Towards a Shimmer on the Horizon #1
A post-capitalist summer series at ZK/U. In the evening, outdoors, with a shared meal and two performances.
18:00 - Welcome
18:15 - Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi - Kovenant (ritual performance)
19:15 - La Delicia - Mexican family-style food
19:45 - Gazino Neukölln - Acoustic Concert
20:30 - Pedro Oliveira & Ariel Orah - No More Miserable Immigration Appointments
22:00 - End
Towards a Shimmer on the Horizon aims to explore steps, practices, thoughts and sounds that could shift consciousness towards post-capitalist desires, that may illuminate new structuring elements of society, that open up wishful imagination, that could give a glimpse of shimmering possibilities. The series is not about the distant utopia, but rather about exploring a next step towards a shimmer of a world that is not structured by extraction and power, from different positions, and acknowledging existing damage, precarity & complexity. (full concept here: www.zku-berlin.org/timeline/towards-a-shimmer-on-the-horizon/)
Tonight, participating artists look towards the shimmer across structures of borders, marginalization and hierarchies of identities and relationships. As a vector to search beyond established structures, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi considers radical solidarity and communal commitments to care in a ritual performance. Pedro Oliveira & Ariel Orah search for “post-migration” modes of existing in a sound essay performance and listening session in attunement with the anger, sadness and collective joy expressed in Mark Fisher’s playlist considering post-capitalist desires. Gazino Neukölln play a special acoustic concert for the opening of the series, queering lyrics of Arabeske and pop hits and freeing them from sexism and queerphobia. La Delicia prepares Mexican family-style snacks for all participants.
Kovenant
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi
Kovenant is a mass marriage ritual performance inviting the audience to swear oaths, make vows and pledges to one another. The performance transforms empathy, solidarity and activism into rituals and intimate encounters that will bind the entire humanity together and to take communal responsibility of care, protection, love and compassion.
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi(she/sHit) - is a multidisciplinary “artivist”, curator, mentor and the founder and artistic director of perfocraZe International Artists Residency (pIAR) in Kumasi/Ghana. As a performer and installation artist, crazinisT investigates gender stereotypes, prejudices, queerness, identity politics and conflicts, sexual stigma and their consequences for marginalized groups or individuals. With rituals and a gender-fluid persona, sHit employs sHits own body as a thought-provoking tool in performances, photography, video, and installations, ‘life-and-live-art’ confronting issues such as disenfranchisement, social justice, violence, objectification, internalized oppression, anti blackness, systemic indoctrination and many more.
NO MORE MISERABLE IMMIGRATION APPOINTMENTS (Jendela Sonorama #6)
Pedro Oliveira & Ariel Orah
In this listening session and live "sound essay" performance, artists Ariel Orah and Pedro Oliveira will dive in and out of a selection of song snippets and musical interludes dealing with the tensions that a desire for "post-migration" futures entail. In attunement with the anger, sadness, and collective joy of Mark Fisher’s original k-punk playlist, Ariel and Pedro will sonically articulate the complexities of border and diasporic identities as they become ways of living and being – here and elsewhere.
The performance also marks the sixth edition of "Jendela Sonorama." Jendela is a listening session series initiated by Soydivision and LK_W in collaboration with Pedro Oliveira. Starting from but not constrained to our own personal record collections and research interests, we unpack from musical histories that deal, subtly or not, with the (often violent) devices, legacies, and complexities of colonialism. With that in mind, we want to ask ourselves and those listening with us: Where do we find the sound of border identities, of new modes of existing? How do we find new listenings, how do we attend to and witness these listenings?
Ariel Orah is a Berlin-based Indonesian artist who explores themes related to identity, memory, and scarcity. He fancies the durability of homo sapiens and the fragility of the machines. He is working with a variety of media, ranging from sonic and other multi-sensory performances, physical and interactive installations, and moving and/or still images. He co-founded an empathy driven artist collective L-KW and Indonesian gastronomy initiative SOYDIVISION.BERLIN.
Pedro Oliveira is a researcher, artist and educator interested in sonic thinking and the material articulations of (border) listenings. He is currently a fellow at the "AI Anarchies" program at the Junge Akademie der Künste Berlin and in residency at ZK/U. He holds a PhD from the Universität der Künste Berlin.
Acousting Opening Concert
Gazino Neukölln - is a queer feminist Berlin-based Band, which consists of women, trans and non-binary persons. "Gazino" refers to a specific space and entertainment format with a queer vibe from Turkish cultural history. Through this inspiration, Gazino wants to create a fresh, glamorous, kitchy, diverse and exciting atmosphere. The band covers both Turkish and international pop and arabesque hits with interventions in lyrics to liberate them from sexism, homophobia and transphobia.
Shared Meal
La Delicia Berlin - Mexican family-style food