Meeting Place
14 April– 31 July 2016
Since last autumn many friends in the art community have, like myself, been asking themselves similar questions: ‘What can I do?’; ‘How can I help?’; ‘How can we address a situation that’s in constant flux?’ In particular we are confronted with a trio of interconnected issues:
A large portion of Europeans not wanting to accept that the people arriving on their shores are ‘real refugees’. Instead calling them economic migrants, resulting in a lack of compassion, from a position of being one of the richest continents on Earth.
The rise of right-wing parties who take advantage of a discontent with the effects of globalisation and scaremongering about one and a half million new arrivals into a population of 508 million Europeans. The emergence of a previously unacceptable rhetoric amongst previously unradicalised parts of the population. The fear of one million refugees caused the right wing vote in Germany to jump from 3% to 15%.
A passionate animosity towards the European Union, the most successful peace project in the history of mankind. To look at the detractors of the EU, who work from within and outside, is a sobering wake up call.
From this month Between Bridges wants to be a forum, however small; a platform, however powerless, to discuss and organize activity from within the art community.
The open-ended project entitled Meeting Place does not offer easy or simple answers to the complex array of questions we’re faced with. Hesitation however is no answer either.
The only uncompromising way to start addressing the state we’re in, seems to be to get to know each other. Social science has demonstrated again and again that xenophobia increases with the distance of the ‘stranger’ in question.
There are many who want this moment in time, this situation, this crisis to go wrong. Whatever one thinks in party political terms, I do believe Angela Merkel’s, by now much derided phrase, ‘We can handle it’ (Wir schaffen das) is an inspirational call to action for all.
For the last three months a group of people around my studio and Between Bridges met in weekly meetings to try and find a framework for a new programme to deal with the current political climate.
Meeting Place is an attempt to open a space for dialogue, and show that of course we can try to work this out, if only we start to get to know each other.
During the opening hours the space in Keithstrasse 15 will act as a visual showcase for information and exhibits as well as a platform for groups or individuals who would like to meet here. There will also be regular Thursday evening events around the three key issues listed above, acting as more focussed social get-togethers.
The project wants to avoid duplication and is open to be part of/lend it’s resources to already existing initiatives.
Text: Wolfgang Tillmans
PROGRAMME APRIL
14 April 2016, 7pm
Tour of Syria: Exhibition of Bachar Al Chahin and online photographs ‘Tour of Syria, before and after the arrival of war and IS’
Bachar Al Mohamad Al Chahin, b. 1971 in Damascus. He studied Archaeology and worked in the Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) as general/official travel guide in all regions of Syria. Since September 2015 he has lived in Berlin and works as a volunteer in Multaqa: Museum as Meeting Point – Refugees as Guides in Berlin Museums.
21 April 2016, 7pm
Gülây Akın in conversation with Wolfgang Tillmans
Gülây Akın, born 1972 in Berlin Kreuzberg, art therapist and author talks about her work as an activist and with unaccompanied minor refugees. (in German)
28 April 2016, 7pm
Timo Reinfrank, director of Amadeu Antonio Foundation (in English)
Timo Reinfrank, b. 1973 in Bremen, has studied Political- and Social Sciences in Berlin and Bonn. In his function as director and coordinator for Amadeu Antonio Stiftung he consults civil society initiatives, political actors as well as administrative bodies in their work against right wing extremism and for democratic culture.
Amadeu Antonio Foundation
PROGRAMME MAY
5 May 2016, 7pm
Film Screening "Die Unsichtbaren / The Invisibles"
Die Unsichtbaren / The Invisibles, Benjamin Kahlmeyer (director), Stefan Neuberger (cinematography), Germany 2014, 78min, French, English, German, Swahili, Arabic (with English subtitles)
The documentary The Invisibles accompanies four asylum seekers in Brandenburg on their way through the official proceedings: a rare insight into the black box of asylum law.
12 May 2016, 7pm
The British EU referendum - A look at the campaigns and arguments for leaving.
With Annett Kottek, Paul Hutchinson and Wolfgang Tillmans (in English)
As both German and British residents, the participants - all involved in developing Wolfgang Tillmans’ current anti-Brexit campaign - consider the contra-position in an open conversation.
Annett Kottek, b. 1969 in Thuringia, former East Germany, immigrated to London after the re-unification of Germany. MA English Literature from Queen Mary University of London, researcher and poet.
