NEWS
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The Power of Tropical Plants
Think tank with transdisciplinary input, performative interventions, and films
With contributions by Chanelle Adams, Minia Biabiany, Patrick Saidi Hemedi, Astrid S. Klein, Florence Lazar, Tania Eulalia Martinez-Cruz, Yara Richter, Huguette Tolinga, and other guests
Friday, November 4, 2022, 7–10 p.m. and Saturday, November 5, 2022, all day
An event by the artist Astrid S. Klein and the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
The Power of Tropical Plants, Think Tank 4.11.-5.11.2022, WKV Stuttgart/Germany
The two-day event The Power of Tropical Plants places tropical plants at the center of collaborative reflection, with a focus on their role as powerful protagonists embodying varifold meanings and modes of action.
Without tropical forests we would not be able to breathe, and without tropical plants we wouldn’t have enough food or energy. Also, so many healing pharmaceutical substances would be lacking. Tropical vegetation creates landscapes in which we can interconnect with other living existences. The alliances among plants—spanning generations and species—moreover activate human societies, various knowledge systems, and cosmologies.
The act of systematically collecting, researching, and preserving tropical plants in botanical gardens, herbaria, and seed and gene banks was shaped by European colonialism and its plantation economy. Western sciences and economic interests united to monumentally exploit tropical plants as resources through single-crop farming. To this end, a system of dispossession, enslavement, and forced labor based on racist structures was established.
The term Plantationocene (Anna L. Tsing and Donna Haraway) describes a concept in our day and age that goes back to industrial plantations during colonialism, calling to mind the violence and continuity associated with it. Among the hallmarks of the Plantationocene are predatory exploitation, capitalization, and the depletion of all living things. This is making soil, air, and water uninhabitable. All remaining resources are distributed based on the right of the strongest.
The event The Power of Tropical Plants counters the violence of the Plantationocene and its contemporary manifestations by proposing alternative narratives. Marginalized and collective practices gain a voice, facilitating environmentally friendly and equitable ways of life and economies. Also up for discussion are questions related to the displacement and diaspora of tropical plants and their colonial (hi)stories—questions of appropriation, responsibility, and restitution. The horizon of mutual reflection espouses a multifaceted production of knowledge.
(ASK)
The event will be held in English.
Participation is free of charge. If attending on Saturday, please register at: bozzetti@wkv-stuttgart.de
Detailed program: www.wkv-stuttgart.de
Event concept and direction: Astrid S. Klein
Württembergischer T: + 49 (0)711-22 33 70
Kunstverein Stuttgart zentrale@wkv-stuttgart.de
Schlossplatz 2 / www.wkv-stuttgart.de
With the friendly support of the Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart
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The Power of Tropical Plants
Think tank avec des contributions (inputs) transdisciplinaires,
des interventions performatives et des films
Contributions de Chanelle Adams, Minia Biabiany,
Patrick Saidi Hemedi, Astrid S. Klein, Florence Lazar,
Tania Eulalia Martinez-Cruz, Yara Richter, Huguette Tolinga et d’autres invité·e·s.
Vendredi 4 Novembre 2022, de 19 à 22 heures et Samedi 5 Novembre 2022, toute la journée
Un événement de l’artiste Astrid S. Klein et du Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
L’événement The Power of Tropical Plants qui se déroulera sur une durée de deux jours présente les plantes tropicales en tant qu’acteur·ice·s puissant·e·s et place leurs modes d’actions et leurs significations variées au centre d’une réflexion commune.
Sans forêts tropicales, nous ne pourrions pas respirer, sans plantes tropicales, nous n’aurions ni assez de nourriture et ni assez d’énergie, et nous manquerions d’un grand nombre de substances pharmaceutiques curatives. Les plantes tropicales créent des paysages, des espaces dans lesquels nous pouvons tisser des liens avec d’autres existences. En outre, les liens transgénérationnels et inter-espèces de ces plantes jouent un rôle crucial pour les sociétés humaines, les différents systèmes de connaissances, et les différentes cosmologies.
