Künstlerhaus Bethanien

30/12/2022

See you next year!

09/12/2022

Anna Júlia Friðbjörnsdottir, an artist from Reykjavik, Iceland, started her residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien on 1 May 2022. She was welcomed here as the third artist, whose stay in Berlin was sponsored by the Icelandic Art Center.

"I have visited Berlin a few times. I thought it was a fantastic, exciting opportunity. I applied for it and I got it. The choice of the residency has been done by the Icelandic Art Center, because it's a good residency and a lot of artists want to have the opportunity to stay in Berlin. [...] I have been showing a lot of my art in Iceland. Iceland is very isolated so I thought it was about time for me to spend time somewhere else, especially to extend my network, and work in a different environment. I also have a gallery here and had been planning a show, which combines well with the residency here."

What fascinates or inspires you about Berlin?

"There's so many artists here, a lot of exhibitions. That's probably the main thing. I'm very interested in European history and the museums here are great for researching both historical and technological things. Berlin is good for that. It's feeding into my work."

"It's an extra benefit - compared to Iceland because it's so limited - that I had a better choice when it comes to manufacturing or production-wise. My sculptures that I made recently for an exhibition are 3D productions, which is an example of a type of production I can do in Berlin. There's more choice... anywhere would be more choice than in Iceland, I guess. *laughs*"

What are you currently working on?

"I have a show in April at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. And I'm working on a new project. I will be using different types of elements and technology from the city. I'm currently gathering materials. It will take into account the history of this building and a combination of a lot of different elements. I can say that my main material of the show is copper. It ties both into historical issues and current politics."

Interview and photos: Polina Avramov

05/12/2022

Since 2021, the Serbian artists Bojana S. Knežević and Katarina Petrović have been compiling a sound archive of talks and performances by artists and cultural workers who engage in various models of independent production and self-organisation in the field of contemporary art and culture. The focus of the archive lies on protagonists from Serbia and other ex-Yugoslav countries in dialogue with institutions and individuals in the wider Euro- pean art world. The basis of the archive is the podcast Femkanje, which they founded together in 2013 and which as of October 2022 comprises 88 episodes portraying changing guests and their indi- vidual projects. At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many women*, trans and non-binary people were deprived of access to places of production, presentation and solidary exchange, the art- ists expanded their podcast—whose title alludes to the stereotype of women* who keep to themselves—into a digital collection of sound excerpts from theatrical performances, public readings, art performances and so forth. The resulting cacophony is testament to the persistence of independent art and cultural spaces in times of crisis, and a sign of a women*-led resistance movement in the ex-Yugoslav countries. Moments of artistic production and dia- logues that would otherwise be lost are preserved by Knežević and Petrović and made accessible on the Femkanje website.

Be sure to visit our exhibition “MANIFEST Yourself! (Q***r) Feminist Manifestos since the Suffragettes”! On Display until January 22nd, 2023.

photo ©David Brandt

***rfeminist ***rart

25/11/2022

Jayne Lawrence, an artist from San Antonio, TX in the US, was a professor at the UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) for 20 years. After retiring, she came to the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin through a partnership with Blue Star Contemporary on 19 October 2022.

"For several years, I was trying to convince my boss to let me come here. They were working on ways, figuring out how to let the teachers of the university participate [in the programme]. I watched all my friends go, my students go. And I'm like: I'd like to go!"

"In San Antonio there was a professor named Ron Binks. He used to come to Berlin with the students of UTSA all the time. For ten years I've been seeing photographs and hearing stories about people coming to Berlin, and all the art that was here, and things to see."

What fascinates you about Berlin?

"What fascinates me are your museums and collections. They are over the top! I've been to lots of institutions and seen lots of things, but you guys do it bigger and better than anybody I've seen. I was fascinated with the Naturkundemuseum. The educational process... it wasn't dumbed down for children. It was to inspire and to educate beyond just an elementary level. I thought that was really nice."

What inspires you here?

"Patterns and textures. In Berlin there are patterns and textures everywhere you look that I'm influenced by. The cobblestones, the streets, different people, the markets. All the parks, and the gardens that people are going in, and the free spaces. You have more green spaces than most cities do. I mean, you have them isolated, but you also have them within the neighbourhoods. There's lots of really amazing green spaces where people can hang out. So, those things are fun. I like those things!"

