biabiany, Calpulli Tecalco (Angélica Palma), Colectiva Milpa Urbana, Keiko Kimoto & Gabriel Rossell Santillán, Susanne Kriemann, Crisanto Manzano Avella, Karen Michelsen Castañón with Luz Y Color and Alejandra Ambukka, Tina Modotti, Katya Mora, Edith Morales, Fernando Palma, Panósmico, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Tequiocalco, Bruno Varela