Exhibition
Autopoiesis: Recognizing Kin Across Antipodal Topologies | Ausstellung
4 Aug 2022 – 30 Aug 2022
Regular hours
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
Free admission
Address
- Lucy-Lameck-Straße 32
- Berlin
Berlin - 12049
- Germany
"We cannot give up writing stories about what it means to be human that displace those that are at the foundation of Empire." - Sylvia Wynter
About
Andrew Ananda Voogel in Khirkee Voice / Christopher Udemezue / Dhrubo Jyoti / Elyla / Jesús Hilario-Reyes / Prabhakar Pachpute / Rajyashri Goody / Subas Tamang.
Curated by Shaunak Mahbubani with curatorial advice from Vidisha-Fadescha, Eli Moon and Madhumita Nandi.
Vernissage: 03 August 2022, 19:00 - 22:00
Exhibition: 04 - 30 August, Tuesday - Saturday, 12:00 - 19:00
Free entry!
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"We cannot give up writing stories about what it means to be human that displace those that are at the foundation of Empire." - Sylvia Wynter
In her evocation, Being Human as Praxis (2007), Wynter addresses the importance of the origin story and places the act of self-narration at the center of the process of establishing oneself as a full and complex human being outside of the Enlightenment definition of the human - a move she calls the "Autopoetic Turn/Overturn." In keeping with Wynter's vision, AUTOPOIESIS explores the nuances of autobiographical art practices rooted in the contrasting locations of South Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean. The project, which will be shown in extended exhibition form in Berlin, Kassel, Mexico City, Guatemala City, New Delhi, and other locations between August and December 2022, aims to move beyond abstract notions of solidarity and propose an experiment with self-narratives to develop deeper kinship through the recognition of specific embodied positions.
Both regions have a density of indigenous networks that have been erased and reshaped by multiple waves of colonization. This evolution has produced very specific social topologies that have much in common in their dynamics of caste colonialism, extractivism, and deep-rooted cultural erasure. Each* of the eight artists, who come from systemically silenced positions within these regions and their diasporas, speak from their own experience and engagement with ancestral cosmologies and employ creative strategies to revive wounded archives. Her sustained commitment to the practice of self-narrative results in works that eschew a victim perspective and instead combine community research with an empowered poetics to emulate Wynter's vision of the complete and complex human being.
AUTOPOIESIS is the fourth installment in the curatorial series "Allies for the Uncertain Futures," initiated by Shaunak Mahbubani, which explores pluralistic co-creation of the future through the dissolution of boundaries between self and other, based on the Buddhist philosophy of non-duality. AUTOPOIESIS is developed in collaboration with curatorial advisors and hosts Vidisha-Fadescha (Party Office, New Delhi), Eli Moon (Bataclan Festival, Mexico City) and Madhumita Nandi (Oyoun, Berlin).
Supported by the Project Fund Visual Arts of the Goethe-Institut
Photo: Christopher Udemezue, Untitled (Tayki and The Obeah Man), 2021, digital print, 114.3 x 64.8 cm (detail)