Interview and photos: Polina Avramov

22/11/2022

Vielen Dank an alle, die letzten Donnerstag zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung "MANIFESTiert Euch! (Q***r-)Feministische Manifeste seit den Suffragetten" gekommen sind. Für alle, die es nicht geschafft haben: die Ausstellung ist noch bis zum 22. Januar 2023 zu sehen.
Wir freuen uns auf Euch! 🫶

Fotos: Galya Feierman

MANIFESTiert Euch! ist ein Appell und eine empowernde Hymne auf das (q***r-)feministische Manifest als Bestandteil einer andauernden Protestkultur und als Medium, insbesondere der zeitgenössischen Kunst und Kultur. Jüngste Ereignisse wie die Proteste im Iran nach dem gewaltsamen Tod von Mahsa Amini, die ihr Kopftuch laut Sittenpolizei nicht „anständig“ trug, die Einschränkung und Kriminalisierung von Abtreibungen in den USA durch den Supreme Court, der vom männlichen Autokraten Wladimir Putin geführte Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine und die nationalistisch-chauvinistischen Tendenzen in einer steigenden Anzahl an Staaten machen die Dringlichkeit der von Frauen*, trans und nicht-binären Personen geführten Kämpfe um alltägliche und grundlegende Rechte mehr als deutlich. In Russland weist die feministische Punk-Band P***y Riot bereits seit einem Jahrzehnt visionär auf Missstände und insbesondere die gefährliche Rolle Putins hin und hat dafür bereits mit Verfolgung und Inhaftierung bezahlt. In Chile löste das Kollektiv LASTESIS 2019 mit seinem Song und der partizipativen Performance Un violador en tu camino eine Protestwelle aus, die tausendfach verstärkt und geteilt weit über die Grenzen des Kontinents hinaus schwappte.

Im Angesicht diverser gesellschaftlicher Stigmatisierungen, beruflicher Benachteiligung, Gender-Pay- und Data-Gap, häuslicher Gewalt und Femiziden stellen sich auch 100 Jahre nach den ersten großen Frauenbewegungen, namentlich den Suffragetten in Großbritannien und den USA, Frauen*, trans und nicht-binäre Personen im Vergleich zum Mann* immer noch als politisch und sozial stark benachteiligte Gruppen dar. In Reaktion darauf entstehen permanent (q***r-)feministische Manifeste als emblematische Statements, in denen Wut und kritische Unangepasstheit, Forderungen nach strukturellen Transformationen und paritätischen Verhältnissen eine explizite Ausdrucksform finden. Sie ertönen auf den Straßen und erscheinen in Songtexten, begegnen uns als Plakate, werden in Bücher gefasst und gehen im Netz viral. Der sie vereinende Grundtenor ist jener des Empowerments und der Selbstbehauptung. Mit ihren charakteristischen Sprach- und Formmerkmalen in Verbindung mit einer faszinierenden Vielfalt an inhaltlichen Schwerpunkten und individuellen Perspektiven bilden Manifeste ein zentrales Element der feministischen Kunstgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts.

Die Ausstellung MANIFESTiert Euch! zeichnet ausschnitthaft die Entwicklung (q***r-)feministischer Manifeste nach und zeigt öffentliche, oft politisch motivierte Statements von Frauen*, trans und nicht-binären Personen in unterschiedlichen Kontexten. Die verschiedenen Feminismen erweitern sich dabei von weiß und akademisch geprägten Ausformungen der 1960er- und 1970er-Jahre immer weiter hin zu einem intersektionalen Verständnis: Neben Kategorien wie dem biologischen Geschlecht und der Geschlechtsidentität, Alter oder (Dis-)Ability, Klassen- und Religionszugehörigkeit werden Diskriminierungserfahrungen qua Segregation, kolonialer Machtstrukturen oder (spät-)kapitalistischer Arbeitsverhältnisse zentral. Während in den vergangenen Jahren zum kollektiven Aufbegehren vieler prominenter Frauen* in der Öffentlichkeit führte, gewann parallel dazu und seit 2013 verstärkt durch die -Bewegung Black Feminism spürbar an gesamtgesellschaftlicher Präsenz. Auch die verheerende Vergegenständlichung der Umwelt wird in feministischen Manifesten zunehmend reflektiert. Dabei rücken ökologische Fragestellungen und die Kritik an einer meist männlich codierten Zerstörungsgewalt und Hybris in den Fokus. Parallel dazu entwickeln sich auch im Techno- und Cyberspace immer mehr einflussreiche Statements von Frauen*, trans und nicht-binären Personen, die vom Cyborg und technoiden Schleim bis hin zum Glitch Feminism reichen.