La collection, l’étude et la préservation systématiques des plantes tropicales dans les jardins botaniques, les herbiers, les banques de semences et les banques de gènes ont été marqué par le colonialisme européen et l’économie de plantation. Les sciences occidentales et les intérêts économiques se sont conjugués pour servir l’exploitation à grande échelle des plantes tropicales dans le cadre des monocultures. Un système de dépossession, d’asservissement et de travail forcé basé sur des structures racistes fut mis en place.
Le terme Plantationocene (Anna L. Tsing et Donna Haraway) décrit une conception de notre époque qui fait référence aux plantations industrielles coloniales et qui rappelle la violence et la continuité de ces dernières. Parmi les éléments caractéristiques du Plantationocene figurent l’exploitation, la capitalisation et l’épuisement de toute chose vivante. La pollution de la terre, de l’air et de l’eau rend le monde/la planète progressivement inhabitable. La répartition des ressources et des matières premières restantes est définie par la loi du plus fort.
L’événement The Power of Tropical Plants oppose au Plantationocene et à la violence de ses manifestations contemporaines des récits alternatifs. Ainsi, des pratiques collectives marginalisées proposant des modes de vie et des économies respectueuse de l’environnement et équitables seront abordées. Le débat portera de surcroît sur des questions concernant le déplacement et la ‘diaspora’ des plantes tropicales et leur/s histoire/s coloniale/s – des questions relatives aux notions d’appropriation, de responsabilité et de restitution. La réflexion collective pointe vers un horizon qui préfigure une production diversifiée du savoir et de la connaissance.
(ASK)
Durant cet événement les échanges se feront en langue anglaise.
La participation est gratuite.
Réservation souhaitable pour le samedi.
Contact : bozzetti@wkv-stuttgart.de
Programme détaillé: www.wkv-stuttgart.de
Conception et direction de l’événement : Astrid S. Klein
Württembergischer T: + 49 (0)711-22 33 70
Kunstverein Stuttgart zentrale@wkv-stuttgart.de
Schlossplatz 2 / www.wkv-stuttgart.de
D-70173 Stuttgart
Avec l’aimable soutien du Service Culturel (Kulturamt) de la ville de Stuttgart
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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À l’écoute des feuilles
Astrid S. Klein et Sylvie Arnaud
24.9.2021 – à 18:30h au Centre du Patrimoine Arménien à Valence/France en collaboration avec art3
Lecture-performance et polylogue poétique de l’artiste Astrid S. Klein et Sylvie Arnaud, autrice et travailleuse social, avec le soutien sonore de Filip Kantinol.
L’ére de l’économie de plantation (Plantationocene, d’apres Anna Tsing/Donna Haraway) a été fondée par le colonialisme européen et perfectionnée par la capitalisation. La logique de la plantation imprègne et domine les sociétés actuelles, les habitats et les modes de vie planétaires, les économies, l’écologie, la pensée, les sentiments, et les corps des êtres humains ainsi que toutes les relations humaines et non humaines.
Collectivement, les artistes tentent de tisser de nouvelles lignes de connexion dans une époque de déliaison, d’exclusion, d’inégalite et de destruction des fondements de la vie. Ce faisant, ils font réference a la translocation des acteurs végétaux et des non-humains.
De manière transdisciplinaire, les artistes posent des questions sur les nouveaux modes de communication qui placent l’écoute au centre. Leur pratique artistique repose sur un décentrement de la pensée et de l’action et se déploie de manière translocale et transcontinentale.
Astrid S. Klein a initié À l’écoute des feuilles dans le contexte de ses recheches sur les nouvelles relations dans un temps de déliaisons.
©Astrid S. Klein, 2021
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Exotic Brain Holiday – Mukenge/Schellhammer
Opening Wednesday, 24 February 5 pm
the exhibition can be viewed until the 6 March by appointment
In case of a lockdown extension there will be a publicly visible installation in the window of Oberwelt during the exhibition dates.
