Group exhibition
May 25, 2017 - July 02, 2017, Kunstverein Hildesheim
A group exhibition with Alice Peragine, d-n-e, Lu Yang, Marcin Pietruszewski, Marianne Vlaschits,
Michaela Melián, Pinar Yoldas, a curated archive and niches to linger in.
Sci-fi shorts by Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, Marie-Eve Levasseur, Stephanie Comilang and Wanuri Kahiu
"[T]he boundary that separates social reality from science fiction is an optical illusion," wrote biologist and philosopher Donna Haraway three decades ago in her much-quoted Cyborg Manifesto (1985) to emphasize the connection between fiction, cognition and the construction of social realities.1 Group exhibition Promises of Monsters takes the genres of science fiction and visionary fiction as a conceptual starting point to examine this connection.
The exhibition becomes a place of cultural practice and a space for joint critical reflection on current forms of (economic, political, cultural and technological) hegemonies as well as on possible alternatives. The exhibition space is therefore not only a presentation area for contemporary art, but also - loosely based on Donna Haraway - a "contact zone" in which encounters with the unexpected, the strange and the future take place. In concrete terms, this means that there will be places in the exhibition space where people can linger, read and discuss. Through the selected works of art, the targeted staging of the space, a selection of texts and the extensive supporting and educational program, the exhibition aims to stimulate a dialogue about the present and the future. Through this playful artistic examination, the exhibition aims to enable moments of new perspective and convey an understanding of the Other, also in order to counteract current tendencies of cultural isolation and intolerance with the means of art.
1 Haraway, Donna: Ein Manifest fur Cyborgs.Feminismus im Streit mit den Technowissenschaften. In: Haraway, Donna: The reinvention of nature. Primates, cyborgs and women. Frankfurt a. M. and New York 1995. p. 33- 72. (First published under: Haraway, Donna: Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980's. In: Socialist Review 80. 1985. pp. 65-108.), online at: http://www.medientheorie.com/doc/haraway_manifesto.pdf.
PROGRAMME
• Thursday, 25.05 •
CURATOR'S TOUR through the exhibition with Nora Brünger, Lisa Paland and Nada Schroer, 6 p.m.
LISTENING EVENING
Michalea Melián: Electric Ladyland, 7 pm (following the tour)
The radio play Electric Ladyland takes the aria of Olympia in the second act of the opera The Tales of Hoffmann. Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach as the starting point. The character of the automaton doll, who already appears in E.T.A. Hoffmann, is beautiful and can dance enchantingly, but can only utter the syllable "Ach". Michaela Melián creates a world of sound in which technoid images of women, technical myths and human-machine relationships are negotiated.
In collaboration with BR Hörspiel und Medienkunst.
• Tuesday, 06.06 •
LU YANG: UTERUS MAN
Opening at KR53, 7 pm
• Friday, 09.06 •
WALK IN PUBLIC SPACE
Commoonity (in cooperation with PROSANOVA | 17 ), 8 pm - 1 am
• Saturday, 17.06 •
THEME DAY
"An affirmative creature on the offensive" - Approaches to techno-, cyber- and xenofeminism
WORKSHOP
Space Play with Josefine Soppa and Laura Bleck, 12 - 4 p.m.
PERFORMANCE
Translucent by Alice Peragine, 5 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION
with Kathrin Audehm, Claude Draude, Ulla Heinrich, Konstanze Schütze and Alice Peragine, 6 - 8 pm, in the &büro
• Sunday, 02.07 •
CURATOR'S TOUR
through the exhibition with Nada Schroer, 3 pm
FILM EVENING
Feminist Sci-Fi-Shorts (in cooperation with the &büro), 7 pm, in the &büro
As a concluding event to the exhibition, experimental science fiction short films
and video works by Stephanie Comilang, Marie-Eve Levasseur, Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind and Wanuri Kahiu will be shown at &büro.