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TRUTHTRUSTTREES

 

FEATURING:

Alena Grom, Verena Issel, Laura J. Lukitsch, Sonya Schönberger, Nina E. Schönefeld, Benjamin Heim Shepard, Caroline Shepard, Andreas Templin, Philip Topolovac, Magaly Vega

Curated by Caroline Shepard & Benjamin Heim Shepard

 
 

OPENING: 27 July @ 6-10pm

With Movable Performance by Patrick Jambon @ 6-8pm
& Musical Intervention by Andreas Templin: Aurorhytmica Hymns // Extended Piano (Drone/Doom) @ 8:30pm

 

POETRY & SOUND: 2 August @ 6-8pm

“How Do We Love This World“: Sound Performance and Guided Cemetery Walk by Laura J. Luetisch,
“Roses of Resistance”: Reading by Federico Hewson,
& A Celebration of Trees with Poetry from Ben Shepard and Max Haivenm

 

FINISSAGE: 6 August @ 4-8pm

Raise money for Ukraine! Unique poster from Ukrainian artist Alena Grom will be for sale. Proceeds will be donated.
Caroline and Ben Shepard say “Adieu” to Berlin and all the wonderful people they have met. Celebrate with live music by the band “Isaak” and D/VJ AntiDodi.

 

EXHIBITION: 28 July – 6 August 2023

Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday @ 12-6pm

 

@ Verwalterhaus

The Old Cemetery St. Marien – St. Nicolai

Prenzlauer Allee 1, 10405 Berlin


 
 

TRUTHTRUSTTREES

 

Bowie warned in 1972: we have five years.
The climate clock is ticking,
counting down to anthropocene.

At the Verwalterhaus, by the entrance of the St. Marien-St. Nikolai cemetery, a story takes shape between past and prologue. We see majestic trees and resting graves, while across from us are shopping malls and big box stores—a tidal wave of identical details encroaching from Alexanderplatz. Yet, the ghosts resist and push back. Five years was so many years ago. We’re on borrowed time. Mankind can no longer act with impunity. TRUTHTRUSTTREES is an exhibition of ten artists from around the world linking the relentless destruction of the climate, nature and women’s bodies to the ticking clock of unsustainability.

In the most recent Volkswahl, Berliners agreed to turn down the dependence on gas for heat, but not give up cars. In NYC, public spaces are sacrificed to development greed. In the Ukraine concrete and metal pile up around destroyed lives. All over domestic violence claims a shocking multitude of women’s lives with little legal and historical consequence. Germany is losing thousands of hectares of forest due to climate change. From Gruenheide to East River Park to the Amazon, the war on trees is raging, despite a world wide battle for sustainable cities, to stop rising tides, protect nature and house displaced peoples.

Yet, cars continue to pollute, people produce unmeasurable amounts of waste, and the WAR MACHINE remains the biggest polluter. 80 years after WW2 the same mountains of debris that lie buried under all major German cities, pile up in the Ukraine. Female bodies continue to be violated as collateral damage and landmines continue to maim for generations, as radioactive pollutants contaminate the land, air, and water. Once more, paralyzed masses become dangerously polarized. Truth is in question, but without established „truths“ how do we move forward? While simultaneously dystopian interventions of Artificial Intelligence subvert authenticity, and we wonder: who can we trust?

WE FACE A CHOICE: consume more, add more cars and fossil fuels, shop ourselves to death, hate those we are tasked to love and watch tides rise. OR become sustainable, open green spaces, see others as ourselves, use non-polluting transportation, treasure all people and end wars. When does it change? When we demand it. This is the decisive task.

Come celebrate the trees. Gardens are the future of cities! Decarbonize! Unplug! Destroy cars! Make art! We can do a lot. Celebrate life under the drone of climate doom! Gaia is calling.

 

– Caroline Shepard



 
 

 

Featuring:
[Click on the name of each artist to see the bio and the work description below.]


Alena Grom
Verena Issel
Laura Lukitsch
Sonya Schönberger
Nina E. Schönefeld

Benjamin Heim Shepard
Caroline Shepard
Andreas Templin
Philip Topolovac
Magaly Vega


 

 

 
 

 
 

Verena Issel

 
 


 

Heimat, trotz euch II / Homeland, Despite You II (2022)

Hand felted sheep wool with velcro and mop, 93.5 x 120.5 cm

Verena Issel shows two works in the exhibition. Both are made from hand felted and hand coloured sheep wool. They depict tents in nature. Are the tents for recreation? Or are they refugee tents? And will we all be climate refugees soon?