Die Ausstellung MANIFESTiert Euch! zeigt die ungebrochen pulsierende (q***r-)feministische Manifestkultur seit den Suffragetten und spiegelt deren schillernde, teils widersprüchliche Facetten wider. Dabei richtet sie ihren Fokus auf verschiedene Regionen, kulturelle Zusammenhänge und Medialitäten. Sie umfasst zum ersten Mal Manifeste in Form von Texten, skulpturalen Objekten, Installationen, Soundtracks, Videos und Performances sowie markante Dokumente zur Geschichte des feministischen Manifests. In einer Recherche- Lounge und der Begleitpublikation zur Ausstellung werden den Besucher*innen zahlreiche Manifeste zugänglich gemacht. Die Kooperationspartner*innen alpha nova & galerie futura, re.act.feminism e.V., Akademisches Netzwerk Osteuropa e.V. sowie Elena Zanichelli (Mariann Steegmann Institut | Kunst & Gender) und Studierende der Universität Bremen planen im Dialog mit der Ausstellungsthematik die Präsentation ihrer eigenen Projekte. Am Eröffnungsabend werden FRZNTE und luïza luz eine für MANIFESTiert Euch! entwickelte Pole Sound Performance realisieren.

Teilnehmende Künstler*innen: Ouassila Arras, Rufina Bazlova, Lynda Benglis, Monica Bonvicini, Lizzie Borden, Andrea Bowers, Janet Burchill/Jennifer McCamley, Ulrike Flaig, Ceal Floyer, FRZNTE/Kolbeinn Hugi, Regina José Galindo, Guerrilla Girls, Holzinger/Sahihi, Bojana S. Knežević /Katarina Petrović (Femkanje), LASTESIS x P***y Riot, Signe Pierce/Alli Coates,
Tabita Rezaire, Marinella Senatore, Beth Stephens/Annie Sprinkle, VNS Matrix, Del LaGrace Volcano und Billie Zangewa

Kuratiert von Valeria Schulte-Fischedick

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa und der LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin.

09/11/2022

02/11/2022

Surely you already know our BE-Magazine, the yearbook of Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Recently the 29th issue was published. We are currently working on the anniversary issue, which will be published next year.
The issues # 9 to # 20 are particularly interesting in retrospect, as they not only depict the international residency program, but also open up discourses on various socially relevant topics that have lost none of their topicality, but are - in some cases - even more urgent today.

# 9 - art & real life
# 10 - agitation
# 11 - critique
# 12 - cosmetique
# 13 - kitsch
# 14 - slavery
# 15 - auteur
# 16 - nanny
# 17 - fe**sh
# 18 - mission statement
# 19 - politics & surrogates
# 20 - I Feel So (Un)Real

We would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention once again to these issues of Be Magazine.
You can buy any of the issues online on our website for 8 Euros or just write us an email, which issue you are interested in!

Many thanks to the editors of Be Magazine, Jens Asthoff and Gerrit Gohlke and Graphic Designer Bijan Dawallu!

31/10/2022

Polys Peslikas
Reenactments (Bacchus)
28.10.–23.12.2022
Fondazione ICA Milano
curated by Alberto Salvadori

The exhibition offers a lunge into Peslikas' artistic practice, with a focus on the potential of abstract painting. Thirteen new works are on display at the ICA Milan Foundation, taking visitors through the creative process that leads the artist to examine works of art and objects, reproduce them, scan them, cut them up and reassemble them until they are unrecognizable.

Polys Peslikas revisits the idea of unsettling heteronormative conceptions of masculinity, yet through the poetic and erotic potency of details. He presents a series of new small paintings of repeated motifs, in which the act of returning to the same image functions as a kind of magnifying glass through which we are to scrutinize details that withhold the gaze and nurture desire: the imperceptible tilt of the pelvis, the creases in the fabric enveloping a slim waist to suggest a well-formed body. In effect, an archetype of heterosexual masculinity, the man in uniform, is sensualized and drawn to a space at once of ambiguity and familiarity. This state of suspension is Peslikas’ starting impulse in this series of works as is the encounter he stages in his studio between references from various sources as part of an open, self-generating creative process.

