Prof. Christiane Kühl & Prof. Chris Kondek
Exilmuseum Berlin. How to make exile tangible?
Workshop, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Wednesdays, 14-18 h resp. 14-20 h, 7 sessions: 14-18 h on 6.11., 20.11., 27.11.2024, 15.1., 22.1.2025 (Ha33, room 110) as well as 14-20 h on 5.2. and 12.2.2025,
Hardenbergstr. 33, Raum 201

Excursions:
On 6.11. & 27.11. & tba: excursion to Werkstatt Exilmuseum, Fasanenstr. 24, 10719 Berlin
Wednesday, 4.12.2024, 16 -17:30 h: Exhibition visit "Forgive us our trespasses" at HKW/Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin (optional)

The first Exile Museum in Germany is currently being planned in Berlin. Its aim is to make the experience of exile comprehensible with all its implications and consequences: from uprooting, the risks of transit, arrival in host countries, the feeling of ongoing loss of homeland and language. The focus is on exile experiences from 1933 to 1945, when half a million people fled the National Socialists in Germany. However, the museum explicitly aims to connect these stories with contemporary refugee and migration movements, especially with the experiences of those seeking protection in Germany. How did persecution, displacement, and uprooting become central experiences of our time? Is there a universal experience of exile? What can be learned from past experiences for today?

The Exilmuseum is expected to open in a new building at Anhalter Bahnhof in the next years. Until then, a permanent multimedia exhibition is being planned at an interim location, the Werkstatt Exilmuseum. A central element will be the so called "Path of Exile" which will run through all exhibition rooms. A spatial structure, dedicated to specific themes such as "Waiting" or "Passport/Identity". In the seminar, we develop ideas for its design. The museum team provides us with texts and interviews with exiles from various eras and backgrounds. Participants select quotes from the material and develop proposals for how these can be combined and presented using different artistic media and forms of expression. Prior to this, we will work with the museum's curator and exiled artists to delve into the topic of conveying the experience of exile. The results will be exhibited 2025 in the Werkstatt Exilmuseum.

The class is open to anyone interested in the theme, including both people with and without experience of exile. Prerequisite is respect for everyone present, and genuin interest in exchange, listening, learning as well as experimentation with artistic means of mediating experiences.

Konkrete Leistungsanforderungen für den unbenoteten Schein // Fulfilment criteria for ungraded accreditation: Participants will work in small groups to combine provided material and develop possible modes of presentation for a museum context.

Christiane Kühl is a theater maker, author, editor, and curator of interdisciplinary symposia between art and theory. Since winter term 2023/24 Kühl is Guest Professor for Interdisciplinary Artistic Practice
and Theory in Studium Generale at the University of the Arts Berlin. After studying Modern German Literature, Philosophy, and Spanish at the University of Hamburg, she worked as an arts editor for the newspaper taz, SPIEGEL magazine, and radio station radioeins/RBB. She has  freelanced for various media outlets, including Die Zeit, F.A.S., dummy, and Du (Switzerland). From 2006 to 2015, she collaborated with the steirischer herbst festival (Austria), and from 2011 to 2013, she served as deputy to the artistic director of the Berliner Festspiele. She is a co-founder of the performance group doublelucky productions, which has been creating theater pieces, lecture-performances, and video installations since 2005, in co-production with HAU Berlin, Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig, Münchner Kammerspiele, among others. Their work has been critically acclaimed and tours internationally (www.doubleluckyproductions.org). Since 2018, she has been part of the team for "Weiter Schreiben. A Platform for Literature from War and Zones of Crisis," which has been awarded the Power of the Arts Prize in 2018, the PEN Centre Germany's Encouragement Award in 2022, and the BDI Cultural Promotion Prize in 2023. More information on www.christianekuehl.de.

Chris Kondek, born in Boston in 1962, started as a video designer for theater in 1990 working with the New York Theater company The Wooster Group. In 1995 he began a multi-year collaboration with performance artist Laurie Anderson; in the late 90's he made video for productions by Robert Wilson, The Builder's Association and Michael Nyman. After moving to Berlin in 1999 Kondek established himself in the German Theater world, working with directors Stefan Pucher, Falk Richter, Jossi Wieler, Armin Petras among many others, as well as with choreographer Meg Stuart. In 2007 Kondek created video for the first of many opera productions with Sebastian Baumgarten. With director Lydia Styer he worked on Stockhausen's “Donnerstag aus Licht”, which was named production of the year 2016 by Opernwelt magazine. For his video work in theater Kondek received the OPUS/Deutscher Bühne Prize in 2008 and the Faust Theater Prize in 2012. Since fall 2023, he and Prof. Christiane Kühl share the Professorship for Interdisciplinary Artistic Practice and Theory at Studium Generale at UdK Berlin.