The work “Why” invokes Lorem Ipsum, which has been the graphic industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. Buuuuut, it is a piece of a Cicero text, where he speaks about DOLOREM IPSUM- the pain itself.

  
 

Why (2022), Hand felted sheep wool with mop, 73.5 x 120.5 cm

 

Verena Issel (b. 1982 in Munich, Germany. Lives and works in Hamburg and Berlin, Germany.) < < http://www.verenaissel.com > >

Verena Issel was born in Munich, Germany and now works between Berlin and Hamburg Germany. Issel received a Master of Arts in Classical Philology (Latin/Ancient Greek), and a Master of Fine Arts from Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (HfBK). She completed her postgraduate program at China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China. Although primarily revolving around textile arts, much of her work is interdisciplinary and spans across various media such as sculpture and installation as well as textile, fiber arts and others. Verena has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, with her works shown in various countries throughout the world, including Germany, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and Portugal. She has received numerous grants and prizes, including the prestigious Lothar-Fischer-Preis in 2021. Additionally, Verena has been actively participating in artist residencies abroad, with experiences in cities such as Vladivostok, Seoul, Shanghai, and Yokohama. Verena’s work engages in disparate contemporary issues of interest told through unique combinations of media and cutting edge yet imaginative practices, creating thought-provoking experiences for her audiences.
 

 
 

 
 

Laura J. Lukitsch

 



 

Bodies and Heroes (2023), mixed media installation

How Do We Love this World? If Mushrooms Could Talk and Trees Could Love (2023), sound / audiovisual installation

  

Laura J. Lukitsch (Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.) < < https://www.laurajlukitsch.com > >

Over the course of my year filming in parks, I was struck by the images we see in public on a daily basis.

The sheer number of male versus female figures.

The bodies we view as heroic and those we see as weak.

The messages conveyed by these bodies.

Before radio and television statues were a way of advertising ideas, from religious morals to national loyalty.

Many unspoken messages exist in the form of statues in the public spaces of Berlin. Visions of colonialism, mythological moral tales, memories of struggle and loss.

While Berlin has invested in telling sharing its history but only specific, government sanctioned narratives.

This project aims to expand the narratives we see in public. [Laura J. Lukitsch]

  

Laura J Lukitsch is a filmmaker, video artist, and story consultant. Her work creates spaces for audiences to experience different perspectives of our collective stories. Her first feature documentary, Beard Club (2013) is a film about the social politics of facial hair. Park Project Berlin (2017-ongoing) examines our public realm. Laura’s interest includes social change, the power of intersectional narratives, and ways we can bring new voices into mainstream consciousness. She helps artists struggling to tell their stories reframe their inner and outer narratives and get their work seen.

In a world where attention has become a commodity, Lukitsch aims to create spaces where ‘othered’ humans and non-human actors can be seen, felt, and heard. In her practice, she uses the tools of video, photography, documentary interviews, text, and sound design to develop immersive audio/visual experiences. She creates polyphonic portraits, questioning norms, and honoring endangered people, beings, and places. Through this approach she examines cultural and place-based phenomena through layers of multiple voices and perspectives, aiming to question and decenter dominant narratives, and give space to alternative frames of reference through collective narratives.

 
 

 
 

Sonya Schönberger

 

 

Den Trümmern zum Trotze / Despite the Ruble (2014), photography

In Berlin there are 14 hills made up of the rubble left by the war. There, one can walk directly on top of the intangible consequences of the destruction. Under your feet lurks the city of before, unknown. The will to survive, to be remembered, is mirrored in the remnants which reveal themselves and the nature that grows above it. With an Agfa box camera and expired film, I attempted to capture it. [Sonya Schönberger]

  

Sonya Schönberger (b.1975. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.) < < https://sonyaschoenberger.de > >

Sonya Schönberger studied ethnology in Berlin and Zurich as well as experimental media design at the Berlin University of the Arts. Today she moves as an artist between the media of photography, installation, theatre, sound, publication and film. In her work, she primarily deals with biographical ruptures against a background of political or social upheaval, but also with the effects of colonial expansion on the flora and fauna. The source of her artistic exploration are the people themselves, who report on them in biographical conversations. This is how some archives were created, but also existing archives, some of them found, flow into her work. Five years ago, she created the Berliner Zimmer, a long-term video archive based on the stories of people in Berlin.