Paul Hutchinson, b. 1987 in Berlin, raised between Ireland and Germany, postgraduate studies in the UK. MA Photography from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, photographer.
19 May 2016, 7pm
Political Activism and Art, discussion with Timo Reinfrank and Sophie Vester (Amadeu Antonio Foundation) with guests. (in English)
Following the presentation of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation by Timo Reinfrank, we continue the discussion how artist can contribute new ideas in the current political discussions and get active.The Amadeu Antonio Stiftung is one of Germany’s foremost, independent non-governmental organizations working to strengthen democratic civic society and eliminate neo-Nazism, right-wing extremism, and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry and hate.
26 May 2016, 7pm
KRNYH - Kos Refugees Need Your Help
Conversation with Valerie Stahl von Stromberg (in English)
The artist and photographer Valerie Stahl von Stromberg lives in Berlin and Kos. The spontaneous and provisional mission in the summer of 2015 to purchase food for the hundreds of refugees, who had arrived on the Greek island of Kos in inflatable dinghies via the Turkish port Bodrum, received strong support through the Facebook event ‘Kos refugees need your help’ and subsequently established itself as the humanitarian aid organisation KRNYH. The work of KRNYH concentrates on essential, non-medical aid: the provision of food and liaising between restaurant owners, the inhabitants of Kos and the refugees.
Kos Refugees Need Your Help
PROGRAMME JUNE
2–7 June 2016
Meeting Place – Between Broadcast (curated by Marianna Liosi and Between Bridges)
Opening: 2 June, 7pm
The selection of videos that I have proposed for Between Broadcast stems from the continuation of my research around spectatorship, the generative role of the viewer and their engagement through the mediation of technology.
At this particular stage I’m interested in the re-thinking of videos found on YouTube, visual accounts that have been posted by anonymous citizens and excerpts from broadcasting channels from between 2010 – 2015, whilst considering how the value of these videos can change over time.
I’ve chosen videos of pacifist collective gatherings, public speeches, empowering anecdotes as well as expressions of dissent that have gained thousands of ‘views’ and that have shaped my imagination of certain political events, episodes in which citizens have shown active political reaction towards an oppressive status quo. Situations that I feel I’ve experienced through the screen. These visual fragments - lasting minutes or just seconds - are still very iconic today and empowering for me and I remember them as crucial for describing an intense historical time or emblematic moment.
Subjective reports from personal perspectives that show various forms of activism in public which, thanks to their viral circulation through ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ across online social media platforms, have contributed towards the construction of individual and collective historical legitimization of such events.
I have invited Between Bridges to contribute their own selection of videos from YouTube that have made an impression on them, of images that have stayed with them over time and that they consider examples of activism. How has our affection for these images evolved over the time? What kind of engagement do we have with them? What might this long lasting empathy produce? Is the act of remembering an additional form of circulation for these images? If so, what sort of collective outcome can it generate?
Marianna Liosi (b. 1982, Italy, is an independent curator living in Berlin. Through her research she explores the aesthetics of social, economic and political dynamics, with specific attention to media, technology and the question of spectatorship in relation to engagement. She has curated exhibitions, film programmes, and workshops. Among them: Regarding Spectatorship: _Revolt and the Distant Observer, _Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin (2015); Leisure Complex, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany (2014); When spectators work, workers observe, Kunsthuis SYB, Beetsterzwaag, The Netherlands (2014). She has recently published on opendemocracy.net the text: Human rights and the internet from a curatorial perspective: reflections on the show Regarding Spectatorship: Revolt and the Distant Observer.
Marianna Liosi
9 June 2016, 7pm
Meeting Place – Between Broadcast (curated by Marianna Liosi and Between Bridges)
Film Screening
Passagen (2005) by Stefan Constantinescu (62 min., OV with English subtitles)
The Film follows uprooted lives of three Chileans who were forced to leave Chile in the aftermath of the coup d’état led by Pinochet in 1973. All three ended up living under Nicolae Ceausescu’s communist dictatorship, and in time, two of them decided to emigrate to Sweden, while one managed finally to return to his homeland. Through the protagonists’ shared experiences, the film touches on the distinct social structures in Chile, Romania and Sweden. A film about refugees, expectations, estrangement, prejudices and loneliness, as well as about the ways in which the past reflects into the present.
