East Contemporary

Category: Germany

Mars: „Distant View“ group exhibition

Frankfurt/Main, August 3 – 11, 2024, https://www.instagram.com/marsfrankfurt/ A group of befriended artists from Japan and Germany organised a show together. Different styles, different media, different gerenrations. The connecting point seems to have been some kind of residency program, and the motivation the obtaining of some Japanese artist mobility grants to enjoy a European summer culture…

HdKW: transmediale 2024 (day 3)

Berlin, January 31 – February 3, 2024, https://transmediale.de, https://www.hkw.de/ Dubravka Sekulic, Silvio Lorusso “Users, politics, linkinbio” talk “Thanks” to some demonstration that lead to a cancellation of the only bus line to HkW, I could enjoy this first lecture of the day via livestream while walking through Tiergarten. Also not bad. Based on the description…

Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien: transmediale 2024 “this is perfect, perfect, perfect”

Berlin, January 31 – April 14, 2024, https://transmediale.de, https://kunstraumkreuzberg.de The exhibition accompanying transmediale 2024. I don’t want to write about all the artworks, but overall it was definitely worthy to see. Within the context of transmediale, the exhibition most closely embodied this years theme dealing with the “horror of content”, i.e. the fading boundaries between…

Silent Green: transmediale 2024 (day 1 & 2)

Berlin, January 31 – February 3, 2024, https://transmediale.de, https://www.silent-green.net/ First, the ugly and the bad: transmediale sadly employed the same hidden price increase method as a lot of FMCG manufacturers do these days: Same price, same packaging design, but less content. It always offends me a bit, because I feel like someone thinks I am…

basis Frankfurt “Structural stowaway”

basis, Frankfurt am Main, September 14 to December 10, 2023, https://basis-frankfurt.de A group show that combined a number of China-related artworks by Chinese and China-related artists. Overall it seemed that there was an interest in geopolitical topics. Curated by Antonie Angerer & Anna-Viktoria Eschbach. Artists: Musquiqui Chihying, Elom 20ce, Gregor Kasper, Peng Ke, Xiaoshi Qin,…

Haus der Kunst Munich: WangShui “Window of Tolerance”

Munich, September 8, 2023 – April 28,2024, https://www.hausderkunst.de/ WangShui is an ABC, American born Chinese. Is he from the “East” or the “West”? At least based on the funding of the exhibition by the “Asian Art Circle at the Guggenheim” he still seems to be considered as an Eastern artist. The most impressive thing about…

transmediale 2023, a model a map a fiction: day 1

Berlin, Feb 02, 2023, https://2023.transmediale.de Transmediale is back in its “normal” on-site format after a two year hiatus. Yay! I decided for a combined on-line and on-site attendance while trying to make a couple of very inconsistent notes in a paper notepad as the event goes a long. 10:30 Opening remarks Mora O Murchu welcomes…

transmediale: Bonnie Honig “Embodying Refusal, from the Bacchae to The Fits”

Berlin, 29.01.2021, http://transmediale.de In this cinema and gender studies talk, Honig takes up elements from three movies (A.R.Holmer, C.Chaplin, L.v.Trier) to show how the body reacts with movements to being fixated by norms and violent gazes. Especially the female body. She sketches a historical arc from the Greek “Bakchantes” to contemporary incarnations of the same…

transmediale Marshall McLuhan Lecture: Jason Edward Lewis “Expansive, Embracing, Evolving: Looking Beyond Impoverished Intelligences”

Berlin, January 29, 2021, http://transmediale.de Lewis talked about computer game workshops he conducted with indigenous Hawaiians. He talked about the importance of creating one´s own questions and narratives, instead of accepting the generous help of caretakers, who unfortunately also impose their own worldviews in the caretaking process. He pleaded for a digital emancipation of indigenous…