Polys Peslikas (b.1973, Limassol CY) is a painter currently living and working between London and Nicosia. Recent exhibitions include Mackintosh Lane (London), Vistamare (Milano), Villa Medici (Rome), Shanaynay (Paris), NiMAC (Nicosia), Halle 14 (Leipzig),and at the Prague Biennial II. In 2015/16 he was an artist in residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. In 2017, he represented Cyprus at the 57th Venice Biennale.

28/10/2022

Regina José Galindo
Tierra
November 5, 2022–February 26, 2023
Opening: November 4

Parco Arte Vivente (PAV)
Via Giordano Bruno 31
10134 Turin
Italy

Curated by Marco Scotini.

As part of Artissima, on Friday November 4, 2022, the PAV is pleased to announce the opening of Tierra, the solo exhibition of the artist Regina José Galindo, a Guatemalan artist who, for over twenty years, has been investigating the subject of social justice through the lens of performative practices whose expressive focal point is the relationship between the body and the environment. The exhibition, curated by Marco Scotini, follows on from those by the Indian artist, Navjot Altaf, and the Indonesian artist Arahmaiani in the investigation of the specific relationships that exist between environmental exploitation and oppressed peoples, decentralising the gaze as it goes beyond the geographical and cultural boundaries of the so-called West.

The exhibition covers Galindo’s twenty-year-long career (Leone d’Oro at the 51st Venice Biennale as best young artist), focussing on the ways in which every one of her contacts with natural elements should be read in an intersectional and militant key. Amongst all the natural elements, the earth has a particular status of its own: Galindo’s approach avoids any essentialist description of the relationship between the earth and the female body. The itinerary displays the results of an approach that has evolved over the years, from an initial focus on Guatemalan socio-political problems, to a (site-specific) attention to the contexts and communities with which the artist has found herself interacting.

Regina José Galindo uses the body as the preferred instrument of an intense artistic practice which began towards the end of the 1990s. Far from the formal type of research performed by the traditional art schools, Galindo immediately used art as a means of communication and political action. Born and brought up during the long Guatemalan military dictatorship, she was a witness from a very early age of the civil war characterised by repressive practices through to the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous populations.

The physical and conceptual heart of the exhibition, Tierra (2013) testifies to the trauma that innervates the people’s memories. A trauma in which the earth is the barycentre of crimes carried out by attacking bodies—the mechanical digger that digs a ditch around Galindo’s body alludes to the mass graves into which the military threw both political opponents and indigenous people—on both political and economic levels. Equally, in Mazorca (2014), the predatory and violent act represented by the mechanical digger turns into four men with machetes who cut down the plants around the artist’s body as she stands in the middle of a field of maize. The military’s repressive strategies include precisely the destruction of the fields that are fundamental for sustaining the indigenous population. Furthermore, as part of the opening, the exhibition connects to the current humanitarian and energy crisis through a new performance based on fossil matter. With Galindo’s exhibition, the PAV Parco Arte Vivente states that sensitivity to ecological issues can in no way be separated from a radical analysis of the economic and political powers of contemporary capitalism.

Regina José Galindo (1974) lives and works in Guatemala City. Winner of the Leone d’Oro at the Venice Biennale in the young artists category in 2005; she received the Prince Claus Award in Holland, the special award at the 29th Ljubljana Biennale and the Robert Rauschenberg Award. Her works are on display in numerous public collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; MEIAC- the Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo, Badajoz; the Fondazione Galleria Civica, Trento; the MMKA, Budapest; the Castello di Rivoli, Turin; the Daros Foundation, Zurich; the Blanton Museum, Austin; the UBS Art Collection, Basel; the Miami Art Museum; the Cisneros Fountanal Art Foundation, Miami; and the Madco-Museum of Contemporary Art, Costa Rica.

The exhibition has been realised with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo, the Fondazione CRT, the Regione Piemonte, and the City of Turin.

