IMPORT/EXPORT
WORKSHOPS, PANEL, LECTURE & COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
ACTIVITIES ARE FREE-OF-CHARGE AND OPEN TO ALL
Queer materialism
a workshop by Olympia Bukkakis
MONDAY 16/09 · 17-20h
SOLD OUT - Waiting list is still open!
Objects in hardware stores are gendered in particularly interesting ways. Most of them are coded masculine, but, just like with people, strange (or queer) elements make themselves apparent upon closer observation. In this workshop Queen of the Heavens and of the Earth, Empress of Despair, Architect of Your Eternal Suffering Olympia Bukkakis shares some skills she developed working with found objects early in her drag career. Participants will work with objects that have established and clear functions to discover their latent queer potential as props, costume, set, and persona inspiration. Wrenches become earrings, drop sheets turn into second skins, and sledgehammers break down the crumbling edifices of heteronormativity and capitalist domination.
This workshop is open to artists from any discipline as well as interested members of the general public. The duration is three hours during which up to 15 participants are led through some exercises in improvising with costume, movement and persona building. By the end of the workshop, the participants have developed a persona and have gained an insight into the way that objects in our environment are gendered (and how they influence our gendered existence).
📸 Niklas Hammerstein
SOLD OUT - Waiting list is still open!
PARTICIPATION IN THE WORKSHOP IS FREE OF CHARGE, TO REGISTER SEND AN EMAIL WITH EXPORT - NAME OF THE WORKSHOP AS A SUBJECT TO INFO@IMPORTEXPORTPERFORMANCE.COM
Community lunch at Flutgraben e.V
TUESDAY 17/09 · 13h
One of the main missions of IMPORT/EXPORT is to create spaces for social exchange. On this occasion, we invite you to join us and the communities of Flutgraben for their weekly community lunch, where one can eat from 5€.
The lunch will be followed by a lecture on Flutgraben's history by Christine Brecht.
Reservation recommended
SEND AN EMAIL WITH EXPORT - NAME OF THE WORKSHOP AS A SUBJECT TO INFO@IMPORTEXPORTPERFORMANCE.COM
Flutgraben’s History : a lecture by Christine Brecht, with a guided tour by Matthias Krause Hamrin
TUESDAY 17/09 · 14h30-16h
Christine Brecht, a historian known for her expertise in contemporary Berlin history - particularly the intersection of science, technology, and cultural memory - is the author of “Spurensuche im Mauerland: Ein Grenzbetrieb am Berliner Flutgraben”, a book retracing the history of the Flutgraben building and its surroundings. Together with Matthias Krause Hamrin, visual artist and board member of Flutgraben e.V., they will discuss the rich history and ongoing transformation of the Flutgraben area, proposing a guided tour around the premises.
The walls of Flutgraben bear witness to the shadows of the past, establishing an exemplary relationship between historical echoes and the brightest aspirations and efforts for the future. Founded in 1997 and situated along the former inner German Border and Berlin Wall, Flutgraben e.V has a rich history spanning almost three decades. It traces its roots back to a transformative era, when the system barrier between East and West crumbled in the face of modernity. One side of the building oversees Treptow, part of the Soviet sector; passing to the other side, Kreuzberg, part of the American sector, comes into full view. In a tangible manifestation of radical historical shifts, contemporary artists now actively engage in the gradual repurposing of an industrial space that once was a GDR-state-owned bus factory. The space has evolved into a vibrant, live art venue, hosting not only meetings and events but also serving as a nurturing environment for various political and economic advocate groups. Flutgraben e.V. has become a vital hub for fluid, dynamic constellations expressing fortified, alternative narratives to the somber history of separation embodied by the iron curtain.
📸 Matthias Krause Hamrin
No reservation required
Spirit of places
a workshop by Tho Mas Proksch
TUESDAY 17/09 · 17-20h
WEDNESDAY 18/09 · 17-20h
SPIRITS OF PLACES explores the concept of Genius Loci, the spirit of a place, as a starting point, playfully and intuitively investigating the relationship between humans and the environment. How does Genius Loci manifest in different places? How does a place's spirit manifest in our perception? Can Genius Loci help us better understand our connection to the world and our role within it? In this two-day workshop, we aim to collectively explore the diverse entanglements between people and their surroundings. How can we engage in dialogue with both the visible and invisible aspects of a place? The workshop welcomes anyone interested in delving into the history and spirit of the Flutgraben bulding and surroundings. There are no limits to the artistic expression that can emerge from this dialogue, encompassing movement, voice, painting, poetry, music, and other creative methods to process your experiences.
The workshop will take place in both studio settings and around the Flutgraben area. I will share exercises and methods to sharpen our awareness of body, mind, and senses, followed by explorations of the site together and individually, interacting with its visual and hidden aspects. Afterwards, participants will playfully and performative reflect as a group on our collected impressions, engaging in a choreographic dialogue that perceives places not through a concept but through layers of experience: memories, myths, sensations, emotions, thoughts, dreams, and fantasies. The culmination will be a collective spatial sculpture symbolizing these encounters.
