Event

Check Out

20 Jan 2018 – 27 Jan 2018

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IMPORT Projects

Berlin, Germany

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Travel Information

  • U Bahn Wittenbergplatz
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​Import Projects invites you to join the CHECK OUT event series. On four evenings, the happenings will reflect on contemporary authorship and authority.

About

Installations, performances, discussions and a workshop will explore themes and puns such as Platform Capitalism vs. Sharing Economy, Mediation vs. Meditation, Self-Checkout vs. Obsession, Terror vs. Revolution. 

For his ongoing installation project Aram Bartholl collects different objects and materials of the contemporary commerce and public space to rearrange them at the exhibition space. The elements refer to radical shifts in markets, rising control and a life under the influence of constantly improved algorithms, startup pressure and 'bullshit jobs'. Over the period of the exhibition the installation is rearranged and changes in dialogue with the audience. Dani Ploegerwill present work that emerged from a journey across Europe to examine the recent (re-)militarization of civilian spaces as part of digital culture. A collection of three pieces engages with ways in which firearms and other means of ‘low-tech’ violence persist amidst contemporary obsessions with data surveillance, cybercrime, and high-tech warfare. This winter, Alanna Lawley explores the notion of winter depression through her artist in residency in Iceland. ‚Saunatorium’ is an experimental beginning to her research – a group of sauna steam tents installed inside the gallery invite visitors to physical and emotional detoxification. With an increasing awareness of the necessity to address the lack of psychological security within our culture, and the impact of our environment on our well being, Lawley will investigate the potential of an architecture as an alternative healing modality.The audio/visual art project ‚French Kiss With Enya pt. 1’ by Curver Thoroddsen examines the effect and aura of 90’s ethereal pop icon Enya in popular culture. Led by Icelandic multidisciplinary artist Curver Thoroddsen and curator Nadim Samman the project mixes music, visuals and sensory inputs from a selection of Icelandic artists and scholars including members of Sigur Rós.
 

SATURDAY, 20 JAN, 19.00-22.00 CHECK OUT 1/4

Discussion, Installations, films, performances by Aram Bartholl (artist), Sophia Graefe (media culture scholar), Anja Henckel (Co-Director Import Projects) and Dani Ploeger (artist) 

'Violent Artefacts' by Dani Ploeger
An advertising plane flying over historical buildings pulls a banner with the text ‘terror/revolution’; a 16mm film shows the artist in a warzone alongside soldiers who alternatingly fire Kalashnikovs and play with their smart devices; an online order delivery from a shop for ‘Adventure Equipment’ awaits unpacking. 

‘Your parcel has been delivered (to your neighbour)’ by Aram Bartholl
For his ongoing installation Aram Bartholl collects different objects and materials of the contemporary commerce and public space to rearrange them at the exhibition space. The elements refer to radical shifts in markets, rising control and a life under the influence of constantly improved algorithms, startup pressure and 'bullshit jobs'. Over the period of the exhibition the installation is rearranged and changes in dialogue with the audience. 

TUESDAY, 23 JAN, 19.00 CHECK OUT 2/4

Lecture performance ‘Schreckschusswaffe’ (blank gun) by Dani Ploeger 

In his lecture performance ‘Schreckschusswaffe’ (blank gun), Dani will present video documentation and artwork that emerged from several journeys he made across Europe over the past year to examine the recent (re-)militarization of civilian spaces in the context of omnipresent digital culture. 

Since 2015, heavily armed police officers and soldiers have been conspicuously deployed on the streets of Western European metropoles, while a news media have increasingly featured volunteer militias equipped with Soviet-era weapons who are training for – and participating in – conventional war scenarios in Central Europe. Meanwhile, experiences of the public spaces in which these developments take place are highly determined by advanced (mobile) consumer technologies. Starting from his own ambiguous relationship to firearms, which is driven by a paradoxical combination of childhood fascinations and critical theory, ‘Schreckschusswaffe’ connects cultural criticism with subversive technologies and gunfire. 

THURSDAY, 25 JAN, 19.00 CHECK OUT 3/4

Workshop 'Got a few minutes?' by Aram Bartholl 

SPACES LIMITED, PLEASE REGISTER info@import-projects.org 

'Got a few minutes?' is an open workshop format which invites the audience to experiment in a series of actions and micro performances. With different tasks involving a range of contemporary devices and objects the participants execute and invent unique interactions. Consume, control and privacy are some of the core topics which serve as a basis for this examination of the hyper commercial contemporary life. 

SATURDAY, 27 JAN, 21.00 - 24.00 CHECK OUT 4/4

A performance by Curver Thoroddsen and participatory installation 'Saunatorium' by Alanna Lawley, Installations and films by Aram Bartholl and Dani Ploeger 

French Kiss With Enya pt. 1
Audio-visual performance by Curver Thoroddsen
 

‚French Kiss with Enya’ is an audio/visual art project manifested in three distinct parts over a year in three different cities; Berlin, Reykjavík and London. Led by Icelandic multidisciplinary artist Curver Thoroddsen and curator Nadim Samman the project sets out to examine pop icon Enya and her influences in todays popular culture and unspoken, almost taboo-like cult following in closed musical circles. 90’s visuals and imagery rich in Enya's ethereal artistic aura are fused with skewed musical exploration and didactic interviews with scholars and self described Enya-fairies make up the first part of the trilogy debuted in Berlin. 

Saunatorium
Participatory installation by Alanna Lawley
 

‚Saunatorium’, is an open invitation to Import Project's visitors to physically and emotionally detoxify inside the gallery. A period of isolation within public space and an awkward interaction with those who have also chosen to experience the treatment becomes an uncomfortable, comedic spectacle. Playing with the uncertainty of what could be a healing, transformative experience and the awkward, performative nature of self-care in public, the piece raises questions about our sense of self within space. 
About the participants:
Aram Bartholl’s (DE) public interventions and installations often include surprising physical manifestations of the digital world and have been on display at MoMA, Skulptur Projekte Münster, and Hayward Gallery London. Alanna Lawley (GB) seeks to absorb her environment’s physical terms, creating site-specific architectural constructions that masquerade as photographic collages. Her work is about the personal experience of these fragmented spaces that generate experiences of dismissal, seduction and denial. Dani Ploeger (NL) combines performance, video, computer programming, and electronics hacking to investigate and subvert techno-consumer culture. Re-purposing, mis-using, and, at times, destroying everyday devices, his work exposes those aspects of digital culture that seem banal and are taken for granted as objects of both physical beauty and political power. Artist and musician Curver Thoroddsen (IS) whose gallery works turn a playful eye on identity, pop culture and society. One half of Ghostigital, his other musical collaborators include Björk, Sigur Ros and more. Sophia Gräfe (DE) is a media culture scholar, assistant curator, and freelance text editor based in Berlin. As an assistant curator she has worked with various media and film festivals, such as the transmediale festival, Werkleitz Festival and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, as well as with galleries and artist studios. Currently, she acts as research assistant at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Curver Thoroddsen

Sophia Graefe

Dani Ploeger

Aram Bartholl

alannalawley

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