Congress of Culture

2008 : Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, Germany

The focus is on the ‘global alien’ who crosses cultural and national boundaries, thus making it possible for people to encounter a foreign or “alien” person. That which is alien is determined by the boundaries separating the known from the unknown.

The key question for the exhibition CONGRESS OF CULTURE is what a global culture might look like that both accepts its own transformation and is capable of combining the tensions of preservation and transformation within itself.

INVITED GUEST ARTISTS FOR THE EXHIBITION:
Gabriel Rossell Santillàn (MX), Mushon Zer-Aviv (IL/USA), Damian Rebgetz (AUS), Global Alien in Cooperation with the Anna-Siemsen High-School under the direction of Sandra Contreras, Anja Sommer

INVITED ARTISTS FOR THE EVENT PROGRAMM:
Moira Zoitl (AT), Susan Gordanshekan (DE), Nele Wohlatz (DE), MoogulatoR pattysplanet, Boris Polonski Verstaerker, Hieroglyphone

Video-Igloo

Thorbjørn Reuter Christiansen and Jakob Schaible

Lines

christopher mayer chm

The installation is based on a theoretical discussion between the artists and on a concrete conflict about the exclusion of a member. This situation brought many responses by e-mail, in which the central question are appeared, how a system must be constituted by the individuals and what should be the role of the artist as an individual in an artist group.

You are not here

Mushon Zer-Aviv

A walking tour, in which people walk on the streets of New York, but with a city map of Baghdad. At the designated place on the New York streets they get the information on the city of Baghdad through a telephone hotline system. (www.youarenothere.org - Project in Cooperation with: Thomas Duc, Laila El-Haddad, Kati London, Dan Phiffer & Mushon Zer-Aviv)

Oral-Exam

Youngjoo Cho

From a megaphone one hears a voice asking questions that has chosen from the Oral Exam of an english course. The questions are open for a variety of answers and the answers change accordingly with the different lifestyles and cultural and religious backgrounds of those being questioned.

Exchanging T-Shirt with Aliens

Youngjoo Cho

The courage required to exchange with a strange person (an Alien!) the cloth that we wear closest to our skin signifies the small but important jump towards an openness with others, whose skin colour, religion and culture may differ from ours.

Island

Jae-Hyun Yoo

Berlin as an island - Korea divided by a river: the histories of the divided city and of the peninsula are superimposed geographically visualized in a topographical model, which resembles models of the border between North and South Korea. The cityscape of Berlin today is characterized not only by the former political border. The political border has been replaced by a social border. Polarization, urban demarcations and partitions are becoming relevant for European cities, likewise for Berlin.

Looking Inwards-Perspectives on Filipino Diaspora

Lizza May David

You see the meticulously ordered household, from the kitchen through the bedroom to the laundry, that a Filipino domestic worker in Hong Kong had filmed with a video camera. Her descriptions shows her caring, loving look at the things, for its cleanliness and order she as Hausmaid must care.

Multi-Faith Prayer Room

Jakob Schaible

A multi-Faith Prayer Room - an open space for the needs of all religious believers inspired by the example of the common prayer rooms at airports and Universities in England and Canada .

Transformationsroom

Thorbjørn Reuter Christiansen