Anton Kats: Grounded Outer Space People at Galerie Wedding
October 14–November 19, 2022
Grounded Outer Space People by Anton Kats is a performative exhibition at Galerie Wedding, Berlin, curated by Solvej Helweg Ovesen, marking the latest iteration of the nomadic band project of the same name.
With: Anja Jadryschnikova, Khaled Kurbeh, Jared Meier-Klodt, Hani Mojtahedy, Aiko Okamoto, Ziggy Zeitgeist
A Ukrainian visual artist, musician, and dancer named Anton Kats was born in Kherson in 1983. His music ensemble and artist residency, titled Grounded Outer Space People, explores the connection between transmigration and music. The residency group of artists occupy the exhibition space while working out of their temporary studio and develop this frame through group rehearsals, concerts, presentations, performances, sound- and visual works, and workshops. Vostok 7, Vinyl, a radio play created as a recreation of the spaceship that has yet to be built, will launch as enlarged scores and space voyage graphics reach over the gallery walls. The exhibition’s central sound work is Vostok 7. The exhibition, which is located on Satellite Island in Kherson, Ukraine, tells a story about the Vostok Program of Soviet Space Travel, which began with Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight, Vostok 1, in 1961 and ended with Vostok 6, which carried Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space and the exhibition’s anti-hero, in 1963. As a response to current political and social estrangement, Kats’ work is centered on listening, transmission, agency, and collaboration. The exhibition space and studio operate a mobile sound system, a radio station, and a listening area full of musical instruments and sonic devices, driven by the perceptual change from the visual to the audio.
When most political theories fall flat, the artist looks to Ukrainian Cosmist leaders like Fedir Tetyanych for inspiration. He also finds inspiration in musicians, improvisers, and artists like Don Cherry and Moki Cherry. This combination provides an exciting foundation from which to investigate and develop the idea of transmigration as a performative, artistic, and communal practice. With the help of an ephemeral music ensemble, Grounded Outer Space People invite diverse artists from many backgrounds to deepen our awareness of migration in the modern period. They also suggest a critical mapping from which the poetics of displacement can arise.
The audience is invited to interact with an ever-changing collection of books on sound, music, and politically engaged artistic practice in the inaugural incarnation of the Transmigration Library, which is open for business. The project pokes fun at the idea of reincarnation while emphasizing the need to approach practice fully from this perspective. It does this by emphasizing the very tangible dimensions of a body, family, country, planet, and history.
Grounded Outer Space People
October 14 ‒ November 19, 2022
Performative exhibition and music ensemble by Anton Kats with Anja Jadryschnikova, Khaled Kurbeh, Jared Meier-Klodt, Hani Mojtahedy, Aiko Okamoto, Ziggy Zeitgeist
Curated by Solvej Helweg Ovesen.
Within the framework of Existing Otherwise: Anders Existieren 2021–22 at Galerie Wedding.
Further events at Galerie Wedding
October 25, 2022, 7–9 pm: Interlude Grounded Outer Space People with Khaled Kurbeh & Raman Khalaf
October 26, 2022: Radio transmission Notiz für die Welt danach with Aiko Okamoto (online)
November 9, 2022, 4 pm: ODYSSEY WITHIN a short film premiere by Anja Jadryschnikova featuring a performance by The Way Collective
November 10, 2022, 6 pm: Same Page Different Corner with Anton Kats ‒ Ukrainian musicians meet up and Vostok 7 listening session
November 18, 2022, 5 pm: Exhibition tour with Solvej Helweg Ovesen and Anton Kats
November 18, 2022, 7–9 pm: Volta Grounded Outer Space People ‒ Final performance and concert
With the kind support of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Exhibition Remuneration Fund, and Exhibition Fund for Municipal Galleries and Musicboard Berlin.
Galerie Wedding—Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst
Müllerstr. 146/147
13353 Berlin
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 12–7pm
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