Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 June. Animal by Another Name. Caitlin Berrigan
Caitlin Berrigan
Title: Animal by Another Name
Dates: June Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7
Time: 16:00-20:00
“Facing the jungle, the hills and the vales, my past lives as an animal and other beings rise up before me.” Apichatpong Weerasethaul, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
How can we understand and interpret the inhuman world? How can we practice other ways of being in a body? The human sensorium has embodied boundaries and limits to its perspectives on the world, which we attempt to extend both by thinking with other creatures, and through technological apparatuses. In this workshop, we will explore the relationship between animality and media by experimenting with practices and forms of filmmaking that can serve as portals into the realms of more-than-human stories and sentience.
BIO:
Caitlin Berrigan works as a visual artist, filmmaker, and writer. Inspired by methodologies of queer and disability theories, her work aims to translate aesthetic forms of communication across sensory modalities while being in relation to inhuman alterities and non-normative bodies. Disabled, gendered, and racialized bodies have historically been positioned among the subhuman tiers of Western hierarchies, along with animals and the non-living. Her recent works explore poetics and queer science fiction as world-making practices through instruments and moving image.
RSVP:
https://
Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin
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Aurora vol. II. A Platform On Social Recipes, Filmmaking and Mutual Aid is a project of The Institute for Endotic Research (Shoufay Derz and Lorenzo Sandoval) in collaboration with Aouefa Amoussouvi with invited guests. It follows on from Aurora. A Platform on Ecology, Interdependence and Mutual Aid, initiated by Aouefa Amoussouvi, Benjamin T. Busch and Lorenzo Sandoval in June 2022.
“Aurora” is an interdisciplinary project that departs from the idea of mutual aid in order to better understand the connections between ecology and interdependence. Aurora, which stands for dawn, is among the most common symbols of hope. The project goes beyond criticism, proposing actionable strategies for imagining better futures. Aurora vol. II. hones in on the connections between methodologies of food culture, filmmaking and storytelling as much-needed tools for reshaping our present and future. It is a platform for our entangled narratives and the creation of commonalities with others across geographical distances and time.
As we move towards climate collapse at an accelerated rate, the practice of collaborative storytelling is a necessary response. Art historian Claire Bishop speaks about how filmmaking recognises the complexity of collaborative work by naming the various workers contributing to the realization of a project. Mutual aid is activated through the art practice of filmmaking both through its inherent organisational structures of production and through its narratives. In an age where screens are virtually ubiquitous, where devices enslave and entrap us in contemporary alienation, we are at the mercy of constant disinformation, emotional modulation and seduction so that capitalism can continue its metabolic absorption.
In this sense, Aurora Vol. II confronts screen culture through a programme of workshops, reading groups and seminars that seek to engender narratives of commonality, collaboration, interdependent working structures, mutual support and empathic spaces that allow us to develop strategies of solidarity. To find effective and sustainable responses, it is necessary to reimagine existing epistemological frameworks with an intersectional and interdependent approach. Presented from March to June 2023, the program prioritises collaborative production, therefore it facilitates the project’s aims of both understanding and practising mutual aid.
These events are free of charge, but registration is essential as spots are limited
If for any reason you cannot attend the event after registration, please cancel your tickets ASAP so that we can fill your place.
The health and safety of our community is our priority. Please do not attend this event if you are feeling unwell.
For the 2-day workshops: We recommend coming on both days. However, if you are only coming on one day, please indicate in your registration if you are only coming on one day and which one (day 1 or day 2).
Aurora vol. II. A Platform on Social Recipes, Filmmaking and Mutual Aid is supported by
Thursday 1 June. Mine Your Own Business: On Digital Decentralization and Imperialism. Gabriella Torres-Ferrer
Encounter: Gabriella Torres-Ferrer
Title: Mine Your Own Business: On Digital Decentralization and Imperialism
Dates: June Thursday 1
Time: 19:00-21:00
What are the capitalist-colonial entanglements behind the promises of interconnectivity, technological decentralization and our everyday digital lives? These are core questions to Gabriella Torres-Ferrer’s practice. The artist will present and attempt to contextualize the Mine Your Own Business living sculpture series. The series cross-examines global fintech dreams of deregulated empowerment and sovereignty and what that means for the so-called global south. The work comprises a contemplation that explores the far flung corners of crypto havens, ‘disruptive’ technologies, and the realities of countries striving to synchronize their ‘unstable’ economies to the rhythms of global accumulation circuits.
