References Speaking
Artist Conributions
ANNA ZETT
Bio
Anna Zett is an artist and writer. Centering the embodied experience of dialog, her perceptive and analytical practice questions dominant structures and invites association and recovery. This work has resulted in films, books, radio plays, installations and participatory live formats, most recently, for example, the collaborative choreographic research Postsocialist Group Improvisation, supported by the Berlin Grant Program for Artistic Research. Since the release of her first essay films in 2014, Zetts work has been shown in international contexts of contemporary art, film, performance and discourse, at festivals, museums, universities, and art spaces across the world. In 2018, a research in the GDR Opposition Archive in Berlin initiated a series of works around the emotional and material disposal of toxic waste, among them the experimental archive thriller Es gibt keine Angst (2023, 31 min), currently touring through film festivals. Zetts publications include two experimental radio plays for the German public broadcast and the literary text collection Artificial Gut Feeling (Divided Publishing, 2019). Anna Zett grew up in Leipzig and lives in Berlin.
https://annazett.net/
SPEAKING WITHIN
HD Video, 17 min, 4:3
Postsocialist Group Improvisation is a participatory format created in a collaborative artistic research by artist/ writer Anna Zett and dancer/ choreographer Hermann Heisig and various co-researchers in Berlin 2020-21. It involves a 5x5 playing field with modified chairs and a set up of adjustable music and light. It begins with a mutual introduction round, followed by a warm-up and an explanation of the rules of the score.
With an initial focus on East-Germany, it was developed to reembody and diversify the memory of the Former East, which is often trapped in ideology and blocked by hard, unspoken feelings.After the russian invasion of Ukraine, we decided to host a series of so called assemblies in English with an explicit invitation to people from both Ukraine and russia, as well as anyone else connected with the Postsoviet world. Except for the drawings made by participants as part of the score, the 90 min group improvisation is neither guided, nor documented audio-visually. It is followed by a reflection round, where everyone is invited to come up to a single microphone to speak about their recent experience.
Thank you to all participants of the session on 13. 3. 2022 in Berlin:Ronja Dierks, Ioana Fery, Rike Fläming, Philipp Goll, Hermann Heisig, Alexey Kokhanov, Sonya Levin, Anna Stiede, Alisa Trakant, Anna Zett
LUISE SCHRÖDER
Bio
As a visual artist, Luise Schröder works with photography, video, installation, performance and printed matter. She deals with the notions of history and memory, and with their respective significance for the present. She does not regard the past as a discrete entity, but as something permanently open and in a direct relation to the present. Her works and projects are always based on an extensive theoretical and practical research, which opens up poetic spaces for reflection, alternative contexts of knowledge and new perspectives on history within the present. Currently she is a fellow at the Berlin Artistic Research Program 2024/25.
. https://luiseschroeder.org
WHAT REMAINS
Research fragments and video, 1 min, in collaboration with Nelly Reich and Franziska Zacharias
Based on her East German biography and on the invitation of the Berlinische Galerie in 2021/22, Luise Schröder started to carry out research on the forgotten activities of non-governmental women and lesbian groups in the GDR during the 1980/90s. The result was a photographic work: Strömungen in Bewegung / Currents in Motion, which reflects feminist and lesbian perspectives in the GDR and enables alternative perspectives on history. For Archive of gestures Luise Schröder goes back to her research at the time and combines images, documents and quotes from the archive of the GDR opposition / Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft to create a collage-like collection of materials that provides an hunch into the various activities of the respective groups. Based on the last leaflet published by the purple offensive in the GDR on September 29, 1990 Schröder re-enacts a slogan, that clearly echoes into the present: What remains is a void.
SUSE WEBER
Bio
Suse Weber (*1970 in Leipzig) agiert seit 2000 mit einem eigenen Werkbegriff der Emblematischen Skulptur. In komplexen Kompositionsverfahren untersucht sie das Dreiecksverhältnis von Skulptur, Publikum und KünstlerIn und deren Rollenverschiebungen. Sie inszeniert Widerlager, in denen die alltäglichsten Formen der Gesellschaft als Übermarkierungen sichtbar werden. Dabei erfahren Inhalte eine neue Einfassung, die den herangezogenen Kontext nicht nur zitieren, sondern im Kunstwerk selbst konstitutiv als Form anlegt werden. Ihre Werke setzen sich aus symbolischen und formalistischen Dimensionen und gesellschaftlichen Dysfunktionen zusammen. Recherche- und Erarbeitungsprozesse werden bereits als handlungsorientierte Werkzeuge thematisiert und auf ein neu zu Bestimmendes hin angelegt.
Ihre Werke waren u. a. zu sehen: Sprengel Museum Hannover, KW – Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Martha Herford Museum, Wiels – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst Brüssel, Troubleyn Laboratorium Antwerpen, Pace Wildenstein New York, Galerie Barbara Weiss Berlin, GfZK – Stiftung Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, nGbK Berlin, sowie in zahlreichen öffentlichen Räumen Europas.
