Performance & ScreeningsSymposia

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE NOTIONS OF HOSTIPITALITY
Invocations

8 June
10 June 2018

Participants: Ulf Aminde, Mohamed Amjahid, Sepake Angiama and Clare Butcher (aneducation), Ibrahim Arslan, Nacera Belaza, Seloua Luste Boulbina, Canoafolk, Joshua Chambers-Letson, Jacques Coursil, Lynnée Denise, Jihan El-Tahri, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Heidrun Friese, Marque Gilmore, Niklas Maak, Naeem Mohaiemen, Negros Tou Moria, Peter Morin, Robert Nichols, Kettly Noël, Mitat Özdemir, Massimo Perinelli, Meral Şahin, Nahed Samour, Miriam Schickler, Lerato Shadi, Farkhondeh Shahroudi, Safiya Sinclair, Tania Willard, Aaron Wilson

We cordially invite you to a weekend of invocations in the framework of the project  WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? Contemplations on the Notions of Hostipitality  which unfolds through an exhibition, performances, lectures, film screenings and other time-based experiences to deliberate on concepts of hospitality and the triggers of hostility in hospitality.

Much is happening today that calls for a reflection on hospitality in Germany, in Europe, and in the world at large. While departing from the national context of Germany, and taking Derrida’s notion of “hostipitality” – that is the presence of hostility in all hospitality and hosting – as a point of commencement, the project is not limited in geography, history, philosophy nor culture to these origins, but rather addresses concepts of hospitality in a global context. By inviting, and being host to, artists, curators, musicians and other thinkers to reflect on the various thought and lived concepts of hospitality, the project creates a space for exchange, mutual respect and learning to pose questions that might instigate further thoughts. In an age of flourishing resentments and antipathy towards all that seems conceptually or physically ‘strange’/ a ‘stranger’, in a time when the historical violence of the guest (as a colonizer) over the host is reiterated and fortified, and in an era that increasingly turns hospitality into a neoliberal commodity, it becomes urgent to reconsider hospitality’s gradients of power.

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? is conceived across interrelated ‘spaces of contemplation’ which will be activated and animated through an exhibition and a weekend of invocations including performances, concerts, lectures and talks:

I Guest, I Host. Who is the Ghost? explores power gradients between host, guest and becoming ghost – the zombifying transformation process between guest and host, as well as the violences implicated in these transitions through looking at settler colonialist projects and their perverting of who is ‘guest’ and who is ‘host’.

Forging a Bridge: From ‘Wir schaffen das’ to ‘Das Boot ist voll’ probes the gradual shift of hospitality towards hostility. Unpacking the breakdown of the German ‘Willkommenskultur’ after the arrival of mostly Syrian migrants in Germany in the summer of 2015, we observe how the summer of grace became the autumn of rage and the winter of nightmares, as the initial goodwill turned into the resurgence of the extreme right in Germany.

Caressing the Phantom Limb: ‘Heimat’ – Progression, Regression, Stagnation?  looks at the power of the notion of Heimat that has come to characterize privileges and the common denominators of those who are viewed by the majority as eligible to partake in the privileges. ‘Heimat’ could be the sum of our singular beings, cultures, religions and philosophies. ‘Heimat’ could be inclusive and unifying – sensitive to the historical, political and economical realities that have made people move forcefully or willingly. Isn’t the current state of Heimat rather regressive and a mere caressing of a phantom limb?

Riding the Tide: On Hostipicapitalism revisits the notion of hospitality in neoliberal capitalism, which has successfully transformed hospitality from virtue into ubiquitous commodity.

Throughout this project we look from the micro-level to broader entanglements – from  SAVVY Contemporary’s home, role and presence in its space in Wedding as host to artists and other collaborators, as well as guest within the context of our neighborhood, to the possibilities of moments of unconditional hospitality and the nation state’s strategies of hostility towards its weakest citizens and the newly arrived.

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? is a project within the framework of 4Cs: From Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture, a collaborative project that investigates conflict and models for intercultural dialogue supported by the European Commission through Creative Europe – Culture. 4Cs was developed amongst the following partners: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas Universidade Católica Portuguesa FCH|UCP (PT), Tensta Konsthall (SE), SAVVY Contemporary (DE), Royal College of Art (UK), Fundació Antoni Tàpies (ES), Vilnius Academy of Arts (LT), Museet for Samtidskunst (DK) and ENSAD (FR).

Convened by: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Elena Agudio, Denise Ryner

silent green Kulturquartier

Gerichtstraße 35
13347 Berlin

Website

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE NOTIONS OF HOSTIPITALITY Schedule

Friday June 8, 2018
 
Forging a Bridge: From 'Wir Schaffen Das' to 'Das Boot ist Voll'
4:00 pm
Ulf Aminde and Miriam Schickler
Performance
5:00 pm
Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Elena Agudio and Denise Ryner
Introduction
5:20 pm
Seloua Luste Boulbina
Talk
6:00 pm
Heidrun Friese
Talk
6:40 pm
Break
7:00 pm
Lynnée Denise
DJ Lecture Performance
7:40 pm
Niklas Maak
Talk
8:20 pm
Break
8:30 pm
Negros Tou Moria
Music
9:15 pm
Sepake Angiama and Clare Butcher (aneducation)
Talk
10:00 pm
Nacera Belaza
Performance
10:30 pm
Ulf Aminde, Sepake Angiama, Nacera Belaza, Seloua Luste Boulbina, Clare Butcher, Lynée Denise, Heidrun Friese and Niklas Maak
Conversation
11:30 pm
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore
Music
Saturday June 9, 2018
 
Caressing the Phantom Limb. Heimat - Progression, Regression, Stagnation?
3:00 pm
Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson
Performance | Meeting Point: silent green courtyard
4:00 pm
Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Elena Agudio and Denise Ryner
Introduction | Meeting Point: Nettelbeckplatz
4:10 pm
Farkhondeh Shahroudi
Performance Procession | From Nettelbeckplatz to SAVVY Contemporary
4:50 pm
Jihan El-Tahri
Talk
5:30 pm
Safiya Sinclair
Poetry
6:10 pm
Break
6:30 pm
Naeem Mohaiemen
7:10 pm
Denise Ferreira Da Silva
Talk
7:50 pm
Massimo Perinelli, Ibrahim Arslan
Live streaming from Cologne with Meral Şahin, Mitat Özdemir and Ulf Aminde
8:30 pm
Break
8:45 pm
Ibrahim Arslan, Jihan El-Tahri, Naeem Mohaiemen, NSU Tribunal, Safiya Sinclair, Massimo Perinelli
Conversation
9:45 pm
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore
Music
Sunday June 10, 2018
 
I Guest, I Host. Who is the Ghost?
1:00 pm
Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Elena Agudio and Denise Ryner
Introduction
1:10 pm
Tania Willard
Talk
1:50 pm
Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson
Performance | Meeting Point: silent green courtyard
2:15 pm
BREAK
2:30 pm
Robert Nichols
Talk
3:10 pm
Lerato Shadi
Performance
3:50 pm
Nahed Samour
Talk
4:30 pm
Break
4:40 pm
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia
Performance
 
Riding the Tide: On Hostipicapitalism
5:20 pm
Mohamed Amjahid
Talk
6:10 pm
Joshua Chambers-Letson
Talk
6:50 pm
Kettly Noël
Performance
7:20 pm
Break
7:30 pm
Joshua Chambers-Letson, Peter Morin, Robert Nichols, Kettly Noël, Lerato Shadi, Tania Willard
Conversation
8:30 pm
Negros Tou Moria
Music
9:30 pm
The Hospitality Duo: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore
Music