BIO:
Gabriella Torres-Ferrer (b.1987 Arecibo, Puerto Rico) is a multimedia artist and researcher, whose work considers futurability, new digital epistemologies and subverting hegemonic narratives; power dynamics and means of exchange and production in a globalized networked society. Their transmedial practice integrates new media, installation, video, web-based interventions, among other experimentations. Torres-Ferrer has exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museo del Barrio, the Shed, A.I.R. feminist collective, New York; The National Museum of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa; The Wrong New Digital Art Biennale online and offline in São Paulo, Mexico City, San Juan and Santo Domingo; Phillip Martin, Los Angeles; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin; Curro, Guadalajara; Gianni Manhattan, Vienna; Embajada, San Juan. Gabriella is a former resident of Beta Local’s La Práctica fellowship in San Juan. They are a 2020-2021 recipient of the Akademie Schloss Solitude Artist-in-Residence fellowship, Stuttgart, and received a guest artist, honorary mention at CERN Collide, Geneve.
No RSVP required
Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin
********************
Aurora vol. II. A Platform On Social Recipes, Filmmaking and Mutual Aid is a project of The Institute for Endotic Research (Shoufay Derz and Lorenzo Sandoval) in collaboration with Aouefa Amoussouvi with invited guests. It follows on from Aurora. A Platform on Ecology, Interdependence and Mutual Aid, initiated by Aouefa Amoussouvi, Benjamin T. Busch and Lorenzo Sandoval in June 2022.
“Aurora” is an interdisciplinary project that departs from the idea of mutual aid in order to better understand the connections between ecology and interdependence. Aurora, which stands for dawn, is among the most common symbols of hope. The project goes beyond criticism, proposing actionable strategies for imagining better futures. Aurora vol. II. hones in on the connections between methodologies of food culture, filmmaking and storytelling as much-needed tools for reshaping our present and future. It is a platform for our entangled narratives and the creation of commonalities with others across geographical distances and time.
As we move towards climate collapse at an accelerated rate, the practice of collaborative storytelling is a necessary response. Art historian Claire Bishop speaks about how filmmaking recognises the complexity of collaborative work by naming the various workers contributing to the realization of a project. Mutual aid is activated through the art practice of filmmaking both through its inherent organisational structures of production and through its narratives. In an age where screens are virtually ubiquitous, where devices enslave and entrap us in contemporary alienation, we are at the mercy of constant disinformation, emotional modulation and seduction so that capitalism can continue its metabolic absorption.
In this sense, Aurora Vol. II confronts screen culture through a programme of workshops, reading groups and seminars that seek to engender narratives of commonality, collaboration, interdependent working structures, mutual support and empathic spaces that allow us to develop strategies of solidarity. To find effective and sustainable responses, it is necessary to reimagine existing epistemological frameworks with an intersectional and interdependent approach. Presented from March to June 2023, the program prioritises collaborative production, therefore it facilitates the project’s aims of both understanding and practising mutual aid.
These events are free of charge, but registration is essential as spots are limited
If for any reason you cannot attend the event after registration, please cancel your tickets ASAP so that we can fill your place.
The health and safety of our community is our priority. Please do not attend this event if you are feeling unwell.
For the 2-day workshops: We recommend coming on both days. However, if you are only coming on one day, please indicate in your registration if you are only coming on one day and which one (day 1 or day 2).
Aurora vol. II. A Platform on Social Recipes, Filmmaking and Mutual Aid is supported by
Thursday 25 and Friday 26 May. HOLODECK OF HEAVENLY BODIES.02 Deep Space Worldbuilding. Captain Pro / Promona Sengupta
Workshop: Captain Pro / Promona Sengupta
Title: HOLODECK OF HEAVENLY BODIES.02 Deep Space Worldbuilding
Dates: Thursday May 25 and Friday May 26.
