SAVE THE DATE: BAS Symposium on 23 November 2024
10:00 am - 7:30 pm, Sat 23rd November
Hardenbergstr. 33, 10623 Berlin
Rooms 101, 102 and 110
When Rumi wrote about a garden that grows somewhere beyond right and wrong, he wrote about a space of tolerance that teeters somewhere between extremes. Some 800 years later we need such a space more than ever.
While communities and peoples are traumatised by ongoing killing, dislocation and ongoing colonisation in many places all over the globe, it becomes more than ever crucial to counter structures and narratives that reiterate power hierarchies, mute the voices of the marginalised and oppressed, and hinder a collective transformation towards justice.
Still, we find ourselves in contested spaces, spaces where state violence is streamed live through our social media feeds, where a rising political right is increasingly normalised, where silencing, censorship and misinformation are weaponized, and polarisation and discrimination of groups are amplified through all these processes.
As artists and researchers we invite you to explore with us how to create alternate social spaces in the midst of this, as sites of encounter that are not feeding opposition, but that are grounded on mutual learning, listening, and on deepening the understanding for constructive disagreement. Such are spaces that also defy the fiction of being void of conflicts, but rather explore their roots, potentials, and the necessity to work with and not against different perspectives.
What are horizons of dissent? What is the political agency of language and images? How do we train an inclusive democracy beyond representation (cf. Manin,1995)? What could gardens beyond judgement and opposition look like? How do we get there? And what forms of connectedness would we want to find there?
With this one-day programme of participatory workshops, performance, readings and film screening, we aim to explore multiple gardens together: gardens that cultivate multiplicity, democracy, dialogue and community building. Spaces that are non-hierarchical, collective, transparent and most of all, that are safe.
This garden, it is our invitation. Meet us there.
This symposium is free and open to everyone, pre-registration for some workshops required.
The programme has been jointly curated by Catherine Rose Evans, Jenny Fuhr, Julia Lazarus, Sybille Neumeyer and Anani Dodji Sanouvi of the Graduate School, UdK.
Organisational assistance: Dominik Fraßmann, Ronja Landtau
Curatorial text: Catherine Rose Evans, Sybille Neumeyer.
Design: Nora Veismann
Art on Policing vis-à-vis Policing of Art
A workshop by architect, computational designer and researcher Ashkan Cheheltan
with critical friend Schokofeh Kamiz
This workshop explores the intersections of art, politics, and activism, drawing on the facilitator’s three years of experience as a researcher at Forensis. It aims to examine the relationship between state over-policing on the streets and censorship in the cultural sector. Through the lens of Forensis/Forensic Architecture, viewed as practices of both "truth production" and "truth-telling", we will discuss the strategies and challenges inherent in these processes.
detailed workshop description
Time: 10:30 am - 1:00 pm
Venue: Room 101
Target Audience: Artists, activists, cultural producers, especially those with work experience in repressive regimes.
Short application required: [link here] Limited to 12 participants, participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops.
How do we get to the garden?
A workshop and gathering hosted by artists and researchers Işıl Eğrikavuk, Annika Haas and Sybille Neumeyer
with critical friend Valentina Karga
How do we get to "a garden beyond right and wrong" (Rumi)? Can a garden host a community that is embracing and nourishing its participants' differences instead of enclosing them into categories? This workshop begins with a collective reading and with sharing experiences around the topics and problematics of community, community building and gardening. The gathering is also an invitation to cook and eat together while discussing modes of growing communities.
Time: 10:45 am - 1:00 pm
Venue: Room 102
Pre-registration required: [link here] Limited to 20 participants.
The Practice of Democracy / The Adversaries
A participatory performance by performance maker and researcher Danae Theodoridou
with critical friend Anike Joyce Sadiq
The Adversaries is a participatory performance installation. Two small groups are brought into conflict with each other in a playful manner. A third group, the witnesses, follows the discussion and shares its perspective on the conflict. This allows the participants to think about conflict as a vital part of democracy. Following different instructions, they explore and negotiate an existing conflict in ways that play up the possibilities and limitations of conflict. Together they try to create a new, third space based on a synthesis of the different points of view.
Time: 10:30 am - 1:00 pm
Venue: Room 110
Pre-Registration required: [link here] Limited to 18 participants.
The news we want - countering the prevailing narratives in German media
A workshop hosted by artist Julia Lazarus and Gruppe Wissenslücke, an alliance of students, activists and art workers
with critical friend Aouefa Amoussouvi
In this session we will spend time with a self-published 'zine looking at how the German press has covered and continues to cover the war in Gaza and Palestinian activism. We will share experiences of student activists and look at specific examples of reporting and how they have helped to shape public opinion and the discourse at German universities. The goal is to envision an alternative future where we work together to fight biased language in "journalism".
Time: 2:00 - 4:30 pm
Venue: Room 101
Language: In English spoken language, with some German content which we will translate into English. We can offer German and Arabic whisper translations. All video works have subtitles in English.
Pre-registration required: [link here] Limited to 30 participants. Pens and paper provided, but please bring a computer to work on if that’s preferable.
AHOMUTOU: Ideas of Storm in Éwé Language
An amalgam of performance, happening, and lecture by you-us-them and artists Anani Dodji Sanouvi, Safete Muchave, Eurico Ferreira Mathias, Lucas Godoi Sene and Biano aka K'boko
with critical friend Alexandre Achour
We aim to create an amalgam of performance, happening, and lecture in an entropic, polyrhythmic, polyphonic, polycentric, poly-dicentric, cyclical micro-succession of events. This sequence will be either simultaneous or a well-organised, uninterrupted intervention, seamlessly transitioning from one activity to the next. The goal is to experience an uninterrupted time flow across different activities, fostering interconnectivity.
Time: 2:30 - 3:30 pm
Venue: Room 110
Open and without registration
On the possibility of gardens as sites of encounter and resistance - reflections by critical friends.
A discussion with reflections on each workshop from critical friends Alexandre Achour, Aouefa Amoussouvi, Schokofeh Kamiz, Valentina Karga and Anike Joyce Sadiq, moderated by artist and curator Juana Awad
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 pm
Venue: Room 110
Open and without registration
rooting for you (work in progress)
Screening of artist and film-maker Lilli Kuschel’s current work followed by a Q&A with film curator and publisher, Florian Wüst
In the Northern Irish city of Derry, trees, bushes, flowers, mosses and lichens grow out of the concrete of houses, cracks in the walls and gaps in the asphalt. Plants do not decide for themselves where they grow. They cannot escape, but rather develop special abilities to cope with the circumstances of their environment on the spot. The artist and filmmaker Lilli Kuschel interweaves the urban survival strategies of plants with eight personal stories from people from Derry. They talk about growing up in civil war-like conditions during the 'Troubles', the Northern Ireland conflict from 1969-1989. They speak about poverty, hard work and dealing with grief and trauma, but also about the solidarity of the grandmothers' generation in the textile factories. People talk about what gives them strength and creates peace: solidarity, neighbourliness, love, friendship, faith and humour.
Time: 6:30 - 7:30pm (32 min film screening, followed by Q&A)
Venue: Room 110
Language: Original language with English subtitles.
Open and without registration
Accessibility Guide
The event will take place in spoken English. Rooms 101, 102 and 110 are wheelchair accessible via a wheelchair stair lift. A barrier free toilet is on the ground floor (with key from the front desk). In the afternoon there will be a common room (102) with different seating options and quiet space. Drinks and snacks are available. When you have specific access needs, please contact us beforehand so that we can support you the best we can.