Hactivate Yourself !

About

Hactivate Yourself features Berlin-based contemporary artists AslieMk, Korhan Erel, Göksu Kunak a.k.a. Gucci Chunk, Julia Nitschke and Hong Kong artist Vvzela Kook. Hactivate Yourself is the selected project of 1a spcae’s “Call for Curator/Artist in Residence 2019”.

“Hactivate Yourself !” is a project that concept is driven by transhumanism and posthumanism themes. The exhibition will explore artistic positions about hacking culture, biohacking, biopolitics, critique of daily usage of internet through performance, performative installations, videos, sound and site specific installations.
The exhibition will ask these questions: How can we hack our ideas? How can we look outside the box? It is important to understand that hacking in the smaller scale could change a lot in our daily life. How can we hack the system for the sake of better life? The popular culture and so many sponsored videos in the social media are promoting about healthy, quality, and active life. How about hactivating our lives!
The exhibition ‘Hactivate Yourself ’ will bring together AslieMk, Korhan Erel, Göksu Kunak a.k.a. Gucci Chunk, Vvzela Kook and Julia Nitschke during the residency period at 1a space.

Hactivate Yourself
Opening Reception: 23 March 2019, 3pm

Exhibition Period: 23 March 2019 – 19 May 2019
Time: Tuesday to Sundays 11 am – 7 pm (closed on Mondays)

Venue: 1a space
Unit 14, Cattle Depot Artist Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Road,To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Public program
Public program of ‘Hactivate Yourself’ exhibition will have curatorial tour, a discussion session with invited academics from Hong Kong. The public program will finish with free improvisation audio-visual performance of Vvzela Kook and Korhan Erel, who are separately presenting their works in the exhibition.

1. Curatorial Guided Tour
Mar. 28, 11am to 12pm & 5pm to 6 pm.
Mar. 29, 11am to 12pm & 5pm to 6 pm.
Mar. 30, 4pm to 4.45pm

2. Discussion
Mar. 30, 5pm to 6.30pm
Theme: Discussion on Biopolitics and Art: Hacking the Body
Speakers (in no particular order):
Göksu Kunak (Performance Artist, Researcher)
Julia Nitschke (Performance Artist, Researcher)
Dr. Denise Tse-Shang Tang (Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University)
Dr. Sonia Wong (Founder of Reel Women Hong Kong and Part-time Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong)

3. Audio-visual Performance
Mar. 30, 7pm to 7.30pm
Performance Artists: Vvzela Kook & Korhan Erel

Press interviews are welcome

Press enquiry
Ms Eugenia Law
Gallery Manager
Tel: 2334 1906/ 9156 5157
Email: eugenia@oneaspace.org.hk

About Call for Curator/Artist in Residence 2019
With the aim of encouraging curatorial research in tandem with exhibition planning, the program provides one deserving curatorial talent or curatorial team/ artist or artist group a platform and necessary resources to realize an innovative and experimental project to fill the gap between larger public institutions and commercial ventures. The aim of this curatorial residency program is to promote arts in Hong Kong with international collaborations and to enhance international curatorial research in Hong Kong.

Curator and Participating Artist

Curator:
Tuçe Erel
Tuçe Erel (1981, Ankara) is a curator, art writer and art professional, based in Berlin. She studied Sociology at METU (2005, Ankara), and Arts Theory and Critic (MA program) at Anatolian University (2009, Eskişehir). She did her second MA in Art Arts Policy and Management (with curating pathway) at Birkbeck College (2015, London).
She worked for an art magazine as content editor, event manager and archivist, and gallery assistant in Istanbul from 2011 through 2013. Since September 2013, she has been working as a freelance art professional. She worked for artist’s book project, supported artists’ public relations, and contributed to art magazines in Turkey. Since 2015, she has been organizing events, performances, and exhibitions. In 2017 February she co-curated “Now You are Here” with Seval Sener at Arte Sanat (Ankara) and curated “Fabric/ate” at Schneidertempel (Istanbul).
She was at the curatorial team of Quiet Cue and since January 2017, she is a member of > top e.V. Her curatorial interests are archiving practices, urban studies, ecology, Anthropocene, post-humanism and post-digital theories. Currently she is hosting Posthumanism Reading Group at Top once a month and hosting various exhibitions and events at the space.
http://tuceerel.wordpress.com

Participating Artists (in no particular order)

AslieMk (performance duo - Aslı Dinç & MK Yurttaş)
AslieMk is the performance duo project of Aslı Dinç (www.aslidinc.com) and Mustafa Kemal Yurttaş (www. mkyurttas.com), based in Istanbul, Turkey. 
They explore the nature of being duo around the keywords like psychogeography, cosmic, ghostly-becoming and schizo-creative. Their performances include experiences in-between performative intervention and performative sculptureusing new media, video, photography, audio installations.
Since 2012, AslieMk continued their performances in public spaces, abandoned buildings, art festivals and non-profit organizations. Since 2016, they joined performance platform Performistanbul and work on new collaborations in this platform with other artists and curators.
http://asliemk.com/
http://performistanbul.org/index.php/asliemk/