11 June 2016, 7pm
Meeting Place: Craftworkshop with 1+all
1+all is an initiative intended to integrate Refugees into networks through individual crafting techniques. Everybody is welcome to join and no experience is required. The aim is to collectively develop a shirt collection for a fashion show. 1+all provides it’s knowhow, techniques, materials and tools. In this workshop we’ll knit, stitch, crochet, cut out, braid, knot, talk and laugh.
1+all
16 June 2016, 7pm
Meeting Place – Between Broadcast (curated by Marianna Liosi and Between Bridges)
Film Screening
Prime Time in the Camps (1993) by Chris Marker (28 min., OV with English subtitles)
In Roska Camp in Slovenia, Bosnian refugees, deprived of everything they owned, decide, with the technical help of a N.G.O., to put together a way to retrieve information. They create a television programme, equipped with all the elements to make it appear like actual Television: with anchorpersons, jingles, and pirating of shows that talks about them. Reflecting on spectatorship and self-representation, the film reflects on the attempt of refugees to emerge from the forced invisibility and anonymity and to enter the official chronicle
23 June 2016, 7pm–open
The day of the EU referendum in the UK
Conversation between Wolfgang Tillmans and Kirsty Bell. Live screening of British news channels with music and Pimm’s
Please join us on this historic evening. We want to be an open house, meeting place to exchange thoughts about these last weeks and months. Joining us for this screening will be British-born writer, Kirsty Bell, in a video conversation with Wolfgang Tillmans from London.
The results will only be close to certain from around 5am German time. We may not last this long but we will be serving Pimm’s and music throughout the evening.
Kirsty Bell is a British-born writer and critic. Bell has lived in Berlin since 2001.
Kirst Bell
30 June 2016, 7pm
Film screening (selected by Yusuf Etiman)
America America by Elia Kazan (2hrs. 54 min., OV)
At least since Virgil’s Aeneid about the legendary wanderings and adventures of the (post wooden horse drama) Troyan refugees across the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, the shockingly regular movements of the dislocated across this geography has produced a variety of artistic output of similarly epic emotionality juggling between despair and hope. Coming from a Greek family dislocated during the wave of ethnic cleansings in Anatolia in the 19th and 20th century, the grand (and grandly disputable) Hollywood director Elia Kazan adapted his own novel of the same title into one of those monuments to what seems to be a perpetual state of human fate, the diminishing of one’s own habitat along with the (more or less legitimate) dream of a better place: America America follows the adventures of the young greek Stavros from his Cappadocian village to Ellis Island, where he assumes a new identity and a new life, based on the biography of the director’s own uncle. Fired by the deeply personal involvement in the subject, Kazan created a powerfully pathetic monument to both this particular slice of history (the 1894-1896 Hamidian Massacres that paved the way for the later and more thorough ethnic cleansing culminating in the 1915 Armenian Genocide and eventually the near-extinction of Christian life in where used to be its consolidation) and the universal quest of human-beings for a better life for themselves and the ones they love. Supported by the Academy awarded art direction by Gene Callahan, the captivating soundtrack by Manos Hadjidakis, and the one-off performance of the then 22 years old actor Stathis Giallelis as Stavros, America America offers a spectacular glance of Hollywoodian dimensions shockingly paralleling the circumstances and the imagery from today’s news. Humans in search of a life more human - not rarely on the cost of (other) humans.
PROGRAMME JULY
7 July 2016, 7pm
Strukturanpassungen: Stuctural Adjustment / Introduction
The human being and the unique questions of our existence are the main focus of Wolfgang Reinke’s work as a documentary director. We will present you two short documentaries: Victory Day, shot on 9th May 2012, Victory Day, in Berlin’s Treptower Park, reflects on the condition of our world today, almost 70 years after the end of World War II. The Song Of The Germans, shot during the 2014 Football World Cup, tells the story of an African and his protracted experience, lasting 26 years, of adjusting to German society. In addition we will introduce you to Structural Adjustments, Wolfgang’s current documentary in progress. The film tells a story about unconditional solidarity in times of crisis and human catastrophes. It is the portrait of three people involved in organizing a Solidarity Clinic, a neighbourhood project to support people without health insurance or money. Due to EU and IWF austerity politics such collective efforts have become a life-saving necessity in Greece. This commitment can teach us how we could create a real European community instead of continuously damaging one of the biggest peace projects ever.