At the invitation of Astrid S. Klein (quartier flottant) and Oberwelt e.V.
www.oberwelt.de
The Congolese-German duo Mukenge/Schellhammer play with the imagery of exoticism while reinterpreting everyday cliche-ridden ideas and images. In exploring the fictional representation of the other, they resort to strategic self-exoticisation in a variety of cultural, social and economic contexts.
The representation of other cultures has a long tradition in European art, with unfamiliar countries and peoples being transformed into objects of desire, projection surfaces for exotic fantasies or dangerous, dark places. The picture of the central African tropics is, to this day, characterised by primitivistic myths, grim nightmare visions of war, child soldiers and impenetrable primaeval forest.
Such exoticisms are defined by Edward Said, from a postcolonial perspective, as a specific aesthetic of imperialism, as a projection of Western fantasies of desire, as the aesthetic exploitation of the other within the realm of Western culture production. Despite being inconceivable without inspiration from African art, modern art stakes exclusive claim to the avant-garde, whereas, in the history of art, artists from the African continent are frequently credited with nothing more than primitivism, nativism and the power of magic.
A similar mechanism is at play in contemporary art production in Kinshasa. The Eurocentric reception, production and projection of exotic Congo fantasies is part of a highly problematic system engendered and upheld by the exoticisation and auto-exoticisation of Congolese creatives. Often, non-Western artists are forced into a representative categorisation in which the focus is on not the artistic work itself, but its geographical origin.
Mukenge/Schellhammer impede such categorisation and association with not just the cultural context and its artistic traditions but also with geographical origin. Their individual styles and cultural imprints are blurred by their specific collaboration on co-signed paintings, performances and videos.
Mukenge/Schellhammer live in Kinshasa/DR Congo and are currently fellows at the Schloss Solitude Academy.
Exotic Brain Holiday©Mukenge/Schellhammer2021
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Pandemique Times – Lockdown in Kinshasa
Friday, 19 June 2020 – 19:00h – Oberwelt e.V.
Reinsburgstr.93 – Stuttgart, Germany
www.oberwelt.de
Corona in Kinshasa / Democratic Republic of the Congo – the artist Orakle Ngoy and the videomaker Zépé Zanda talk about the current situation in two video statements.
Produced in June 2020 on invitation of Astrid S. Klein (quartier flottant) and Oberwelt e.V.
Kinshasa – a 12 million megapolis in corona quarantine. In a city where most people earn their livelihood in an informal economy and are therefore dependent on social contacts and mobility, the quarantine of the administrative and business district Gombe has a major impact on life in the entire city.
Many Kinos have been deprived of their livelihood and do not know what to do next. At the same time, the trial of the 100 days is being broadcast on radio and TV.
Women and artists are particularly affected by this precarious economic, political and health situation.
The rapper Orakle (Collectif Afrika Diva) and the videomaker Zépé Zanda (Collectif Mind) tell their view of the current situation in June 2020.
In Sous les masques – Under the Masks, Orakle, together with the musician Nelia Iyenga and traders at the market, takes the floor – women are the voice of the crisis.
Zépé Zanda illuminates in Stigmatisation – Stigmatisation this uncertain time in an interview with the painter Prisca Tankwey, in images of the live transmission of the process and relates this to symbols of the cultural wealth of the Congo and the hope for social change.
Pandemic Times in Kinshasa, Astrid S.Klein und Oberwelt e.V., 19.06.2020
Pandemic Times in Kinshasa, Astrid S.Klein und Oberwelt e.V., 19.06.2020
Sous le masque, Orakle Ngoy, 2020, RDC
Stigmatisation, Zépé Zanda, 2020, RDC
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Don’t miss to read !
The Universal Right to Breathe – Le droit universel à la respiration
Achille Mbembe
Find the link to the full text in english here:
https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/04/13/the-universal-right-to-breathe/
Trouvez le liens du texte français integral ici:
https://zinc.mondediplo.net/messages/144122/
“Keeping the world at a distance will become the norm so as to keep risks of all kinds on the outside. But because it does not address our ecological precariousness, this catabolic vision of the world, inspired by theories of immunization and contagion, does little to break out of the planetary impasse in which we find ourselves….All these wars on life begin by taking away breath. Likewise, as it impedes breathing and blocks the resuscitation of human bodies and tissues, Covid-19 shares this same tendency.”
