In joint efforts with curators, guests and participants, the 6-part discursive series On(going) Trauma - Artistic narratives on collective and individual wounds provides a forum to talk about and learn from artistic and curatorial research practices in dealing with trauma from plural perspectives. Various practices are presented, in which situated knowledges and backgrounds of systematic power and violence structures are discussed, as well as activist and marginalized perspectives are illuminated. In six rounds of encounters, discourses will be addressed that deal with the following issues: media representations and image politics of violence; the growth of right-wing everyday presence; trauma embedded in and seen through bodily perspectives; traumatic witnessing and fictional (counter-)narratives; private conflicts and public discourses; as well as aspects of the fragmentary and transgenerational temporality of trauma. On(going) Trauma is a discursive series in 6 parts, initiated by Institut für Widerstand im Postfordismus / Elisa Müller and Anna-Lena Werner in cooperation with Vierte Welt Berlin. Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
The focus of the encounters is directed to the question of how coexistence and discourse is possible despite different situatedness, concerns and involvement? What could be ways to overcome the difficulty of speaking about violence and to find new languages for communicating it?
The series of events seeks to critically examine and reposition the concept of trauma in the context of the arts, by focusing on the humanitarian and socio-political consequences of crises, war and violence. Central to each encounter is an exploration on whether and how the arts can create a potentially emancipating forum for the perspectives of victims and witnesses. In view of current crisis situations and the growing international shifts to the right, experiences of violence are corroding our societies, but at the same time, talking about these experiences from differentiated perspectives and finding lines of solidarity is difficult. "On(going) Trauma" therefore acts as an experimental format of exchange and encounter, created with and for artists, curators, activists, journalists and theorists. It is designed as an open conversation format, as a space of solidarity and humanitarian perspectives. At each event, excerpts from the artistic works of the invited guests are shown in the form of screenings, readings or performances.
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TEAM & GUESTS
With (tbc) Anna Stiede, Anujah Fernando, Alper Turan, Dominique Haensell, Gesa Geue, Ghayath Almadhoun, Hai Anh Trieu, Jenny Mahla, Jonas Leifert, Isaac Chong Wai, İz Öztat, Kathrin Ebmeier, Katharina Ludwig, Katrin Hylla, Lada Nakonechna, Lene Albrecht, Lela Ahmadzai, Luce deLire, Mine Pleasure Bouvar, Minh Duc Pham, Mykola Ridnyi, Natis, Olexii Kuchanskyi, Omer Fast, Rabih Mroué, Shira Wachsmann, Tanja Krone
Concept & Curation Anna Lena Werner, Elisa Müller (Institut für Widerstand im Postfordismus)
Co-Curators Mykola Ridnyi, Hai Anh Trieu, Alper Turan, Katharina Ludwig
Project Assistance Ariadna Blanch López, Dilara Buzoğlu, Sebastian Eis
Awareness Mine Pleasure Bouvar
Design Lea Kontak
Press Nora Gores
Location Vierte Welt, Berlin
Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds
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TOPICS OF THE SIX ENCOUNTERS
25. May
Central to this first gathering of the discursive series On(going) Trauma (May-Dec 2024) are questions about representational limits and opportunities, image politics and selective framing processes of conveying war violence and traumatic events in mass media. What is at issue here is, on the one hand, the shift away from visual repetitions and reproductions of violence and, on the other hand, the creation of new methods and counter-images, as to communicate evidences of wars and conflicts. How can the atrocious images be made transparent, scrutinized, reframed? How can we learn the practice of looking at these images? Where are potentials for resistance, for visual dissent, for forming an opposition against the affects of shock and propagandistic visions? As part of this round – which has the open format of a colloquium – artists, researchers and all participants present, are invited and encouraged to discuss responses, challenges and new formats as to encounter media representations of war and trauma, the inherent power structures and the violence of images. -> viertewelt.de/programm/images-and-counter-images
With Lada Nakonechna, Lela Ahmadzai, Olexii Kuchanskyi, Omer Fast.
Hosted and curated by Anna-Lena Werner & Mykola Ridnyi Awareness Mine Pleasure Bouvar
Screenings by Lela Ahmadzai "Silent Night" (2013), Sashko Protyah “My Favourite Job” (2022), Omer Fast
22. June
Backlashes: Erhöhte rechte Alltagspräsenz (DE)
Im Juni entsteht in der gemeinsamen Arbeit mit Hai Anh Trieu ein Austauschformat als Reaktion auf den Anstieg rechter Alltagspräsenz, politischer Macht und Gewalt. Hai Anh Trieu und Elisa Müller laden dazu verschiedene Künstler*innnen und Aktivist*innen ein, um über ihre Wahrnehmung der Situation zu sprechen und mit uns zu teilen, wie das ihre Praxis beeinflußt. Welche Ressourcen stehen oder stehen uns gerade nicht zur Verfügung – in einer Zeit in der überall, auch in der Kunst- und Kulturförderung, die finanziellen Mittel gekürzt werden? Wie kann eine fruchtbare Allyschaft unter den verschiedenen Communities aussehen? Welche Aktionen planen wir und welche Zukunftsängste oder Hoffnungen hegen wir? Was liegt uns am Herzen? Wie können wir uns gegen Instrumentalisierungsbestrebungen zur Wehr setzen und uns gegenseitig beschützen? Wir wollen versuchen, solidarische Verbindungslinien zu ziehen. Dabei verstehen wir den Austausch und das Vernetzen selbst als widerständige Praxis.
