Invitation to the press conference “SEQUENCES: ENTANGLED INTERNATIONALISM – Till the Sun rises. Sequence 1”
01 February 2024Einladung zum Pressegespräch „SEQUENZEN: VERFLOCHTENE INTERNATIONALISMEN – Bis zum Sonnenaufgang. Sequenz 1“
Starting 2 February 2024, the Research Department of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), working in collaboration with the Albertinum, will be presenting the first of a three-part exhibition entitled “Sequences: Entangled Internationalism”. Each “Sequence” is based on an historical case study of a specific internationalism associated with India, Namibia or Ghana and which originated from, was intertwined with, or manifested itself in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), whereby Internationalism here is understood as a network of cultural practices. The exhibitions transcend national boundaries to explore how global cooperation, navigating the tensions between artistic freedom, working conditions, and state structures, can contribute to creating a fairer and more socially just world.
The “Sequences” are curated by artists and researchers from Asia and Africa. From there, they delve into memories of the exchanges with the GDR, as well as directing their attention to the art collections in Dresden, in dialogue with the scientists at the SKD.
Using a transhistorical approach, the exhibitions aim to capture the conditions under which the historical works were created, opening them up as sources of knowledge that transcend generations and which are able to show those memories here, today. In collaboration with Spector Books in Leipzig, a printed and a digital research edition will be published for each “Sequence”.
The first installment of the "Sequences: Entangled Internationalism" series, titled "Till the sun rises," is curated by vinit agarwal. He is an artist, researcher, and curator, as well as the founder of the Oralities Research Lab. Based in Jaipur, India, where it houses both a library and an event space, this international project is committed to the transmission of oral knowledge as a medium for the future.
Curated in India, the presentation was developed in collaboration with artists Chetna Vora, Aarti Sunder, and Moses März. The first instalment of this "Sequence" uses the film "OYOYO" (1980) by Indian filmmaker Chetna Vora (1958-1986), a graduate of the University of Film and Television in Potsdam/Babelsberg in the GDR, as its starting point. The film depicts the lives of students from Ethiopia, Chile, Guinea-Bissau, and Mongolia residing in a hall of residence in Berlin-Karlshorst. How can a film help us understand an internationalism that intertwined a global polyphony with the GDR?
“OYOYO” is an archive of sounds, of the feeling of being between home and here, of struggles and love. The film was used as the basis for two contemporary works which are being shown in the first “Sequence”: an artistic, large-format, textile diagram with embroidered lettering, quilted graphs and arrows, sewn-on images and printed text fields by Moses März, which was produced by women from a handicraft cooperative in villages in the Barmer district near the Indian-Pakistani border, and an over eight-metre-long rice paper drawing by Aarti Sunder. In addition, relevant objects from the Kupferstich-Kabinett, the Puppentheatersammlung and the SKD archive will also be on display.
“Sequences” is the curatorial and artistic research part of the international research project “Decolonising Socialism. Entangled Internationalism” (2019-2024), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation at the HEAD Genève, the HES-SO (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland) and in partnership with the research department of the SKD. The content of the series corresponds with the exhibition “Revolutionary Romances. Global Art Histories in the GDR”, which can be seen at the Albertinum until 2 June 2024.
Programme:
6 February, 4:30 p.m., meeting point: atrium of the Albertinum
Tour of the exhibition with curator vinit agarwal (in English)
6 March, 6:00 p.m. in the atrium of the Albertinum
Talk with the artist and mapmaker Moses März and the author Annett Busch
22 to 28 April, at the Albertinum
A walk through the city, in cooperation with the TU Dresden, focusing on cultural exchange between the GDR and India.
23 April, 7 p.m.
Film screening of the first digitised long version of "OYOYO" by Chetna Vora in cooperation with Zentralkino Dresden and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.
The production and the accompanying programme were funded by the Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media) as part of the project “Museen als aktive Orte der Demokratie” (MODemo).
With the kind support of the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF.
