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Neuer Berliner Kunstverein presents Realities Left Vacant, Sung Tieu, and Carrie Mae Weems starting on March 11, 2023.
Realities Left Vacant
Nadja Abt, Tekla Aslanishvili, Marianna Christofides, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Christian Diaz Orejarena, Sofia Duchovny, Ahu Dural, Cornelia Herfurtner, Göksu Kunak, Isaiah Lopaz, Alina Schmuch
Opening: March 10, 2023, 7pm
March 11–May 7, 2023
Curators: Layla Burger-Lichtenstein, Arkadij Koscheew
Eleven international artists have been awarded the prestigious 2022 visual arts work stipend of the Berlin Senate, and their works will be showcased at the Realities Left Vacant exhibition from March 11 to May 7, 2023. The exhibition, which opened on March 10, 2023, presents the diverse artistic approaches of the awardees while highlighting contemporary social issues and image politics that shape their work.
Curated by Layla Burger-Lichtenstein and Arkadij Koscheew, Realities Left Vacant features works by Nadja Abt, Tekla Aslanishvili, Marianna Christofides, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Christian Diaz Orejarena, Sofia Duchovny, Ahu Dural, Cornelia Herfurtner, Göksu Kunak, Isaiah Lopaz, and Alina Schmuch. The exhibition explores themes of origin, belonging, and the relationship between collective and individual memory, as well as investigating the impact of geopolitical conflicts and the global climate crisis on access to infrastructures.
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Through documentary and investigative practices, archive-based research, biographical narratives, and a focus on image politics permeating the mass media, the artists call for engagement with power structures, colonial legacies, and mechanisms of value creation. Realities Left Vacant is a must-see exhibition for those interested in contemporary art and its intersection with social and political issues.
Discourse program
Tuesday, March 21, 2023, 7pm
“Radical Futurisms. Ecologies of Collapse, Chronopolitics, and Justice-to-Come”
Book presentation and discussion with T.J. Demos (Professor in Art History and Visual Culture, University of California Santa Cruz)
In English
From Tuesday, April 4, 2023
“Critical Infrastructures”
Online panel discussion with Gustav Cederlöf (Environmental Geographer, Lecturer, University of Gothenburg), Sepideh Karami (Architect, Lecturer, The University of Edinburgh), and Ute Tellmann (Professor for General Sociology, Technical University of Darmstadt), moderated by Keller Easterling (Enid Storm Dwyer Professor of Architecture, Yale University, New Haven / US)
In English
Sung Tieu: No Jobs, No Country
Opening: March 10, 2023, 7pm
March 11–May 7, 2023
Curator: Anna Lena Seiser
German-Vietnamese artist Sung Tieu’s latest exhibition, “No Jobs, No Country,” opens at n.b.k. on March 10, 2023, and runs through May 7, 2023. Curated by Anna Lena Seiser, the exhibition features Tieu’s video and sound works, installations, and objects, which explore the connections between architecture and ideology, bureaucracy and power structures, and the lasting effects of the Cold War.
The exhibition focuses on the “Objekt Gehrenseestrasse,” one of East Germany’s largest dormitory complexes, which was built in the early 1980s in the Berlin district of Lichtenberg. The complex, made up of nine identical Plattenbau structures constructed from prefabricated concrete slabs, was primarily used to house contract workers, particularly from Vietnam, who lived under strict regulations and constant supervision, with only around 5 m2 of living space per person.
Tieu, who herself lived in one of the buildings at Gehrenseestrasse from 1994 to 1997, uses her works to shed light on the bureaucratic constraints imposed on contract workers in East Germany, both before and after German Reunification. By examining the lived experiences of those who resided in the complex, Tieu’s exhibition highlights the ways in which architecture can shape and reinforce social hierarchies and power structures.
“No Jobs, No Country” is a poignant and thought-provoking exhibition that offers a unique perspective on the lasting legacy of the Cold War and the social and political realities of life in East Germany.
Carrie Mae Weems. Queen B
Opening: March 10, 2023, 7pm
March 11–August 27, 2023
Curator: Lidiya Anastasova
Carrie Mae Weems, an artist renowned for her explorations of gender, race, and class, is showcasing her latest exhibition, “Queen B,” at n.b.k. from March 10, 2023, to August 27, 2023. Curated by Lidiya Anastasova, the exhibition spans Weems’ photography, video, site-specific installations, texts, performances, and activist campaigns, and features her characteristic reappropriation and empowerment of the politics of representation.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is “Queen B,” a photograph from Weems’ extensive series devoted to the R&B icon and actor Mary J. Blige, which was first produced in 2017. For the n.b.k. Billboard series, Weems has adapted the image, and it will be presented in the urban space for the first time. The photograph undergoes a temporal and spatial recontextualization, weaving in current events surrounding the British monarchy and exploring further narrative strands.
Weems’ work is deeply political and offers a powerful critique of the status quo. Her use of visual quotations from historical, scientific, museum, and pop cultural contexts serves as a tool of reappropriation and empowerment, challenging the asymmetry of sociopolitical power relations and their consequences. With “Queen B,” Weems continues her exploration of Black (hi-)stories and lived experiences, contributing to a much-needed redefinition of the politics of representation in contemporary art.
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)
Chausseestraße 128/129
10115 Berlin
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 12am–6pm,
Thursday 12am–8pm
T +49 30 2807020