Wolfgang Reinke: I’ve been living in Berlin and working as a freelance author and director of documentaries for 16 years. For two years I’ve been father of twins, Nadia and Wanda. Even though it’s hard to have both this profession and a family, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
14 July 2016, 7pm
The Physicality And Performativity Of Bordering Processes
Lecture by Kristin Flade and Khaled Jarrar
Home is not where you were born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease. (Naguib Mahfouz)
Theatre scholar Kristin Flade’s work and thought are concerned with the interdependencies between situations of violent crisis/conflict and work in the performative and visual arts. In dialogue with works of Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar, she describes the radical ways in which an artist opens up to and engages with their political environment. Brought into focus are the physicality and performativity of bordering processes. What kind of knowledge and tools do movement and physical experience provide in order to understand, represent, legitimize, challenge, rehearse and aestheticize borders? How do presence and effect, discipline, empathy and sensing come into play, and how are they used and displayed in bordering processes? How is identity physically created, rehearsed, recognized and destructed? It could be our task together to delineate in which ways our imagined worlds are bordered/limited, how they could be moved, how they have an impact.
Kristin Flade is an author, theatre scholar and PhD student at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Khaled Jarrar is a filmmaker and artist, lives and works in Ramallah, Palestine.
17 July 2016, 7pm
Reading and research group: The Future Left
Critiquing Contemporary Activism: The End of Protest?
In addition to our July Thursday evenings, Between Bridges will host a reading and research group by the organization, The Future Left, on two Sunday evenings.
The Future Left is a new and growing international activist group currently with platforms in Los Angeles, Berlin, and Sao Paolo. Given the current geopolitical urgency, locally and globally, the Sunday evenings will connect the platforms for shared dialogue via live conferencing. Their topics will complement our Thursday evenings, focusing more generally on the challenges of global politics, and more specifically on addressing the need for more complex systematic forms of activism.
http://www.thefutureleft.xyz/the-future-of-activism/
21 July 2016, 7pm
Reading: Letters To The Editors
A Journal by Anna M. Szaflarski with contributing authors
By way of word games and schematics, Anna M. Szaflarski searches for the ‘emergent properties’ that materialize between texts. This book compiles the issues from Letters to the Editors: a self-printed black and white bi-weekly journal dedicated to text-based practices, written and distributed by Szaflarski between October 2014 and November 2015. Each issue combined Szaflarski’s texts with contributions from artists, writers, family, friends, librarians, and colleagues, ranging from poetry and fiction to essays and manifestos. As the project progressed the letters came together and the body of LTTE formed: it had arms and legs, perhaps a brain but above all, a heart and a stomach, often aching, rarely satisfied.
With contributions by Ayami Awazuhara, Salvador Bautista, Aleksandra Bielas, Ilaria Biotti, Maggie Boyd, Mariana Castillo Deball, Santiago da Silva, Michele Di Menna, Kasia Fudakowski, Eva Funk, Florian Goldmann et al., Blanca Gomila, Anna Herms, Rodrigo Hernández, Valentina Jager, Tiziana La Melia, Maryse Larivière, Steve Paul, Barbara Plater-Szaflarski, Natalie Porter, Post Brothers, Ayumi Rahn, Stephen Remus, Malte Roloff, Gabriel Rosas Alemán, Manuel Saiz, Max Stocklosa, Peter Szaflarski, Stanislaw Szaflarski, Peter Wächtler, Till Wittwer, and Jacob Wren
31 July 2016, 7pm
Reading and research group: The Future Left
Which forms of activism may enable social movements for a future left?
The Future Left is a new and growing international activist group currently with platforms in Los Angeles, Berlin, and Sao Paolo. Given the current geopolitical urgency, locally and globally, the Sunday evenings will connect the platforms for shared dialogue via live conferencing. Their topics will complement our Thursday evenings, focusing more generally on the challenges of global politics, and more specifically on addressing the need for more complex systematic forms of activism.
These Sunday events are joint meetings between TFL LA and TFL Berlin with synchronous streaming participation. For those based outside LA and Berlin, you are welcome to participate via “Google Hangout.” We will publish a link shortly before the event starts.
Selected press on 'Meeting Place'
Saim Demircan, Wolfgang Tillmans and the EU, Art Monthly (print), No. 397 (June), 2016 (EN)
Chris Dercon, Wolfgang Tillmans (Interview), Dies zu verteidigen, monopol, No.2, 2017 (DE)
wolfgang tillmans stellt nächstes jahr in der tate modern aus, i-D Germany, 20 April 2016