From: The Universal Right to Breathe ~ Achille Mbembe, 13 April 2020
“Garder le monde à distance deviendra la norme, histoire d’expulser à l’extérieur les risques de toutes sortes. Mais parce qu’elle ne s’attaque pas à notre précarité écologique, cette vision catabolique du monde inspirée par les théories de l’immunisation et de la contagion ne permettra guère de sortir de l’impasse planétaire dans laquelle nous nous trouvons. … Des guerres menées contre le vivant, l’on peut dire que leur propriété première aura été de couper le souffle. En tant qu’entrave majeure à la respiration et à la réanimation des corps et des tissus humains, le Covid-19 s’inscrit dans la même trajectoire. …”
De: Le droit universel à la respiration ~ Achille Mbembe, avril 06.2020
JE RESPIRE ENCORE – NEGRISSIM’
JE RESPIRE ENCORE Sadrak/Negrissim’ |
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With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
Don’t miss!
YOU THINK THE EARTH IS A DEAD THING – TU CROIS QUE LA TERRE EST CHOSE MORTE
The Film by Florence Lazar is scheduled on Arte TV on Tuesday 5 May at 0.25 am.
It will be available from 27/04/2020 – 02/07/2020 on the website.
Le film de Florence Lazar est programmé sur Arte TV mardi 5 mai à 0.25h.
Il sera disponible du 27/04/2020 – 02/07/2020 sur le site.
After the widespread pollution caused by the massive use of an insecticide in Martinique (chlordecone), an exploration of initiatives inspired by ancestral knowledge to revitalize the land. Atoumo (plant of all evils), cinnamon, lemongrass from Madagascar, spicy buttercup: it is a poetic inventory of the biodiversity in Martinique that a herbalist is shelling out during an intoxicating collection of tropical flora. Known to the ancients for their therapeutic virtues, these plants make up a precious pharmacopoeia. But on the West Indies island, the monoculture of bananas and widespread pollution by chlordecone, a carcinogenic pesticide used for more than twenty years, have destroyed the land and contaminated farm workers and inhabitants. An ecological and health disaster to be blamed on the minority, partly descended from the slave settlers, who still hold the economic monopoly.
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Après la pollution généralisée par l’usage massif d’un insecticide en Martinique (le chlordécone), une exploration d’initiatives s’inspirant de savoirs ancestraux pour revitaliser la terre. Atoumo (plante de tous les maux), cannelle, citronnelle de Madagascar, bouton d’or pimenté : c’est un inventaire poétique de la biodiversité en Martinique qu’égrène une herboriste, lors d’une enivrante collecte de flore tropicale. Connues des anciens pour leurs vertus thérapeutiques, ces plantes composent une précieuse pharmacopée. Mais sur l’île des Antilles, la monoculture de la banane et la pollution généralisée par le chlordécone, pesticide cancérigène utilisé pendant plus de vingt ans, ont détruit la terre et contaminé ouvriers agricoles et habitants. Un désastre écologique et sanitaire à imputer à la minorité, descendant en partie des colons esclavagistes, qui détient encore le monopole économique.
If you want to know more about the artist and her work – please read the Interview in French by Sylvie Arnaud.