In 2022 Sonya Schönberger was a Villa Aurora grantee from the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin.

 
 

 
 

Nina E. Schönefeld

 

 

 

C.O.N.T.A.M.I.N.A.T.I.O.N. (2023), video installation, 11:11 min.

This is RESIST CLIMATE CHANGE.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us to never stop fighting.

Since the late 1970ies Greenpeace has been fighting against dumping of nuclear waste in the seas to prevent worldwide contamination. 2019 Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future were omnipresent. Since Covid everything has changed. 2030 is going to be a crucial year for the world.

C.O.N.T.A.M.I.N.A.T.I.O.N. is a plea on the relevance to bring back environmental activism. [Nina E. Schönefeld]

  

Nina E. Schönefeld (b. 1972 in Berlin, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin and Ibiza, Spain.) < < https://www.ninaeschoenefeld.com > >

Nina E. Schönefeld was born in Berlin. She is half Polish and half German. She studied at the University of Arts in Berlin (UDK) and at the Royal College of Art in London. Since several years she has given lectures in Fine Art at private Art Colleges. Together with Marina Wilde she founded “Last Night In Berlin” a cultural platform about art openings in Berlin. She holds a Master of Arts and a PhD in Art Theory (Dr. Phil.). Schönefeld lives and works in Berlin (& sometimes in Ibiza). Nina E. Schönefeld works as an interdisciplinary video artist. The future scenarios in her art works are closely linked to current political, ecological and social issues in the world. She operates with a system of different light sources, sound systems, electronic machines, newly built sculptures, costumes, interiors and video screenings.

 
 

 
 

Benjamin Heim Shepard

 

 
 

Benjamin Heim Shepard (Lives and works in Berlin, Germany and New York, USA.)

Dr Benjamin Shepard, PhD, LMSW is a social worker and professor working to keep New York from turning into a giant shopping mall.
 

The Clash – Tale of Two Cities (2023), video installation, 15 min.

Capitalism is frequently referred to as the means of production for climate change. Currently, it’s taking us in an unsustainable direction. To alter this, cities need to become more sustainable, including open green spaces and sustainable non-polluting transportation. The majority of the people in the world live in cities. If cities can be sustainable, we have a better chance at a future. Yet, to get there involves a clash, between those who see public spaces as commodities to monetize by the inch, and supporters of sustainable urbanism, who favor greening and democratizing the commons. We can work toward this as we navigate this clash, between bodies in spaces. After all, public spaces are mirror reflections of our democracy. When they are full of color they thrive; when they are full of cops or restrictions curtailing speech, it suffers.

Composed of five connected public space battles, from Critical Mass Bike Rides to Community Gardens, struggles for a sustainable city, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matters, Tale of Two Cities traces a story about both New York and the world. With parks and green spaces at risk from Istanbul to Manhattan, the Tale of Two Cities is a New York and a global story. Past is prologue, what happens with New York’s neighborhoods, high rents and patterns of displacement, seems to be what will happen in Berlin. ‘Save the Garden, Save the City’, say garden activists. The majority of the people in the world live in cities. Save the city, save the world. Order is coming to Berlin, some worry. The same thing happened to New York three decades ago. And the city lost a bit of its soul in the cleanup. ‘Keep New York Sexxxy’, activists chanted. In Berlin, we are poor but we are sexy, said an old mayor. Keep Berlin Sexxy! Save the Gardens, Save the City. [Benjamin Shepard]

  

Benjamin Shepard is a Professor of Human Service at New York School of Technology/City University of New York. He received his Masters at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, PhD at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and training in psychoanalysis from the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology in their Intensive Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program. As a social worker he worked in AIDS housing settings from San Francisco to Chicago to New York, where he directed the start ups for two congregate housing programs for people with HIV/AIDS, as well as served as Deputy Director at CitiWide Harm Reduction.

He has done organizing work with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), SexPanic!, Reclaim the Streets New York, Times UP, the Clandestine Rebel Clown Army, the Absurd Response Team, CitiWide Harm Reduction, Housing Works, the More Gardens Coalition, and the Times UP Bike Lane Liberation Front and Garden Working Groups. Combing ethnography with social change activism, his work considers the interplay between theory and practice.