Feel free to bring a notebook, pens, and attire suitable for potentially messy activities. Additional tools such as audio recorders or instruments are also welcome to aid in capturing impressions.
SPIRITS OF PLACES is an interdisciplinary exploration developed in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Rocio Marano and performer Tho Mas Proksch and was developed in residencies at Guapamacátaro, Center for Art and Ecology, Mexico (2019), and AADK Spain, Center for Research and Contemporary Creation, Spain (2020). Initially focused on natural environments, the research now extends to an urban-historical site like the Flutgraben and its surroundings in Berlin.
PARTICIPATION IN THE WORKSHOP IS FREE OF CHARGE, TO REGISTER SEND AN EMAIL WITH EXPORT - NAME OF THE WORKSHOP AS A SUBJECT TO INFO@IMPORTEXPORTPERFORMANCE.COM
space of (not) free expression by Anna Shevchenko
OFF PROGRAM
TUESDAY 17/09 & WEDNESDAY 18/09
09.00-17.00 DAILY
with a final presentation on Wednesday 18/09 between 17h and 20h
The audience comes together in a shared space where dialogue is possible through exchanging handwritten texts and interactions with them. The artist invites visitors to write texts and stick them on the walls in the first days. On the 2nd day, she assembles and connects them. The work is finalized with a three-hour presentation of the results, in the form of a live reading performance. Visitors over the 2 days are invited back to the last part. The event is dedicated to the theme of freedom of expression, its transformation, and fluidity. The performance is in English and Ukrainian.
Anna Shevchenko (Kyiv, Ukraine) has been engaged in artistic practice since 2015, using documentary photography and video art to explore urban space and experiment with perceptions of reality. Her self-education has expanded to include theatrical practices, where she studies acting and performative-sound techniques. Her work includes performances, installations, and projects that explore themes of identity, duality, dialogue, and human interaction with the world.
Production: proto produkciia, Kyiv
Hosting: Cultural Workers Studio Berlin (Hanna Liashenko and Richard Pettifer)
Anna Shevchenko developed the work in the frame of Antonin Artaud Fellowship.
With the financial support of the European Union under the House of Europe program.
📸 Valeriia Landar
Bodies in Alliance – Towards a Solidarity-based Politics of Space
Panel and Workshop by Open/Occupy and Guests
With: Florian Wüst (author and researcher), Sonja Hornung (artist and activist), housing rights activists from Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen, Mikala Hyldig Dal (artist, activist and founder of Open/Occupy Flutgraben)
FRIDAY 20/09 · 17-18h
Open/Occupy is a response to ongoing processes of gentrification in Berlin. Together, we work towards strategies of civic empowerment, driving social change, sustaining Freiräume/Open Spaces and creating new, solidarity-based space politics. The event series is located in Flutgraben Artist House Berlin and organized by artists from the house, along with invited guests.
We believe that we artists as a community must rethink, re-examine and decolonize the spaces we inhabit by critically examining the power structures that enable their existence while threatening to crush them. We need to do this without falling into the trap of making these spaces even more desirable through our temporarily granted presence and free labor: strategies of "interim use" temporary leases specifically targeting artists and creatives are deliberately used to increase the value of real estate properties.
The Flutgraben is a goddess and a giant. The entire structure is a giant studio, it is a post-authoritarian entity, it has a collective spirit beyond the singular practices of the artists who inhabit it. If we want artist spaces to exist in the future, we must celebrate and honor them now. We need to acknowledge our privileges and pay respect to the artists who paved the way for us by occupying vacant spaces and creating places that physically embodied communities. And we must also open our spaces for the public to participate in this celebration and engage beyond the boundaries of spectatorship.
With this 5th event in the Open/Occupy series, we explore the specific potential of body-based art and performance art through discourse which questions and resists neoliberal forms of dis/possession and empowers diverse forms of collectivity in a public space. In a panel with a point of departure taken from Judith Butler’s essay “Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Streets” (from Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly), we team up with notable thinkers and activists on the topic and, in a concluding workshop format, explore how such interventions can materialise concretely, what their physicalities can be, and how we can perform them collectively.
Can we create an archive, an alphabet of performative strategies, through which our bodies become connected spaces of potentiality, physical manifestations of a future space politic?
Reservations (recommended) can be made by sending an email with EXPORT - SPACE PANEL as a subject to INFO@IMPORTEXPORTPERFORMANCE.COM
📸 Open/Occupy
Afterhours
MONDAY 16 - WEDNESDAY 18 · 20-22h
Every evening, upon conclusion of IMPORT/EXPORT daily events, we open the space to the international and local community to continue the exchange and sharing of experiences. All are welcome!
📸 Matthias Krause Hamrin
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.