Si vous voulez en savoir plus sur l’artiste et son travail – veuillez lire l’interview de Sylvie Arnaud:
http://www.mouvement.net/teteatete/entretiens/florence-lazar_1
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Em’kal Eyongakpa, untitled 11, ok-ko, 2018. Mycelium culture, pigments, coconut shells, plant fibre, electric wires. Courtesy of the artist, ɛfúkúyú, Bɔ́ Bɛtɔk
Em’kal Eyongakpa: Tahjèsè #3i / barɨŋ báchɔ́kɔrɔk #4
The Showroom, London, United Kingdom
02 Oct 2019 – 07 Dec 2019
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Astrid S. Klein, Prey – Beute / from the Series: “The Invention of…”, 2012
Photo: Yam
COULD BE
August 24 – September 22, 2019, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Membrane Festival 23 – 26. Mai 2019
Stuttgart, Germany
Inaugural Keynote
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AND THE LANGUAGES OF AFRICA
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Introduction and Discussion: Felwine Sarr
Souleymane Bachir Diagne is a professor at Columbia University in the departments of French and Philosophy, director of the Institute of African Studies and a preeminent scholar who lays out new pathways for thinking Africa in the world. His areas of research and publication include History of Philosophy, History of Logic and Mathematics, Islamic Philosophy, African Philosophy and Literature. His most recent publication is Open to Reason. Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with Western Tradition (Columbia University Press 2018).
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920
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Okwui Enwezor, The Short Century
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Hervé Yamguen
Hervé Yamguen
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin
https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/hamburger-bahnhof/exhibitions/detail/how-to-talk-with-birds-trees-fish-shells-snakes-bulls-and-lions.html/
See also Hervé’s contribution to crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net:
OBJECTS OF COHABITATION
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Un mélange de l’art et des gens – A Mix of Art and People
Congrats to SadraK!! The first book of the poet and Hip Hop pioneer SadraK is published. Highly recommended to discover this beautiful flow of a poetic and philosphic travel!
First French Edition to order at Edition MUNTU in Cameroon : leseditionsdumuntu.gmail.com / ISBN 978-2-9562874-2-1
See also two of SadraK’s contributions to crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net:
RAPPORT DE BON VOYAZINAGE
OWÉ OWÉ OWÉ
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Congratulations to Em’kal Eyongakpa!
Happy to announce that Em’kal Eyongakpa’s work is honored with the Henrike Grohs Art Award!
https://www.goethe.de/ins/za/en/kul/sup/hen/emk.html
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Diasporic Kola plant in the train
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Ton eeu feuk djo owé – Follow Your Values
30.11.2017 at 20h/8pm Screening: – FOLLOW YOUR VALUES by Lady B Bantu at Utrata równowagi – 15.09.2017-08.01.2018 Ujazdowski Castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
http://u-jazdowski.pl/en/kino/repertuar/utrata-rownowagi-05
https://www.facebook.com/events/2049602468601467
Ton eeu feuk djo owé – Follow your Values
by Lady Bantu
http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net/
Utrata równowagi at Ujazdowski Castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, is the follow-up exhibition of Dizziness, Navigating the Unknown at Kunsthaus Graz, curated by Ruth Anderwald, Leonhard Grond and Katrin Bucher Trantow. The show allows visitors to immerse themselves in the experience and reflections on dizziness. Can dizziness be a resource? What remains from states of precariousness, uncertainty, disorientation, intoxication or exhilaration? Particularly now, in these times of invocations of global crisis, these questions are more relevant than ever. The exhibition Utrata równowagi locates dizziness in artistic creativity, finding it in situations of unbalance, confusion, disorientation; in situations where we come up against the limits of our knowledge, our understanding, our ability to navigate, where we are obliged to approach the unknown, to expose ourselves to it. Utrata równowagi is accomponied by film screenings, performances and a conference.
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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Recommendation
Cosmopolis #1 : Collective intelligence
Interesting article by Sylvie Arnaud about an interesting project – Enjoy!