Much of Shepard’s scholarship is based on the ethnographic study of social services and social movements. He is the author/editor of numerous books and publications, including: Play, Creativity, and the New Community Organizing (Routledge, 2011); Queer Political Performance and Protest (Routledge, 2009); The Beach Beneath the Streets: Exclusion, Control, and Play in Public Space (co-written with Greg Smithsimon) (SUNY Press, 2011); Community Projects as Social Activism (Sage); White Nights and Ascending Shadows: An Oral History of the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic (Cassell, 1997); and From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization (co-edited with Ron Hayduck) (Verso, 2002), which was a non-fiction finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards in 2002.

 
 

 
 

Caroline Shepard

 


 

In Memoriam (2023), photo installation

Caroline Shepard’s current work in berlin looks to document the invisible legacy of violence that was perpetrated against the German women at the end of WW2 through sculpture and photography.

These works emerge from a series entitled Don’t Tread On Me (2022-2023), begun at the outset of Caroline Shepard’s year-long Artist Residency at MOMENTUM.

“In 1989 Barbara Kruger proclaimed “our bodies are a battleground” in response to the chipping away of abortion protections in the United States. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the historic decision that protected abortion access across the nation. 50 years. The course of my lifetime. What does forced motherhood mean? It means women are not autonomous. It means women in the United States are not equal citizens. But we are not alone in our move towards political extremism. From Afghanistan, to Poland and beyond, practically half the countries in the world have some form of restrictions on abortion. Why? We need only look back to the Third Reich to know that our bodies are controlled when fascism is on the rise, when power is threatened. By 1945, approximately 2 million German women were raped. Female bodily autonomy is continually violated during times of war, and yet where are the monuments? Where is the healthcare, or the compensation? Where is the recognition that we are targets in war? This isn’t ancient history, this is Bosnia, the Ukraine. Think of the Yazidis, the Rohingya. The girls stolen by Burko Haram. “Culturally sanctioned“ child marriage and forced marriage. Consider the murdered Transgender women across the globe. And the Tribal women in North America. When will it end? When we insist that all rape is not a justifiable byproduct of patriarchy, or war, or something that doesn’t exist. Sadly, on January 6, 2022, the US witnessed more than just a right-wing rebellion as throngs of angry men waving “DON’T TREAD ON ME” flags stormed the capitol building of the United States, we witnessed Patriarchy armed and ready to fight for domination at the cost of democracy. Women’s bodies have been walked over, abused and misused throughout History. Our bodies remain a battleground. We can feel the footsteps all over us, but where is the evidence? Positioned on the gallery floor, ‘Don’t Tread On Me‘ dares the viewer to trespass the intimate lines of bodily autonomy. In the picture series, much like a memorial, it stands as a marker of the myriad untold stories, and silenced voices.” [Caroline Shepard]

  
 

Anonyma (2023), sculptural installation

 

Caroline Shepard (b. in New York, USA. Live and work in Berlin, Germany and New York, USA.) < < https://www.carolineshepard.com > >

Caroline Shepard is old enough to have seen some things, and young enough to still be curious. Born and raised in New York City, they received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College under Joel Sternfeld and Gregory Crewdson, and an MFA at the School of Visual Arts, under Collier Schorr, Sophie Calle and Sarah Charlesworth – all of whom continue to influence. Their work has been published and exhibited worldwide. They are currently living in Berlin.

Caroline Shepard has been Artist-in-Residence at MOMENTUM from August 2022 to July 2023. During that time, she has participated in four MOMENTUM exhibitions: You Know That You Are Human @ Points of Resistance V at Zionskirche, Berlin, 3 December 2022 – 8 January 2023; ART from ELSEWHERE: Mexico City at LAGOS, Mexico City, Mexico, 2 February – 2 March 2023; You Know That You Are Human & MOMENTUM Collection at Kultursymposium Weimar, Galerie EIGENHEIM Weimar, 11 May – 10 June 2023; and this exhibition, TRUTHTRUSTTREES.
 

 
 

 
 

Andreas Templin

 
 

 

 

The Blind Leading the Blind (2000), photo installation

The 2020s seem to me like a time of crossroads, a time of transition on many different levels. It also seems difficult to me at the present time just to interpret the near future. This peculiar feeling is not new to me though. It found already once expression in an artwork from the year 2000. The philosophical question posed by The Parable of the Blind (after Pieter Bruegel the Elder) prompts us to examine the relationship between knowledge, leadership, and the collective fate of humanity – properties that today more than ever will have far-reaching influence on the near and distant future. [Andreas Templin]

  

Goodbye World (2021), video performance, 14 min.