27/10/2022

Kallmann-Preis 2022: Aneta Kajzer

Unsere ehemalige Residentin Aneta Kajzer im Kallman Museum in Ismaning:

Die Berliner Künstlerin Aneta Kajzer (geb. 1989) erhält für ihre Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema „Porträt“ den Kallmann-Preis 2022. Erstmals wird damit eine malerische Position mit dem Preis ausgezeichnet. Kajzers farbintensive Gemälde bewegen sich zwischen Figuration und Abstraktion. Sie sind zugleich freie, gestische Malerei von betörender Sinnlichkeit und lassen doch immer auch Gegenständliches wie Menschen oder Tiere erkennen. Ihre Arbeiten werden vom 5. November 2022 bis 29. Januar 2023 im Rahmen einer Einzelausstellung im Kallmann-Museum präsentiert.

https://kallmann-museum.de/2022_kallmann-preis-kajzer/

Kallmann-Preis 2022 Aneta Kajzer 5. November 2022 bis 29. Januar 2023 Aneta Kajzer: Horde, 2021 180 x 130 cm, Öl auf Leinwand (Ausschnitt) Courtesy die Künstlerin und Conrads Berlin Die Berliner Künstlerin Aneta Kajzer (geb. 1989) erhält für ihre Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema „Porträt“ ...

25/10/2022

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

MANIFEST Yourself! (Q***r) Feminist Manifestos since the Suffragettes

Curated by Valeria Schulte-Fischedick
Assistant Curator: Luise von Nobbe

18.11.2022–22.01.2023
Opening: 17.11.2022, 7pm

The exhibition “MANIFEST Yourself!” aims to demonstrate the unabated vitality of (q***r) feminist manifesto culture since the suffragettes and reflect its variegated, sometimes contradictory aspects. To do so, it surveys different regions, cultural contexts and media. For the first time, it includes manifestos in the form of texts, sculptural objects, installations, soundtracks, videos and performances, as well as documents on the history of feminist manifestos. Numerous manifestos will be made accessible in a research lounge and in the publication accompanying the exhibition. On the opening night (17.11.2022, 7 pm), FRNZTE and luïza luz will realize a Pole Sound Performance developed for “MANIFEST Yourself!”

Participating Artists: Ouassila Arras, Rufina Bazlova, Lynda Benglis, Monica Bonvicini, Lizzie Borden, Andrea Bowers, Janet Burchill / Jennifer McCamley, Ulrike Flaig, Ceal Floyer, FRZNTE / Kolbeinn Hugi, Regina José Galindo, Guerrilla Girls, Florentina Holzinger x Ashkan Sahihi, Bojana S. Knežević / Katarina Petrović (Femkanje), LASTESIS x P***y Riot, Signe Pierce / Alli Coates, Tabita Rezaire, Marinella Senatore, Beth Stephens / Annie Sprinkle, VNS Matrix, Del LaGrace Volcano, and Billie Zangewa.

Kindly supported by LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin.
***r ***rfeminist ***rart

24/10/2022

Lisa-Marleen Mantel & Laura Juliane Wagner
Borrowed Limbs, 2022
2:57min

The short film “Borrowed Limbs” emphasises the mediating role of speculative design in the face of current disruptive advances in AI research. The protagonist is an AI that accesses a human body directly to gain an embodied understanding of its surroundings and complete its journey towards becoming a posthuman being. The visual language of the film is based on image synthesis on the foundation of so-called “prompts”, which oftentimes describe a complex image with just a few words and references that the AI subsequently generates on the basis of millions of learned examples. The unsteadiness of what is shown is reminiscent of early experiments on cellulose nitrate film and scarcely hints at the dramatic shifts in the (re)production of human creativity that still lie ahead…

Lisa-Marleen Mantel *1989, lives and works in Cologne
Laura Juliane Wagner *1991, lives and works in Frankfurt Main

Phantom Horizons

The on-going screening series “Phantom Horizons” presents digital as well as analogue works that question the paradigm of linear perspective, seeking a new kind of “status perspective” [Bedeutungsperspektive]. The latter was a development of ancient and medieval painting, in which the size of figures is determined by their hierarchical significance. Extending this approach using the methodology of deconstruction and the possibilities of contemporary film creation, the presented works open up multifaceted, unseen horizons.

Curated by Robert Seidel