http://www.mouvement.net/critiques/critiques/cosmopolis-1/
http://arquitecturaexpandida.org/
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Dizziness, Navigating the Unknown
Happy to announce that crossing boundaries of doubt will be present with – FOLLOW YOUR VALUES by Lady B Bantu at Utrata równowagi – 15.09.2017-08.01.2018 Ujazdowski Castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Utrata równowagi at Ujazdowski Castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, is the follow-up exhibition of Dizziness, Navigating the Unknown at Kunsthaus Graz, curated by Ruth Anderwald, Leonhard Grond and Katrin Bucher Trantow. The show allows visitors to immerse themselves in the experience and reflections on dizziness. Can dizziness be a resource? What remains from states of precariousness, uncertainty, disorientation, intoxication or exhilaration? Particularly now, in these times of invocations of global crisis, these questions are more relevant than ever. The exhibition Utrata równowagi locates dizziness in artistic creativity, finding it in situations of unbalance, confusion, disorientation; in situations where we come up against the limits of our knowledge, our understanding, our ability to navigate, where we are obliged to approach the unknown, to expose ourselves to it. Utrata równowagi is accomponied by film screenings, performances and a conference.
© Anderwald + Grond
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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New contributions
We are happy to present the new contributions on http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net:
Sur les marges de l’histoire, a text of the Philosopher Jean-Godefroy Bidima
Jean-Godefroy Bidima is a Cameroonian philosopher, currently living in the United States. He is Professor and Yvonne Arnoult Chairholder in French and Francophone Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans.
On Pidgin English in Cameroon, a video interview with the Linguist and Phonologist Dr. Gratien Atindogbe about the role that Pidgin English plays as a common language for young people in Sub-Saharan-Africa, with Cameroon cited as an example, conducted by Serge Nguelou Ngouffo in the frame of his ongoing project “Beyond the Pidgins”.
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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08.01.2017
A peaceful new year to you!
Soon there will be as well news about the next steps of crossing boundaries of doubtand some documentation about the researches, performances and presentations we realized since 2013.
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant
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In Memoriam
Ils sont partis de chez eux, dans leurs valises un peu de sincérité.
Sur les pas du monomondo, ont fait connaissance avec le temps…
Ils vivent au-delà de la douleur que nous inspirent les peurs des valeurs,
qui se perdent le long du chemin.
La route est longue.
(Le Temps/Franklin Aleba Mokala/2013)
We are deeply saddened to share with you that Franklin Aleba Mokala passed away August 16, 2016 in Nantes. The poet, composer, and musician from Cameroon will be greatly missed.
For his wonderful and touching contributions to the project CROSSING BOUNDARIES OF DOUBT and the time we could spent together, we are very grateful.
The art world lost a wonderful artist, musician and great poet of his mother tongue Banen.
After growing up between Ndikiniméki and Yaoundé, he lived and worked in Douala until 2013 as an indispensable artist of the urban Cameroon scene. Mokala was a singer, guitarist, and member of the „HipHop développé“ Collective. His minimalist style is based on the urban and traditional rhythms of Cameroon and its poetic language. Le Black Viking, as his friend Sadrak calls Mokala, sung in Banen and French about utopias and hope for a different way of living together among people, for a different, more respectful world.
Franklin Aleba Mokala in Stuttgart 2013
http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net/chapter/passer-la-frontiere-des-doutes-crossing-boundaries-of-doubt/time/
http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net/chapter/conversation-with-masks/the-sacrifice/
http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net/chapter/dancefloor-of-the-new-world-dancefloor-to-come/le-dancefloor/
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Crossing-Boundaries-of-Doubt.net is happy to invite you to:
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart / Querungen
Saturday, January 10, 2015, 7 p.m.
SPACE OF COLOR
Astrid S. Klein in Conversation with Platino, together with Director Renate Härtl as a Guest.
Which connections exist between the artist Platino, his work, and the project initiated by Astrid S. Klein in 2012 called Crossing-Boundaries-of-Doubt.net, which involves artists from Cameroon and Germany and has been published on the Internet as an online platform since 2014?
Astrid S. Klein and Platino will be discussing the traces of National Socialism and its ideology of rassism in relation to colonialism encountered during their own biographies, citing both the project Red Space 1 established by Platino as an artistic working and living space in Stuttgart in 1979 and a photograph of his family from the nineteenth century, which displays links to the German colonial period in Cameroon. They will explore the effects thereof on artistic work, foster links to Crossing-Boundaries-of-Doubt.net, and touch on the necessity of opening up artistic spaces of agency.
