Geographies of Collectivity. Artistic Infrastructures in Times of Crisis: Berlin-Vienna-Graz-Minsk-Kharkiv-Pristina
September & October 2024
Geographies of Collectivity. Artistic Infrastructures in Times of Crisis: Berlin-Vienna-Graz-Minsk-Kharkiv-Pristina is an artistic and discursive encounter and networking project that focuses on practices of collectivity and solidarity.
Together with the curator Zofia nierodzinska, alpha nova and & galerie futura invites HAVEIT, 127 garage, and Work Hard! Play Hard! working group & Uladzimir Hramovich—three emancipatory working artist groups and individuals from Kosovo, the Ukraine, and Belarus, in order to strengthen the exchange between post-socialist and late capitalist realities of living and working and to learn from each other.
During the residency, both informal gatherings and public events will take place with presentations, performances, and exhibition, and an assembly (Decentric Circles Assembly) with the purpose to establish long-term solidarity alliances. Berlin-based art and cultural actors and activists in particular are invited to take part.
How can artistic and curatorial work be carried out in times of political and social uncertainty, repression, crises and wars? Together with cultural workers and self-organised collectives, who partially live in exile due to precarious political situations, we want to create a space for translocal exchange, personal encounters, and solidarity practices in which various forms of collaboration can be developed and collectively articulated.
Program (in English language)
HAVEIT (18.9.-22.9.2024)
21.9.2024, 18:00: Shaving Patriarchy – Performance & Discussion with HAVEIT, Dr. Lorena Juan (Kunst im Untergrund, COVEN Berlin, among others), Dr. Catherine Nichols (Manifesta 14, Hamburger Bahnhof, among others)
127 garage (19.9.-29.9.2024)
28.9.2024
The Weaving Project – Networking of Independent Art Spaces Across the Ukraine and in Exile
16:00 Exhibition by 127 garage and participants of The Weaving Project (Tvorche Nezhit, Kut, depot 12_59, gallery Kruchi, Gareleya Neotodryosh, Totem, 31 Art Space, Nulla, Detenpyla)
18:00 Presentation & Talk with 127 garage, Kreuzberg Pavillon and Cultural Workers Studio
Work Hard! Play Hard! working group & Uladzimir Hramovich (12.10.-21.10.2024)
19.10.2024, 18:00
Wherever We Live, We Live With Others; Odd Geographies of Solidarity
Discussion with Aleksei Borisionok (Biennale Matter of Art, WH!PH! working group), Cornelia Herfurtner (artist), Olia Sosnovskaya (artist, writer, WH!PH! working group), Joanna Warsza (59. Biennale di Venezia, Stadtkuratorin Hamburg, among others)
Supported by die Freundinnen und Freunde der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
20.10.2024
17:00-20:00 Presentation by Uladzimir Hramovich & Decentric Circles Assembly with WH!PH! working group
Groups / Collectives
HAVEIT – Alketë Sylaj, Hana Qena, Vesa Qena, Arbërore Sylaj – is an art collective established in Pristina, Kosovo in 2011. Using performance, protest, and video installation as the backbone to their charged work, their artistic expression often poses frightening risks in what is still seen as a predominantly conservative society. Their practice spans in public performances, interventions in public spaces, video performances, and exhibitions.
127 garage is a space for cultural initiatives from artists and for artists. The artist Anton Tkachenko and the curator Nastia Khlestova, opened a space for exhibitions, lectures, shows, meetings, discussions, and, most importantly, experiments in their garage in Kharkiv in 2019. It`s main goal and mission were to create a space comfortable for work and interaction, supporting young artists. After the russian invasion 127 garage beame nomadic organization supporting emerging artist and artist-run spaces throughout Ukraine. 127 garage’s work is centered on different formats of knowledge exchange and developing new tools for understanding the condition today for a queerer tomorrow. 127 garage strives for a world of horizontal hegemonies, borderlessness, and borderlands, guided by the curiosity and urgency.
WORK HARD! PLAY HARD! working group (Dzina Zhuk, Aleksei Borisionok, Olia Sosnovskaya, Nicolay Spesivtsev) deals with work, leisure, collective practices and communal living, non-institutional infrastructures and knowledges. The group organised the annual event series WORK HARD! PLAY HARD in Minsk (2016-2020), the performative seminars FATIGUE AND PHARMACHOREOGRAPHY (2017-2019), “STRIKING-EVENT” (2022-2023), and assembly DECENTRIC CIRCLES in Warsaw (2024).
Uladzimir Hramovich is a Belarusian artist who currently lives and works in Berlin. He graduated from the Gymnasium-College of Arts in Minsk, Belarus, in 2009 and the graphic arts department of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk in 2015. He has been a member of the “Problem Collective” since 2016. Hramovich works with installations, graphics, and video.
