Graduale 21: Imagine Something New, Like Justice

About

Imagine Something New, Like Justice – the second iteration of the collective gesture by the fellows of the Graduate School of the Berlin University of the Arts 2019-21 – takes place in the form of an exhibition at Galerie Wedding following a publication with the same title by Archive Books. As various calls for justice and visibility spread from different parts of the world simultaneously today, they challenge the codes of power, authority and sovereignty fortified by post-truth’s slippery regimen. They also question public spheres, which erase certain voices by the way they are constructed. You do not need to be fixed, they claim, it is the world that needs fixing. What constitutes that justice we keep looking for as a reciprocal horizon, as life-long pedagogy, as a struggle, as an imagination, as a desire? That is the core question that encircles and passes through the particular final moment of the transdisciplinary research projects by Yalda Afsah, Salwa Aleryani, Neslihan Arol, Anthony R. Green, Rindon Johnson, Mariam Mekiwi, Didem Pekün and Romily Alice Walden.

The artists coexist in the Galerie Wedding situated in one of the most central and plurivocal squares of Wedding, that is itself partially taken over by the Sozialamt and has become an extraordinary example of cohabitation in reflection of the times. Spreading their works in the exhibition space and around the square, the artists attempt to stand side-by-side, to consult with each other, to de-border inside from outside and to breathe in each other’s freedoms. The short and intense one-week encounter – the presence of which is a sign of the attachment to life in these times of loss and longing – will be accompanied by an expanded book launch outdoors with music, talks and screenings on 16th and 18th September.  

Curated by Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu (curator and writer, visiting professor of the Graduate School)    

Exhibition opening: 16 September 2021, 7-10 pm at Rathausvorplatz 
8pm: Performance vehicle – postlude by Anthony R. Green 
8:15pm: Extended book launch with Archive Books 

Programme evening: 18 September 2021, 12-10 pm at Rathausvorplatz 
7pm: Concert Smaller Big Things by Anthony R. Green & Guests 
7:45pm: Open Air Screening with filmic works by Yalda Afsah, Rindon Johnson, Mariam Mekiwi, Didem Pekün and Romily Alice Walden 

Salwa Aleryani's work "Raising minimum defenses (outdoors)" will be exhibited on both days of the public program. Didem Pekün's red poster campaign "Free Osman Kavala", which has already been shown internationally in various cultural institutions, will also be on display at Rathausvorplatz. 

On 22 September 2021, 8 pm, the premiere of the play "Karagörlz: Leaving Earth But Holding On to Humanity" by Neslihan Arol will take place at the Theater im Aufbau Haus Kreuzberg as part of the exhibition.