Astrid S. Klein will speak about the astonishing correlations between her 2011 artistic research on the German colonial period in Douala and Platino’s family history. She also offers insight into the creation of Crossing-Boundaries-of-Doubt.net.
Focusing on an excerpt from Renate Härtl’s film Verändern kann man eigentlich wenig (Not Much Can Really Be Changed) from 1979, Platino, Astrid S. Klein, and the director embark on a brief journey through time to Stuttgart of the 1970s. This imbues with life Red Space 1, the postwar period in West Germany, the attitude toward life of a young artist generation at the time, and their yearning for new lifestyles. Can we identify connections to the themes pursued by artists today in the context of the online project?
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart – Schlossplatz 2 – 70173 Stuttgart
Querungen: Entry free
Information: http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net und www.wkv-stuttgart.de
Contact: info@crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net
The presentation shown in the “Querungen” project space at the Württembergischer Kunstverein offers insight into the various artistic explorations of the online project.
Screenshot from the film: Verändern kann man eigentlich wenig, Federal Republic of Germany, 1979–80, documentary film, 65 min., 16mm, directors: Adolf Härtl, Renate Härtl (Source: http://www.filmportal.de)
Photograph of the Oesterle family with the young Cameroonian Prince Rudolf Douala Manga Bell and Tube Meetom, his companion, ca. 1895 in Aalen (Source: Georg und Rolf-Dieter Röger Family Archive)
Crossing-Boundaries-of-Doubt.net läd ein:
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
Im Rahmen der aktuellen Präsentation von “Crossing Boundaries of Doubt” im Projektraum Querungen
Veranstaltung: Samstag, 10.01.2015, 19 Uhr mit anschließendem Rundgang
SPACE OF COLOR
Astrid S. Klein und Platino im Gespräch, zu Gast: die Regisseurin Renate Härtl.
Welche Verbindungen bestehen zwischen dem Künstler Platino, seiner Arbeit und dem Projekt “Crossing-Boundaries-of-Doubt.net”, das Astrid S. Klein zwischen Kamerunischen und Deutschen KünstlerInnen 2012 initiiert hat und das seit 2014 als Onlineplattform im Netz veröffentlicht ist?
An Hand des “Red Space 1”, den Platino in Stuttgart als künstlerischen Arbeits- und Lebensraum 1979 begonnen hat, sowie einem Foto seiner Familie aus dem 19ten Jahrhundert, das mit der deutschen Kolonialzeit in Kamerun verknüpft ist, sprechen Astrid S. Klein und Platino über Spuren des Nationalsozialismus, der Ideologien des Rassismus und Kolonialismus und wie diese sich in die eigenen Biographie eingeschrieben haben. Sie fragen nach deren Auswirkungen auf die künstlerische Arbeit, stellen Bezüge zu “Crossing Boundaries of Doubt” her und zur Notwendigkeit, künstlerische Handlungsräume zu öffnen.
Astrid S. Klein erzählt von der erstaunlichen Überschneidung ihrer künstlerischen Forschung 2011 zur deutschen Kolonialzeit in Douala mit der Familiengeschichte Platinos und gibt einen Einblick in die Entstehung des Projektes.
Mit einem Ausschnitt aus dem Film Renate Härtls „Verändern kann man eigentlich wenig“ von 1979, machen Platino, Astrid S. Klein und die Regisseurin eine kleine Zeitreise in das Stuttgart der 1970er Jahre. Red Space 1, die Nachkriegszeit in Westdeutschland, das damalige Lebensgefühl einer jungen Künstlergeneration und ihr Bedürfnis nach anderen Lebensformen werden lebendig. Gibt es Verbindungen zu den Themen der KünstlerInnen des Onlineprojektes heute?