Suse Weber wird vertreten durch die Galerie Barbara Weiss in Berlin.
https://suseweber.wordpress.com/category/berlin/
RAL 6024
Bildvokabeln und akustische Bausteine, Video, 5:22 min
Auslöser für die Auswahl meines Beitrages ist die Nachricht über die Auflösung des Kulturrates der Stadt Leipzig (parteiübergreifend!) am 18.10.2023, betitelt als “Beerdingungs-Vorlage”. Der Kulturrat war eine Schnittstelle für Lokalpolitik und KünstlerInnen. Auflösung eines demokratischen Bausteins 2023! Zweiter Aspekt ist der Umgang mit Jurybesetzung für Wettbewerbe für KünstlerInnen in Leipzig, hier Übergewicht von Verwaltung und HistorikerInnen. Dazu werde ich u.a. sprechen und mithilfe einer Szenografie ein Machtverhältnis nachvollziehbar rekonstruieren. In den drei Sequenzen werden Klanggewinnung demonstriert, Score/Zeichnungen/Entwürfe meines gegenwärtigenArbeitsstandes und im Wechsel dazu 3-D-Aufzeichnung von Szenografie und Publikumsbewegung durch meine Textbeiträge/Rede/Demonstration begleitet.
Dauer der Live-Präsentation: 20 min.
Ablauf: 3 Sequenzen in Kooperation mit Studio Cassis B (“Klanggewinnung durch Biodatensonifikation, oder: Pflanzen können singen”) und Vanessa Amoah Opoku (Raum- und Publikumserfassung, 3-D-Scan Verfahren als Respondentin).
VeranstalterIn: Dialog - watch me work #2, You Are Warmly Invited - Initiative für Reflexion und Feedback zu Arbeitsständen aus den Performing Arts
30.11.2023
Stadtbibliothek Leipzig
Dank an: you are warmly invited - Initiative für Reflexion und Feedback zu
Arbeitsständen aus den Performing Arts: www.youarewarmlyinvited.com
Studio Cassis B: www.cassisb.com
Vanessa Amoah Opoku: https://vanessaopoku.com
SUZA HUSSE & SAMI RUSTOM
Ziz and Ink, two fluid creatures, were invited by Suza Husse of D’EST and Sami Rustom of Fehras Publishing Practices to come together and speak free and fearlessly in a time of sadness and hope. In search of anchorages, they crossed into worlds of poetry, resistance and love. They roamed cities of clouds and encountered new planets around the old sun.
Fehras Publishing Practices are a multidisciplinary artist collective focusing on the interrelations between archives, art, body, light and crafting cultural global histories. Fehras practices Moasherat, an Arabic term which translates to “cohabitations”. Moasherat is the coming together between Fehras (Sami Rustom and Kenan Darwich) and artists Nancy Naser Al Deen and Sama Ahmadi in 2024.Their co-work aims to detect a wide range of cultural and geographical landscapes in order to explore historical representations, the notion of the past in the present, and translation/interpretation as a tool of facing old and new colonial powers.
https://www.fehraspublishingpractices.org/
D’EST is a nomadic platform and online archive for video art, experimental and documentary film that maps artistic forms of historiography at the intersection of postsocialist, queer-feminist and decolonial narratives and imaginaries. It was founded by Ulrike Gerhardt and Suza Husse in 2016 and is run by the art space and community center District*School Without Center. With the collectives Fehras Publishing Practices, krёlex zentre and Nha Sàn Collective. D’EST began the new cycle Post-socialism as Method. Anti-Geographies of Collective Desires in 2023.
https://www.d-est.com/
For I have given a tongue to every link in my chain.
speaking 526400 square milimetres of freedom
seven fragments by Ziz, the cicada of archives, and Ink, a socialist alchemy in yellowing pages, with Fehras Publishing Practices’ collection of the literary quarterly magazine LOTUS: Afro-Asian Writings (1968-1993) published by the Permanent Bureau of the Afro-Asian Writers Association
Documents & Materials
For sources of the quotes see infos and links on the page.
Images of original documents:
Appeal by the GDR Solidarity Committee, the Initiative “Solidarity with Romania”; Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft/ GZ-Gr 04, Bl. 200
Lothar de Maiziére, Inauguration Speech as Prime Minister of the GDR; https://deutsche-einheit-1990.de/wp-content/uploads/BArch-DC20-1-3-2944_Regerkl.pdf
Proposals for a grass-roots democratic approach, New Forum; Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft/ NFo 345, Bl. 61
Photos & Documents Contribution Luise Schröder:
Short quotes from:
Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / frau anders GZ-S-01-471
Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / frau anders GZ-S-01-274
Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / frau anders GZ-S-01-320
Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / frau anders GZ-S-01-420
Excerpt from Interview Samirah Kenawi and Evelyn Labsch, Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / Transkript GZ-A08 (B)
Photo of persons sitting in a room. Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / Kerstin Baarmann / RHG-FO-GZ-1775
Photo of persons with photographs, Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / Christine Starke / RHG-FO-GZ-0655
Letter to NMG Ravensbrück, Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / GZ-MKr-02
“frau anders”, Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / frau anders GZ-S-01
Flyer/ Flugblatt 29.9.1990, Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft / GZ-Gr-04
& excerpts from footage by Horst Podiebrad
“SED-Ade. Der Umbruch 1989, Demo in Wittenberg”, Courtesy of Horst Podiebrad, selected and edited by Elske Rosenfeld/ Archive of Gestures