Korhan Erel
Korhan Erel is a electronic musician, improviser, sound designer based in Berlin. He plays instruments he designs on a computer by employing various controllers. He also uses analog and digital electronics. He composes and designs sounds for dance, theater, installations and film. He collaborates with dancers, video artists and spoken word artists. Korhan’s collaboration with Sydney-based video artist Fabian Astore “The Threshold” has won the Blake Prize in Australia in 2012. He is a founding member of Islak Köpek, Turkey’s pioneer free improvisation group, which is regarded as the band that started the free improvisation scene in Turkey.
Korhan’s computer performance system is called Omnibus. The instruments within Omnibus are a culmination of Korhan’s musical past and aesthetic choices. Omnibus instruments use concrete sounds (samples, field recordings), morphed and processed in realtime. They can be as simple as one single sample being played using a Nintendo Wii controller to a complex system that employs granular synthesis and spectral processing. The instruments are played interactively using Nintendo Wii controllers (Korhan’s choice of controller when he plays in ensembles with acoustic/electric instrument players), an iPad (used in solo/duo performances as well as ensemble concerts) and several midi controllers. No matter what technology he uses, Korhan always stays focused on the outcome and musicality rather than processes.
He performs regularly in Europe and in the Middle East as a solo artist as well as with his projects in Germany, Turkey and Switzerland. He has performed in Soundtrips NRW, Moers Festival, Labor Sonor, Klangzeit Festival, Borusan Music House Istanbul and many more fantastic venues and festivals.
https://korhanerel.com/art/

Vvzela Kook
Vvzela Kook (B. 1990, Lives and works in Hong Kong) is a new media artist who mainly works in audiovisual mediums, including performance, theatre, generative video and drawing. Her audiovisual works combine media with performance; they explore the possibility of coexistence between contemporary performance types, like dance or choreography, and computer-generated new media. Kook’s video works combine technology with her artistic practice to reproduce and convert urban cityscapes into an integrated virtual experience, guiding the audience on a cybernetic journey. The condensed textures in her works connect with multiple sensual levels in our perception and reintroduce the unexplored potential of video as a medium. Kook has participated and shown her works in PuSh Performing Art Festival in Vancouver(2017), Mill6 Foundation (2017), Microwave International Media Festival in Hong Kong (2016), K11 Shanghai (2016), Hong Kong Arts Festival (2015), Sound Art China Exhibition (2013), Frischzelle Festival and Dusseldorf Festival (2012), and “89+”program (2012) co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets. http://vvzela.co/

Göksu Kunak a.k.a. Gucci Chunk(performance artist)
Göksu Kunak (Ankara, 1985)a.k.a Gucci Chunk is a writer based in Berlin. Ze performed zir texts and lectures at Batard Brussels 2016 (invited by Tom Engels), Stadtsprachen Festival 2016, Poesie Festival 2017, Fuchsbau Festival 2017, Broken Dimanche Press reading series at Tropez Berlincurated by John Holten, Pioneer Works NYC curated by Belladonna* Collaborativeat Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve as one of the CAMPersinvited by Andrea Bellini and Julian Weber. The short book#225 I thought this would is published by Belladonna* Collaborative. Zir texts have appeared on the official page of The Absence of Paths, the Official Tunisian Pavillion of the 57th Venice Biennial and on the blogThe History of Painting Revisitedin collaboration with Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle for the Fahrelnissa ZeidRetrospective. Invited by Meg Stuart and Maria F. Scaroni, as a part of City Lights -- a continuous gathering, ze had the pleasure to perform with amazing female artists of Berlin at the old and renowned theater Hebbel am Ufer.

As an art-dance critic, Göksu has been contributing to several magazines and blogs such as frieze d/e, Ibraaz, m-est, TanzRaumBerlin, Berlin Art Link, sleek, e-skop, crap=good, The Carton, Paper Journal, Freunde von Freunden. Göksu has conducted interviews with various artists, curators, directors such as Hito Steyerl, Meg Stuart, Ahmet Öğüt, Monira Al Qadiri, Hanne Lippard, Annemie Vanackere. Ze is one of the editorial correspondents of Ibraaz, worked in the editorial team of quarterly interview magazine mono.kultur (2012-2016)and as a writer and project developer with Apartment Project Berlin (2012-2014). Göksu is one of the co-founders of the blog Viereinhalbsaetzethat consists of 4,5-sentence-dance-criticism. Ze is working on zir Ph.D. on queer chronopoliticsin relation to performance and contemporary dance with Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst. Göksu’s texts can also be read on
http://goksukunak.tumblr.com

Julia Nitschke
Julia Nitschhke (1988, GER) is a researcher, theater scholar, performance and sound artist from Bochum. She is a performance artists and she collaborates with Knut Schultz for Performance-Duo Meine Wunschdomain since 2013. She is dealing and researching about pop feminism, Webfeminism, cultural appropriation, heteronormativity, gender sensibility, representation and self-representation. She also collaborated with Caroline Kapp for Stone Collective, and participated various concert and theatre pieces for sound performance.
http://www.meinewunschdomain.com