Notes of a Seeress. Andrea Acosta, Joseph Beuys, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Sara Ouhaddou
30 April – 13 June 2021
Opening: 29 April 2021
To mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, ifa Gallery Berlin is presenting drawings by Joseph Beuys from the ifa art collection in a dialogue with the artistic positions of Andrea Acosta, Anne Duk Hee Jordan and Sara Ouhaddou. Both Beuys and the featured artists address overlooked, disregarded, handed-down forms of – often collective – knowledge. Based on the relationship to found materials, they use humorous, poetic and social gestures to examine economic and ecological issues, initiating processes that have the potential to effect lasting societal change.
Curated by Susanne Weiß & Inka Gressel
“Oriental Silk 鄉 綢” – Threads, Texture, Translation, Tactility
19 May 2021, 19:00
Digital Book Launch
Speakers: Xiaowen Zhu (Artist and Author), Nicky Harman (Translator), Michael Mason (Designer)
Moderated by Inka Gressel
Published by Hatje Cantz in 2020, Xiaowen Zhu’s English-Chinese bilingual artist book “Oriental Silk 鄉綢” is a memoir, a biography, a company history, and a visual elegy . The Oriental Silk emporium, founded by Kenneth Wong’s family in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, has become a productive place to reflect on the astonishing histories of Asian migration and to critique the idea of the American Dream. Through her multi-sensory works, Zhu opens up a multifaceted view of a firm that is distinguished, like its silk products, through its own haptics, style, colors, and values. The people, places, and stories that make up the phenomenon of Oriental Silk form a fascinating, vivid tapestry in which the past and present, art and life, are closely interwoven.
The digital book launch will embody four conceptual elements, derived from “Oriental Silk” – threads, texture, translation, and tactility. Each of these elements corresponds to the non-linear narrative structure, design and aesthetic exploration, language and translation, as well as a new collaborative performance artwork associated with the project. Through conversations and exchange, the story of “Oriental Silk” and its rich context are meant to stimulate wider engagements and open discussions that link people and places – and provide purpose – across time and borders.
Wie verlerne ich, was mir beigebracht wurde?
29 May 2021
Online Workshop with Saraya Gomis and Moshtari Hilal
as part of “Platz für Diversität!? – Festival für diskriminierungskritische Allianzen zwischen Kunst und Bildung” (27.-29.05.2021)
The workshop will be held in German.