with the collectives
POLIGONAL
spätispäti
Exhibition
10/11/2023 – 4/2/2024
Curated by Cleo Wächter, Joana Stamer, Julius Kaftan, Vanessa Göppner
“Addressing” is the fourth part of the annual exhibition programme GLEANING
In the last exhibition of the annual program “Gleaning“, the Bärenzwinger turns its gaze inward as well as outward, to its social and cultural position in the urban environment. “Addressing” sees itself as an attempt to reflect on its own role as an art institution in the northern Luisenstadt.
The two collectives POLIGONAL and spätispäti were invited, on the one hand, to explore this urban environment artistically and urban sociologically and, on the other hand, to open up the Bärenzwinger more for neighbors, to make it more visible and to activate it as a place of participation.
POLIGONAL explores the interfaces between urban practice, urban communication and architecture with artistic and curatorial approaches. With the aim of opening up non-normative perspectives, the collective develops formats that communicate and discuss urbanistic and sociological topics in cross-disciplinary collaborations. These include performative city explorations, immersive audio walks, and curatorial projects on urban transformation, marginalization, and queerness.
The staging of a city district from its (in)audible fragments, finds and set pieces draws attention to traces of urban transformations, connections and exploitations. The archival installation “B10179” in the Bärenzwinger brings together findings from the surrounding urban space and interweaves them with less visible and audible structures: statistics from the real estate industry contextualize anecdotes from residents; sounds and field recordings are reshaped by rent developments and social indicators.
The visitors themselves are the conductors of this production: at the center of the work is an 8-channel mixing console, with which the audience creates elastic sound configurations. In the course of the exhibition, voices, echoes and conjunctures of urban space overlap in ever new references.
The sound installation “B10179” is a collaboration between POLIGONAL and Nihad El-Kayed.
spätispäti is a human collective working at the intersection of architecture, theory, research, art and performance. It explores alternatives to a neoliberal, product- and constraint-based production of space through situated and process-oriented spatial interventions. spätispäti was founded in Berlin 2019 by Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux, Jonathan Heck, Antonia Lembcke, Jonas Illigmann and Corinna Studier.
The collective spätispäti was invited to make the site of the Bärenzwinger more accessible to the neighborhood through an artistic position. “Kill your Darlings!” refers to the pragmatic proposals rejected by the art institution to make the architecture of the listed building more barrier-free through spatial interventions. With which the collective had to part with its own “darlings” in the process. The title challenges the institution to critical reflection and poses the question of how open a pit- a prison – can be. What has to go and what can stay?
This “killing” of one’s own darlings ultimately makes room for other people’s darlings – and does so directly in the exhibition, asking the question, “What are we holding on to and why?”
The Bärenzwinger as an art gallery is now being converted by spätispäti into collective basement spaces that will be made available to visitors* for three months.
POLIGONAL
Dr. Christian Haid studied Urban Studies (UCL London) and Architecture (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) and received his PhD in Urban Sociology (Humboldt University Berlin). As co-founder of POLIGONAL, he develops communication formats at the intersections of urban practice, art and architecture. As a senior researcher at the Habitat Unit (TU Berlin), he writes, researches and teaches on international urbanism. His main interests are queer urbanism, urban informality, and postcolonial critique.
Lukas Staudinger studied architecture (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Berlin University of the Arts) and sociology (Goldsmiths, University of London). He is a co-founder of POLIGONAL. In his work as an urban mediator and curator of urban practice, he specializes in historical and contemporary urban planning, art in public space, and queer urban everyday life.
Nihad El-Kayed is a sound artist and sociologist. She received her PhD in urban sociology from Humboldt University, where she works as a researcher investigating spatial-social inequality processes and urban development dynamics in the context of migration. In her sound works she works, among other things, based on fieldrecordings and is interested in connections and voids between space, noise and perception. The experimental electronic music project PLÜMMO (with Katharina Hauke) uses computers, DIY synthesizers and analog instruments to explore the spectrum between structure, melody and noise.
spätispäti
spätispäti is a human collective operating at the interface of architecture, theory, research, art, and performance.
Together, they investigate alternatives to a neoliberal, product- and constraints-based space production through situated and process-oriented spatial interventions. The collective’s first action was to open a trust-based, non-profit kiosk during the Making Futures School at Haus der Statistik Berlin which became a space in a space in a space: a space for open discussion, collective care, knowledge exchange and critical consumption.
