May 16–July 27, 2025
How can we, as workers of the imaginary, recognize the significance and the poetics of being when all manners of racism, war and patriarchal violence redirect the gaze from our indisputable presence? For Real For Real gathers together artists working to bring us closer to the particularities, obsessions, peculiarities, playfulness, obscurity, wonderment of a single one doing life, being alive, loving, seeing, making, breaking, collapsing, doing and doing in the wild wilderness of now.
For Real For Real is presented by The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII), an interdisciplinary cultural laboratory founded by the poet Claudia Rankine, in collaboration with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and in conversation with Kevin Quashie’s book Black Aliveness: A Poetics of Being. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive program of readings, talks, and screenings.
With John Akomfrah, Baff Akoto, Lotte Andersen, Fatma Aydemir, Mary Jo Bang, Catherine Barnett, Alvaro Barrington, Sarah Benson, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Dana Bishop-Root, Black Visual Grammar, Diane Borger, Julie Boukobza, Garrett Bradley, Rizvana Bradley, Dionne Brand, Susan Briante, Jericho Brown, Felisha Carenage, Bruce Carlisle, Cameron Carrington, Prudence Carter, Mel Chin, Reyes Coll-Tellechea, Bevil Conway, Helga Davis, Blair Davis, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Biswamit Dwibedy, Torkwase Dyson, Becky Earley, Jody Ellant, Radna Fabias, Daniela Faurel, Logan February, Teresita Fernández, Nick Flynn, Patrick Gaspard, Theaster Gates, Carmen Giménez, Kimia Godarzani-Bakhtiari, Sana Goldberg, Tony Guerrero, Carmen Hall, Sandra Harper, Lyle Ashton Harris, Thomas Allen Harris, Saidiya Hartman, Terrance Hayes, Harmony Holiday, Annie Howard, Christine Hume, Kahlil Joseph, Dozie Kanu, Titus Kaphar, Bhanu Kapil, William Kentridge, David Knight, Isadora Knutsen, Lauren Kolar, Raymond Koranteng, L U C I N E, Alix Lambert, Laura Larson, Satchel Lee, Nate Lewis, Bluey Little, Isaiah Lopaz, Canisia Lubrin, John Lucas, Margo Lucas, Tracy Biga MacLean, Saraswati Nandini Majumdar, Maria Markham, Dawn Lundy Martin, Stefan Marx, Lebogang Mashile, Farid Matuk, Fiona McCrae, Jean Melesaine, Otis Mensah, Joshua Mensch, Katie Merz, Christine Millerin, Leah Mirakhor, Dasia Moore, Lethokuhle Msimang, Nicholas Muellner, Sandeep Mukherjee, Jackie Murray, Pooja Nansi, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Anne O'Connor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jennifer Packer, Diana Pfammatter, Shamel Pitts, Patricia Powell, Paul B. Preciado, Yuval Pudik, Abeera Qureshi, Thomias Radin, Claudia Rankine, Asad Raza, Nasima Sophia Razizadeh, Raphaëlle Red, Andrea Rexilius, Katie Riley, Jess Row, Simon*e van Saarloos, Enas Sabbah, Christina Sharpe, Eleni Sikelianos, Sjón, Dirk Skiba, Emily Skillings, Jackson Elijah Smith, Therese Stanton, Rune Steenberg, Ann Sundberg, Martine Syms, Mercedes Teixido, Monica de la Torre, Martha Tuttle, David Ulin, Kara Walker, Maslen Bode Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, Gus Weiner, Joshua Weiner, Susan Wheeler, Carla Williams, Stephen Wilson, Maggie Winslow, Tiphanie Yanique, Janise Yntema, among others
Claudia Rankine is a 2025 Literature Fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. The exhibition at daadgalerie was developed during Rankine's residency in Berlin and is curated by John Lucas, Claudia Rankine, Russell Salmon, and Mathias Zeiske.
Events
May 15, 6pm: Opening
May 16, 7pm: Reading and conversation with Jericho Brown and Claudia Rankine
May 17, 6pm: Screening of A Touch of Red by Shamel Pitts and Taylor Antisdel
May 23, 7pm: In Praise of Mere Beauty. Keynote by Kevin Quashie
May 24, 6pm: Screening of RIVÂL by Thomias Radin
June 6, 7pm: Claudia Rankine in conversation with Mel Chin
June 10, 7pm: Screening of Exhibiting Forgiveness by Titus Kaphar
June 24, 7pm: Reading and conversation with Terrance Hayes and Claudia Rankine
June 26, 7pm: Reading with Delfi Magazine featuring Fatma Aydemir, Raphaëlle Red, and guests
More events to be announced.
The exhibition is made possible through the support of the Ford Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, Sarah Arison, Allison Coudert. With a public program underwritten by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The presentation of A Touch of Red by Shamel Pitts and Taylor Antisdel is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
The DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program is institutionally funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Senate of Berlin.