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart – Schlossplatz 2 – 70173 Stuttgart
Eintritt Querungen: frei
Info: http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net und www.wkv-stuttgart.de
Kontakt: info@crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net
Screenshot aus dem Film: Verändern kann man eigentlich wenig,
BR Deutschland 1979/1980, Dokumentarfilm, 65 min, 16mm,
Regie: Adolf Härtl, Renate Härtl
Quelle: http://www.filmportal.de
Foto der Familie Oesterle mit dem jungen kamerunischen Prinzen Rudolf Douala Manga Bell
und Tube Meetom, seinem Begleiter, um 1895 in Aalen
Quelle: Familienarchiv Georg und Rolf-Dieter Röger
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We are happy to invite you:
December 14, 2014 – January 11, 2015
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart / Querungen
Opening: Saturday, December 13, 2014, 7 p.m.,
with a live intervention and a reading by Sylvie Arnaud (France/Martinique), Em’kal Eyongakpa (Cameroon), Astrid S. Klein (Germany), SadraK via Skype (Cameroon), and other guests
The presentation of http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net shown in the “Querungen” project space at the Württembergischer Kunstverein offers insight into the various artistic explorations.
Sylvie Arnaud, Lady B, Vincent Ndoumbé D, Em’kal Eyongakpa,Justine Gaga, Simone Gilges, Peter Haury, Felix Kama, Astrid S. Klein, Elsa M‘bala, François-Stéphane Alima Mbarga, Stone Karim Mohamad, Franklin Aleba Mokala, Platino, SadraK, Yam, Hervé Yamguen, AdanGoZulu among others
HERVÉ YAMGUEN, drawing from the series OBJETS DE COHABITATION, 2013
Crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net is an online platform and poetic, critical collection that arose through artistic research conducted in Cameroon and Germany in 2013–14, which is now being continued transnationally.
In their complex worlds, which are influenced by colonial history, phantasms of consumption, and the fragility of social structures, the artists investigate their reciprocal relationships and their conceptions of one another. They speak about prevailing conditions, the realities of life, and the everyday entanglement and boundaries of their societies, which are immersed in radical social and economic upheaval.
The participants are questing for new languages, for new utopian places. They describe rituals of violence, the act of capitalizing on human relations. And they speak of a need for self-determination and shared moments of unity.
As an ongoing transnational project dealing with relations between the Global South and the Global North, the collection is continually growing through new artistic contributions by artists invited to participate from different countries. The multilingual platform can be used as a poetic space of agency outside of an institutional context.
Live events accompany the project, such as interventions, performances, concerts, and conversations. They tie into narrative digital space by way of direct physical encounters.
A project by Astrid S. Klein in collaboration with Em’kal Eyongakpa, Artspace Khaliland, Cameroon – SadraK, Collective Hip-Hop Développé, Cameroon – Susanne Weiß, Heidelberger Kunstverein
New contributions by François Alima, Sylvie Arnaud, and Platino will appear at Crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net in December.
Information:
info@crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net
www.wkv-stuttgart.de
Württembergischer
Kunstverein Stuttgart
Schlossplatz 2
70173 Stuttgart
www.wkv-stuttgart.de
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LAUNCH: 01.06.2014 http://crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net
Em’kal Eyongakpa, German Bridge
We are happy, if you join us and discover the project!
CROSSING BOUNDARIES OF DOUBT – PASSER LA FRONTIÈRE DES DOUTES – ÜBER DIE GRENZE DER ZWEIFEL
A fragmentary narrative in nine chapters with contributions by:
Lady B, Vincent Ndoumbé D, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Justine Gaga, Simone Gilges, Peter Haury, Felix Kama, Astrid S. Klein, Elsa M’bala, François-Stéphane Alima Mbarga, Stone Karim Mohamad, Franklin Aleba Mokala, Serge Ngouffo, Platino, SadraK, Yam, Hervé Yamguen, AdanGo Zulu, and other future guests
A project by the artist Astrid S. Klein in collaboration with these partners: Susanne Weiß/Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany, Em’kal Eyongakpa/Khaliland, Cameroon, and SadraK/HipHop Developé, Cameroon
In English, German, French, Pidgin, Bassa, Fang, Eton, Cam-Franglaise and utopian languages.
With the Heartbeat of Quartier Flottant by ask