Time: 16:00-20:00
In many many science fiction books, films, and other cultural artifacts, we see many different kinds of spaceships, exploring worlds beyond human comprehension and reach, and carrying cutting edge technologies of the future. Many of these ships house a particular room called “holodeck”, a place where cosmonauts of deep space can imagine and manifest anything that they desire, and experience it while being so far away from their home planets — foods from home, environments of comfort, sexual encounters with partners of choice etc. The holodeck is a way for science fiction writers and filmmakers to insert their own creative process into their final works, referencing the sheer power of imagination to give us the life that we desire and deserve.
In this workshop, we will take our collective experiences of distance, such as homesickness, migration, refugeehood, and co-create a holodeck through creative free writing, body movements and other forms of making and care. Through the creative practice of worldbuilding, we will take a ride to the farthest corners of human imagination and reorient our neural pathways with the fruits of deep space travel.
Holodeck of Heavenly Bodies is an ongoing world building and techbuilding workshop series of the Spaceship Beben (SS Beben), exclusively designed for inhabitants of Earth.
BIO:
Captain Pro / Promona Sengupta is an artist, academic, activist, and curator. She recently completed her PhD at the International Research Center: Interweaving Performance Cultures at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her creative practice engages with decolonial speculative imagination as a means for radical politics. She co-created and co-flies the deeep space exploration vehicle — FLINTAQ+ Spaceship Beben (SS Beben), as its serving Captain and chef. She co-curates Radio Kal, as a part of the transoceanic longform artistic project kal, and was the resident artist at District Berlin in 2020. She has shared her multidisciplinary creative practices at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, District Berlin, English Theater Berlin and other spaces. She co-founded the Berlin–Delhi based progressive cultural politics pop up Mo’Halla. In her activist work, she fights for dignity alongside her comrades in queer, feminist, antifascist, and BIPOC community spaces. She is committed to centering rest and repair in the activist spaces she inhabits, which is a project in progress. Captain Pro is currently on shore leave in Berlin.
RSVP:
https://
Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin
********************
Aurora vol. II. A Platform On Social Recipes, Filmmaking and Mutual Aid is a project of The Institute for Endotic Research (Shoufay Derz and Lorenzo Sandoval) in collaboration with Aouefa Amoussouvi with invited guests. It follows on from Aurora. A Platform on Ecology, Interdependence and Mutual Aid, initiated by Aouefa Amoussouvi, Benjamin T. Busch and Lorenzo Sandoval in June 2022.
“Aurora” is an interdisciplinary project that departs from the idea of mutual aid in order to better understand the connections between ecology and interdependence. Aurora, which stands for dawn, is among the most common symbols of hope. The project goes beyond criticism, proposing actionable strategies for imagining better futures. Aurora vol. II. hones in on the connections between methodologies of food culture, filmmaking and storytelling as much-needed tools for reshaping our present and future. It is a platform for our entangled narratives and the creation of commonalities with others across geographical distances and time.
As we move towards climate collapse at an accelerated rate, the practice of collaborative storytelling is a necessary response. Art historian Claire Bishop speaks about how filmmaking recognises the complexity of collaborative work by naming the various workers contributing to the realization of a project. Mutual aid is activated through the art practice of filmmaking both through its inherent organisational structures of production and through its narratives. In an age where screens are virtually ubiquitous, where devices enslave and entrap us in contemporary alienation, we are at the mercy of constant disinformation, emotional modulation and seduction so that capitalism can continue its metabolic absorption.
In this sense, Aurora Vol. II confronts screen culture through a programme of workshops, reading groups and seminars that seek to engender narratives of commonality, collaboration, interdependent working structures, mutual support and empathic spaces that allow us to develop strategies of solidarity. To find effective and sustainable responses, it is necessary to reimagine existing epistemological frameworks with an intersectional and interdependent approach. Presented from March to June 2023, the program prioritises collaborative production, therefore it facilitates the project’s aims of both understanding and practising mutual aid.
These events are free of charge, but registration is essential as spots are limited
If for any reason you cannot attend the event after registration, please cancel your tickets ASAP so that we can fill your place.
The health and safety of our community is our priority. Please do not attend this event if you are feeling unwell.
For the 2-day workshops: We recommend coming on both days. However, if you are only coming on one day, please indicate in your registration if you are only coming on one day and which one (day 1 or day 2).