Currently, they conduct a performative research project titled “Berlin ScarCity” funded by the Urbane Praxis Projektfond, in which they take the role of urban detectives unveiling gentrification processes triggered by large-scale real-estate development projects in Berlin.
spätispäti is based in berlin and was founded in 2019 by Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux, Jonathan Heck, Antonia Lembcke, Jonas Illigmann and Corinna Studier
Kill your Darlings!
Let go of ballast and become part of our exhibition:
spätispäti asking you about your darlings: do you have stuff in closets or back doors, in your head or basement, in attics or garages that are hard to part with?
Bring them by and be a part of the winter exhibit.
You can bring your darlings during the construction of the exhibition or directly to the opening.
We will carefully take them in and store them on site for three months. The darlings can either be retrieved at the finissage or be part of a swap meet in the garden of Bärenzwinger.
DISPOSAL:
When: November 1-4, 2023 between 9 am- 6 pm
or
at the vernissage on November 9, 20233 from 6 pm.
where: at the Bärenzwinger in Köllnischer Park (Rungestraße 30, 10179 Berlin)
what: Everything can be a darling! <3
Ps: You also have the possibility to bring your Darling by during the opening hours for the entire duration of the exhibition.
Beginning
9/11/2023 from 6 pm
Free entry
On Thursday the 9 November 2023, from 6pm the Bärenzwinger Berlin invites you to the opening of the exhibition “Addressing“, with the collectives POLIGONAL and spätispäti.
As the last exhibition of the annual program »Gleaning«, the Bärenzwinger turns its gaze inward as well as outward, to its social and cultural position in the urban environment. “Addressing” sees itself as an attempt to reflect on its own role as an art institution in the northern Luisenstadt.
End
4/2/2024 from 2 pm
2 pm continuous
Swap Market in the context of “Kill your Darlings!”
4 pm
Performance by POLIGONAL X PLÜMMO X Candaş Baş (Constanza Macras / DorkyPark)
Free entry
The Bärenzwinger invites everyone from near and far to come together, exchange ideas and listen to each other at the end of the “Addressing” exhibition.
The last exhibition of the annual “Gleaning” programme has been running for the past three months. The Bärenzwinger looked both inwards and outwards and examined its social and cultural position in the urban environment. “Addressing” is an attempt to reflect on its own role as an art institution in the northern part of Luisenstadt.
The two collectives POLIGONAL and spätispäti were invited to explore the urban environment from an artistic and urban sociological perspective and to open up the Bärenzwinger to neighbours, make it more visible and activate it as a place of participation.
Swap your “darlings” at the swap market with spätispäti and enjoy the live mix and the accompanying performance by POLIGONAL, PLÜMMO and Candaş Baş (Constanza Macras / DorkyPark) on Sunday 04.02.2024.
Swap Market in the context of “Kill your Darlings!” with spätispäti
2 pm continuous
Swap your darling!
What do you hold on to? What can you (not) part with? The spätispäti collective uses the former cages as collective cellar rooms and invites you to temporarily lock up personal objects, favourites, (darlings) there – personal objects become part of the exhibition. This collection brings the neighbourhood inside the gallery.
Over the course of the exhibition, a collection has emerged that reflects what is (un)important to the visitors.
The question of what we hold on to now becomes serious at the end of the exhibition: the owners can decide whether they can part with their favourite object in the long term and release it at the swap market during the finissage or whether they want to take it home again. Meanings and owners change. Bring your darling by! Swap it! Or pick it up again!
B10179 – POLIGONAL X PLÜMMO X Candaş Baş (Constanza Macras / DorkyPark)
4 pm
Performance by POLIGONAL X PLÜMMO X Candaş Baş (Constanza Macras / DorkyPark)
The dystopic landscape of the Bärenzwinger becomes an acoustic space of movement: The archival installation “B10179” by POLIGONAL and PLÜMMO (on display since November 7, 2023) provides the framework and soundtrack for a dance exploration by performer Candaş Baş (Constanza Macras / DorkyPark) through the spaces of the former cage.
In the polyphonic live-mixed tapestry by PLÜMMO (Nihad El-Kayed) consisting of anecdotes from local actors, distorted field recordings from the surrounding urban landscape, sonified social data, and statistics from the real estate industry, urban transformation processes and capitalist exploitation dynamics translate into a vocabulary of movements.
Candaş Baş
Candaş Baş is a choreographer and performer originally from Istanbul who lives and creates in Berlin.
Her work consists of an investigation of human psychology through a socio-cultural perspective.
Her choreographic research is based on the boundaries of human anatomy, creation of raw movement and the exploration of its transformation through time and space.
The award winning choreographer has staged her work with international acclaim.