 

Andreas Templin (b. 1975 in Germany. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.)

Andreas Templin is a Berlin based conceptual artist working seamlessly between the cultural & corporate sector. Templin received a Master of Fine Art in fine and studio arts from the Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam.

 

 

 
 

Philip Topolovac

 


  		 

Großmutter-Paradoxon / Grandmother Paradox (2017)
Readymades, two flat irons produced by Siemens in the 20ies; one restored, the other one a warfind from Berlin Mitte (Torstrasse), H 14 x B 10 x T 18 cm

“Truth is always granted only a brief celebration of victory
between the two long periods of time
where it is condemned as paradoxical and held in low esteem as trivial.”

– Arthur Schopenhauer

Authenticity and transfiguration, imagination and truth are themes that are often addressed in Philip Topolovac’s work. He often plays with the gray area between reality and fiction. In the case of the extensive collection of war-destroyed objects that Topolovac has rescued from building pits in Berlin in recent years, these are entirely real, historical objects. Since reunification, the many post-war wastelands along the Wall and in the divided rest of the city have been rebuilt at full speed. In the process, the real estate boom opens a window into the dramatic past and brings forth evidence of Berlin’s extensive destruction during the war. The contaminated sites, which were actually intended for disposal, are oozing out of the ground as if from the city’s subconscious. Behind the construction fences, history emerges, only to be immediately erased.

In numerous works, Topolovac questions the meaning and value of these artifacts and places them in new contexts. In the pair of works “Grandmother Paradox” and “Grandfather Paradox” he juxtaposes the same objects with different fates. In the case of the grandmother, the objects are two identical Siemens irons (model EPD 30dh). The other work is based on two unbranded hand drills. In both works, restored, newly chromed examples are juxtaposed with one destroyed during the war and rescued from Berlin construction pits. The concept of the “grandfather paradox” is borrowed from a theory of time travel, the core of which is the question of whether someone who travels into the past and kills his grandparents could exist afterwards to make this journey at all, because then the person would not have been born at all. This work thus not only reinforces the question of the origin and identity of the objects, but also underscores the enigmatic nature of their meaning in the here and now.

In contrast, the iridescent richness of colors and forms in “Bodenproben” seems almost seductive. Layered, deformed, exploded like crystals or melted like slag, only fragmentary clues to the origin of these glass objects can be discerned. Staged like a collection of minerals, their genesis in the fires of the bombing war only gradually reveals itself, only to become all the more potent. Instead of precious gems, it is the force of destruction that beguiles us here with its variety of form and color. The particularly large and rare specimen in the exhibition was excavated in Berlin Kreuzberg. [Philip Topolovac]

  

Bodenproben / Ground Sample (2016)
sculpture, glasobject from 2nd worldwar found in Berlin Kreuzberg (Heinrich-Heine Strasse), H 19 x B 18 x T 15 cm

 

Philip Topolovac (b. 1979 in Würzburg, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin.) < < https://philip-topolovac.com > >

Philip Topolovac studied at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) (2001-2008), and the Master Classes under Christiane Möbus (2009). He established the arts initiative TÄT with six other artists in 2007. The exhibition room of TÄT in the Schönhauser Allee operates as a gallery run by graduates of the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2014 he received a working grant from the Kunstfonds Bonn.

Recent solo exhibitions include: “mockup (fountain)”, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin (2023); “In Process”, Galleria Mario Iannelli, Rome (2022); “Orpheus”, Lake Halensee, Berlin (2021); “Tel Berlin”, Korn Ausstellungsraum, Berlin (2021); “Shaping mont Ventoux”, Wilhelmhallen, Berlin (2021); “…doch listig erzwäng ich mir Lust”, Kunstverein Bayreuth (2020); “Glass“, Stroux, Berlin (2020); “Eden beneath”, M3 Festival, Prague (2020); “Mockup”, CNTRM, Berlin (2018); “yesterday was dramatic”, Berlin-weekly, Berlin (2017); “Wunderkammer”, Art-Open festival, Brno (2017); “für immer”, Galleria Mario Iannelli, Rome (2016); “remote sensing”, Invaliden1, Berlin (2015); “Niemandsland”, Museo Nivola, Orani, Sardinia (2015); “Out of this world”, with Martin Schepers, Studiogalerie Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin (2014); “Containment Units”, NUN, Berlin (2013); and Galerie Laboratorio, Prague (2012); “Various Rooms” Invaliden1, Berlin (2011); “Earth Observations” in the Czarnowska Gallery, Berlin (2010) and “Light Machine” in the Kwadrat Gallery, Berlin (2009).