Mit Anujah Fernando, Dominique Haensell, Luce deLire, Pham Minh Duc
Ko-kuratiert von Hai Anh Trieu und Elisa Müller / Awareness Mine Pleasure Bouvar
21. September
EMANCIPATIONS AND COLLECTIVE RESILIENCE: ON THE BODY AND TRAUMA
Storing experiences and knowledges, the body is a physical reminder of both visceral vulnerability and more-than-human (collective) resilience. It is being instrumentalised to continue hegemonic narratives, hierarchical systems and violence against groups. For the 3rd iteration of the discursive series "On(going) Trauma" at Vierte Welt Berlin, artists and the audience present are invited to share their strategies, engaging in the entanglements of the body, memory and trauma through their distinctive practices. Methods of dis-embodiment and dis-identification, fictional or ritualized bodies, as well as adaptions of different personas and collectivized selves will be critically discussed as possibilities to reclaim historical and political truths, rights, and narratives.
with Isaac Chong Wai, Iz Öztat, Jenny Mahla, Natis
Co-curated by Alper Turan and Anna-Lena Werner Awareness Mine Pleasure Bouvar
26. October
Narrative: Traumatische Zeugenschaft und Fiktionen (DE)
with Lene Albrecht, Shira Wachsmann, Hai Anh Trieu / curated and hosted by Elisa Müller
Screenings: Shira Wachsmann „The moment before,“ Hai Anh Trieu „I loved first”
14. December 2024
Timeliness: Fragments Between Past and Future (EN)
For the fifth encounter of the discursive series On(going) Trauma at Vierte Welt Berlin guests and audience present are invited to collectively address questions regarding trauma’s complex effects on temporality and how these are being explored, transformed or conveyed in artistic (and research) practices. Together, we will be focusing on the repetitive and sudden presence (– the timeliness –) of traumata between past experiences and possible future scenarios, on non-linear fragmentation of individual and collective memories, and on its transgenerational traces inscribed throughout personal histories. Trauma will be discussed as holes and portals for temporalities and voices, as un-healing wounds in poetry, texts, and language as such (Katharina Ludwig), as vocal echos of past violences shifting in time within the streets of Ukraine’s city Kharkiv (Mykola Ridnyi) and as a poetic excavation of identity, displacement and the collective scars of conflict, exploring how trauma reshapes language, with poetry bearing witness to the unspeakable effects of ongoing crises (Ghayath Almadhoun).
With Ghayath Almadhoun, Katharina Ludwig, Mykola Ridnyi
Co-hosted by Anna-Lena Werner & Katharina Ludwig
25. February
2025
Wie es uns den Boden unter den Füßen wegzieht
On(going) Trauma war von Anfang an eine Reihe, die einen solidarischen Austausch über künstlerische und kuratorische Arbeitspraxen zu den Themen Trauma und Gewalt ermöglichen sollte. Im Rahmen unserer letzten fünf Veranstaltungen haben wir immer wieder Bezug zu aktuellen (kultur-)politischen Entwicklungen genommen, die sich in den letzten Monaten u.A. durch die Kürzungspläne aufs äußerste verschärft haben. Diesem Thema werden wir unsere letzten Zusammenkunft im Februar 2025 widmen. Zusammen mit Anna Stiede, Tanja Krone (#meckerchor) sowie Jonas Leifert und Kathrin Ebmeier, (Organisator*innen der ›Vollversammlung für das Schöne Leben‹), Gesa Geue (Aktionsgruppe Ausverkauf UdK), und Katrin Hylla (Schwankhalle Bremen), eröffnen wir einen Raum, der Möglichkeit zur Solidarisierung, zur Vernetzung untereinander geben soll. Jenseits des Austausches über Protestmöglichkeiten, die wir hier in Berlin, oder in NRW oder anderswo erprobt haben, soll es auch um mögliche Überlebensstrategien in den kommenden Monaten und Jahren gehen. Was kann uns helfen, weiter zu existieren? Wie können wir uns gegenseitig unterstützen, in der Szene von Berlin oder bundesländerübergreifend?
with Kathrin Ebmeier, Gesa Geue, Katrin Hylla, Tanja Krone, Jonas Leifert, Elisa Müller, Anna Stiede, Anna-Lena Werner