gegen\archive: wer bleibt wo
gegen\archive: wer bleibt wo addresses the post-socialist city as a living archive, one that materially registers countless structural and everyday acts, affecting what – and who – belongs where. The exhibition moves between the traces, gaps, and silences in East Berlin and beyond left by the legacies of state socialist property structures, the GDR-Vietnam ‘contract worker’ Treaty, and decades of capitalist-neoliberal transformation and rupture. Three generations of exhibiting artistsdraw on aesthetic and (counter)-archival practices at work within and beyond the dominant urban archive – practices that may involve gathering, mapping, documenting, mourning loss, intervening, disseminating, or simply claiming space and holding it.
The exhibited works are accountable to resilient networks and economies of mutual support that do not necessarily overlap, are not only local, and that challenge the relationship between centre and periphery. Through this, gegen\archive: wer bleibt wo hopes to contribute towards shifting and consolidating conversations, constellations, and imaginaries of urban activisms. The question “Who does the city belong to?” is expanded by a further question: “…and who takes care of it?”
gegen\archive: wer bleibt wo is the first exhibition of the municipal Prater Galerie in 14 years. Prater has existed as a place for culture, art and lively exchange between various scenes since 1852, including contemporary art exhibitions from 1967 to 2007. Preparations are currently underway for the gallery’s reopening. While construction work continues, Prater Galerie will be guest at further institutions and places in Berlin. The exhibition gegen\archive: wer bleibt wois kindly hosted by ACUD Galerie and is organised by Sonja Hornung with the curatorial advice of Lena Johanna Reisner.
Artists:Wanda Dubrau | Mascha Fehse & Valentina Karga | Pantea Lachin | Jinran Ha & Johanna Käthe Michel | Angelika Nguyen | Nguyễn Phương Thanh | Andrea Pichl | Phạm Minh Đức | Karla Sachse | Daniele Tognozzi
With contributions from: hausgemeinschaft k12 – hirschhof | Nguyễn + Transitory | Kerstin Möller | Aymi Trần – Vinaphunu | Jochen Wisotzki u.a.
When? Where?
20 November - 30 January 2022
ACUD Gallery
Veteranenstr. 21
10119 Berlin