Selected recent group exhibitions include: “polished/ raw” & “Lichtsekunde”, Hilbertraum, Berlin (2023); “Wall of sound”, Lage Egal, Berlin (2023); “Festsache”, Schaufenster, Berlin (2022); “Vergoldet”, Schloss Biesdorf, Berlin (2022); “Doré”, Chateau de Nyon, Nyon (2022); “Oliver Mark-Collaborations”, Guardini Stiftung, Berlin (2022); “Electro”, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2021); “Blocks”, Albergo delle povere, Palermo (2021); „Black Album, White Cube“, Kunsthal Rotterdam, NL (2020); “Electronic”, The Design Museum, London (2020); “Night Fever”, Design Museum Denmark (2020); “Back to Life”, Tape Modern, Berlin (2020); “Electro”, cité de la musique, Paris (2019); “Hyper-a journey into sound and music” Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2019); „Unselect“, Kleine Humboldtgalerie, Berlin (2019); “All out” Kwadrat, Berlin (2019); “Night Fever”, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (2018); “when peace erupts”, Vittorio Veneto, Italy (2018); “Neue Schwarze Romantik”, National museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest; Kunsthaus Kiel, Kiel; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2017); “Small”, Sexauer gallery, Berlin (2017); “Welt am Rand”, Kunsthaus Erfurt (2016); “Los der Kybernetik“, Kunstverein Aschaffenburg (2016); “Anatomy of restlessness” , Mario Ianelli gallery, Rome (2016); “Boys and their Toys” at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/ Bethanien (2015); “Net – about spinning in art” at the Kunsthalle Kiel (2014); “The Mechanical Corps”, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (2014); “Forever Young“, Kunsthalle Nürnberg (2013) and many others./p>

 

 

 
 

Magaly Vega

 


 

You Breathe… The Light Enters (2023), performative installation

You breathe… the light enters – The air as an instrument – The air as a bond – The violence of the invisible – It disrupts all of us. How are certain spaces transformed physically and symbolically with the use we give to the air? How do our bodies resist certain instruments of violence? How do we redefine our relationship with air? This is an performative installation work that investigates the relationship between air and the violence of the invisible. The kind of violence that is linked to what we normally do not associate with instruments of cruelty. In this case, the management of air supply as a weapon for femi(ni)cide worldwide, especially in domestic spaces. [Magaly Vega]

The work shown in this exhibition builds upon Magaly Vega’s work Love In A Mist, created for her Artist Residency at MOMENTUM-LAGOS Berlin earlier this year. In this body of work, Magaly transposes her ongoing research on domestic violence in her native Mexico into the German context. Taking the form of research, installation, and performance, this series of works addresses the increase in domestic violence in Germany, and the inherent biases entrenched within the legal system. MORE INFO >>

 
 

Magaly Vega Lopez (b. in 1986 in Mexico City, Mexico. Lives and works in Mexico and New York, USA.) < < https://magalyvega.com > >

Magaly Vega is a Storyteller, Visual Artist, Educator, and Writer who lives and works between New York and Mexico City. She holds a Master of Art + Education from NYU Steinhardt, class of 2019, and a Master of Fine Arts from the New York Academy of Art, class of 2016.

Magaly Vega Lopez uses counter-narratives to start a dialogue on the violent acts of reality and pursues possible social healing through art. She believes in art that interacts with the eye of the beholder, starts a conversation or action, and lets us have our own voice. She believes that only through listening to your community you can achieve a profound knowledge of humanity. She reflects on her teaching experience, conversations, and personal memory in her own artwork. She uses art to explore the world, share, and honor stories. Art as a social-act rather than an individual practice.

Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, and Germany. She has been awarded artist residencies in Russia (2015: New York Art Academy Art Residency, Moscow & St. Petersburg, Russia); Argentina (2018: AIR Program, Tribu de Trueno, Bariloche, Argentina); Switzerland (2019: Flair Talents, Bulle, Switzerland); Mexico (2021: J.A. Monroy Bienal x LAGOS Art Residencies, Mexico City); Uruguay (2022: Mango Air Program x Puertas Abiertas, Punta del Este, Uruguay); Germany (2023: LAGOS Berlin x MOMENTUM AiR, Berlin, Germany); Iceland (2023: Gamli Skóli Old School Arthouse, Iceland).