Aurora vol. II. A Platform on Social Recipes, Filmmaking and Mutual Aid is supported by
May Friday 5. The women the crocodile and the possibilities of Futures with Helena Uambembe
Publication Screen & Encounter: Helena Uambembe
The Women, the crocodile and the possibilities of Futures
Date: May Friday 5
Time: 19:00
The women the crocodile and the possibilities of Futures is a new series that is a continuation of watercolor monotypes My Uncles Crocodile 2021. The works are an imagination of a folktale written by Uambembe, about women and crocodiles who come to each other’s aid in times of distress.
The work looks at how we could learn from crocodiles and their relationship with the earth and water. The tale is inspired by the Pomfrets communities first base in Bufalo Namibia, that was on the Caprivi strip along the Okavango River.
BIO
Helena Uambembe is an Angolan-South African artist whose work interrogates the dyadic relationship between the political (world politics) and the domestic (personal politics). Drawing from personal and familial history, Uambembe maps the ideological and intimate space created by the historical and colonial links between Angolan, Southern African and global history. Born in South Africa in 1994, her Angolan parents fled the Angolan civil war back in 1975 and settled in the embattled Pomfret with other families of the 32 Battalion. This complex family history (itself a disruption of current accepted narratives of post-colonial Africa), the 32 Battalion, Pomfret and her Angolan heritage are dominant themes in her multi-disciplinary approach. In 2022 Uambembewas awarded the Baloise Art Prize 2022 for her installation What you see is not what you remember, shown at Art Basel, Statements Section. She is currently based in Berlin where is a fellow of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).
No RSVP required
Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin
April 27. Worlds. Listening session arranged by Mohammad Shabangu
Worlds. Listening session arranged by Mohammad Shabangu
Thursday April 27
19:00 – 21:00
Meditating upon the notion of borders, belonging and unbelonging, the writer and critic Taiye Selasi proposes a concept called Three R’s –Rituals, Relationships and Restrictions–, a useful prism from which to consider the transnational character of individual and collective identities. Inspired by the idea of Three Rs as an organizing principle, this listening session explores the processes of deep and light listening postures by curating a mosaic, if musical pieces that express a preoccupation with human affection and relationality. Working with a fluid and diachronic blend of music ques from around the world, whether it is sprawling atmospheric synths by electro soul band, the healing properties of spiritual jazz; the notes of a classical piano that accompany moments of solipsism, or the distinct echoes of hypnotic North African chants, you are invited to explore the in(div)isible boundary between the literary and the sonic.
Bio
Mohammad Shabangu is a writer, selector and DJ. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Institute for Asian and African studies at Humboldt University, where he is completing a book titled Globality, the double bind of African writing.
No reservations needed.
Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin
April 14. Politics of Fugitivity. An encounter with Dami Sainz Edwards
Politics of Fugitivity. An encounter with Dami Sainz Edwards
Friday April 14
19:00-21:00
As black queer people in the contemporary global north we live in constant fugitivity, in a dialectic dynamic of visibility and invisibility, of systemic erasure and diabolic overexposure of our bodies, narratives, spiritualities. We exist constantly in between the utopian desire for freedom and beauty and the quotidian expressions of violence that we are exposed to. We live and love as ghosts, in a liminal space and time, trying everyday not to shipwreck. Dami Sainz Edwards’s film work attempts to follow and embrace the energy of this ghostlike experience of the world with characters and stories that challenge our normative ideas about time, nation, family, borders, and affections. In this session, the Caribbean filmmaker will share their films, ideas, and rituals on the aesthetics and politics of fugitivity.
Bio
Dami Sainz Edwards is a Caribbean filmmaker and visual artist based in Barcelona, Catalunya. They have directed several short films, which have been selected and awarded in prestigious film festivals and art galleries worldwide. Their films explore the relationship between race, gender, family and nation. Sainz Edwards studied in Cuba, Canada and Switzerland, teaches at the EICTV San Antonio de Los Baños and has been invited for lectures at Dartmouth College, UPenn, UNAM, Tulane among other universities, art centers and festivals. Their latest short film, Los Cimarrones, is a character study of their debut feature film Fallen, on development stage.
No reservations needed
Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin