Edition III
· Residency and Exhibition ·
Artists Sujatro Ghosh and Stephanie Imbeau, chosen through an Open Call, have been invited to inhabit the spaces of the Bärenzwinger for three months, to imagine and develop activatable and participatory works reflecting on the conditions set by winter. Performative and in-situ installations will coexist alongside emerging creative works, as well as collective and inclusive events.
During this residency, the Bärenzwinger will undergo a metamorphosis, making room for refuge and desire. In the middle of winter, this intention hints at the austerity that is one aspect of the Bärenzwinger, in extremely cold weather. The artistic proposals will bring an inductive approach and filter through, like messengers, to respond – in either a potential or a very real way – to the lack of warmth.
Perhaps one can link the projects of Sujatro Ghosh and Stephanie Imbeau back to Marguerite Duras, who stated “it is due to a lack that we say things, a lack of living, a lack of seeing. It is through the lack of light that we speak of light […] It is through the lack of desire that we speak of desire”[1]. This thought might lead us to wonder: what defines desire?
Bärenzwinger’s central space opens with the performative installation Shifts (Procession) (2019-ongoing) by Stephanie Imbeau. Five portable houses, designed as though for individual survival, defy our faith in sedentary life. The artist configures these habitat-envelopes through materials that are transportable, weatherproof and modulable. Hanging them in a theatrical way, from the ceiling, Stephanie Imbeau invites us to activate them, crossing their thresholds, which are made up of several layers of fabric. As they are set into movement, possible projections of a private space appear, both monumental and fragile. The installation Procession (Interiors, Winter) (2021-2022) is a village crossing, in which each envelope, infused with a dreamlike light, invites us to a moment of introspection and integration of our memories and our dreams. It transgresses the Bärenzwinger symbolism, creating temporary, desirable spaces that offer a hospitable shelter for thoughts and bodies.
The work Annopurna/অন্নপূর্ণা/اناپورنا by Sujatro Ghosh in the central cage, reveals different methods of conservation. A group of jars here have become recipients of dehydrated, fermented, and pickled food-items, balancing in their presentation between a shrine and a pantry. Food acts as a form of nourishment here, interacting with ourselves, our belonging spaces and our ecology and preserving it serves as an injunction to retain it from becoming scarce. Through this action, artist-activist Sujatro Ghosh attempts to remind us from forgetting the ways in which we relate to food across cultures and the gathering power it represents.
Following this installation, which leads us to reflect on what food brings to our societies, we can ask ourselves what we are willing to attach to it? Under the Shamiyana/ শামিয়ানা/شامیانہ placed on the ceiling of the left cage, visitors enter a space where they are invited to record its most memorable experience of a community or ceremonial dinner.
This creative residency will allow the two artists to pursue their reflections on habitat, preservation, warmth, desire, and places of belonging, which will be expressed in future installations. The Bärenzwinger space will remain open throughout the three months of the residency, to allow the public to discover and take part in these evolving projects.
Together we will move, trek, roam through winter. Just as the content it describes, this initial text will be modified, through exchanges, encounters, and events that will take place during the residency.
Livia Tarsia in Curia
[1] From the documentary Duras filme by Jérôme Beaujour and Jean Mascolo, filming of Agatha et les lectures illimitées (Paris, Médiane films, 1981).
Program
From 2 to 6 pm
Closing House with Sujatro Ghosh and Stephanie Imbeau
Location: Bärenzwinger Berlin (GE)
The Closing House is a time to reflect on the creative processes which took place at the Bärenzwinger. Together we’ll activate the various installations of the Roaming Winters exhibition.
Come and see what has risen out of the collective sewing sessions by Stephanie Imbeau and which food and memories have been preserved through Sujatro Ghosh’s participatory projects.
From 3 to 6 pm. Sewing sessions. Location: Bärenzwinger Berlin (GE)
Artist-in-Residence Stephanie Imbeau is happy to host collaborative Sewing Sessions on Thursday afternoons.
The main goal will be to slowly produce a textile skin for the large house frame, which is situated in the outdoor area of the Bärenzwinger. In the first week, the sessions start off with designing, drawing and experimentation. As this project gets underway there will also be smaller hand-sewing repairs to be done on the other houses.Those who are interested can bring their own sewing machines, or hand-sew with needles Stephanie Imbeau provides.
“I hope that these times can be both productive and cozy, at least in the way of sewing circles, offering a time to work with others, while sharing stories and ideas and presence.”
From 2 to 4 pm
Graphic Novel Workshop “Drawing Desire” with Sarnath Banerjee & Sujatro Ghosh.
Location: Bärenzwinger Berlin (GE)
Sujatro Ghosh’s workshop ‘Memory Jars’ was centred on preservation; it was explored desire through the idea of food becoming memory. In this graphic novel workshop, the artist wished to collaborate with Sarnath Banerjee to further draw on our desires and gives them a visual form. The workshop participants were asked to create an image of their desire on a piece of paper.
The workshop was also functioning as a reading session, the public was invited to bring a paragraph/text which their desire would resonate with.
Performance with Narval (Peter Strickmann and Evgenija Wassilew) in relation to Stephanie Imbeau’s projects
Location: Bärenzwinger Berlin (GE)
On February 4, the textile works of Artist in Residence Stephanie Imbeau will experience a rare use when sound-performance-duo Narval invites us to listen together to their sounds which will be shaped by the wintry Bärenzwinger and Imbeau’s installation. The space is activated by small acoustic gestures as well as spatial resonances. In this site-specific performance, the duo uses acoustic feedbacks, prepared objects, homemade instruments, as well as parts of Stephanie Imbeau’s installation in order to interweave the spatial actions and their sounds with the notion of shelter, house, and prison.
Narval is a sound performance duo consisting of Evgenija Wassilew and Peter Strickmann, which was founded in the winter of 2018 on the frozen river Aurajoki in Turku. Since then they have performed at Titanik Galeria in Turku, ausland Berlin, konnektor Hannover, Zwitschermaschine, Aktionsraum Spoiler, Zönotéka and Saarländische Galerie in Berlin, aswell as at Projektraum Alte Feuerwache in Friedrichshain and Errant Sound in Mitte, Berlin.
From 2 to 4:30 pm
Workshop “Memory and Preservation” with Sujatro Ghosh
Location: Bärenzwinger Berlin (GE)
Sujatro Ghosh will be conducting a Workshop revolving around the idea of “Memory and Preservation”.
As a ritual of sharing, we will cut, prepare and eventually preserve our food through this workshop. Sujatro sees preserving food as an act where food becomes memories and memories act as an archive of our winter struggles. The food here acts as a form of nourishment.
In preparation for the workshop participants are invited to think of a memory which they would like to preserve, and are requested to bring a tangible item that represents this memory to them (This could be a love letter, a picture, a text, a poem, a flower, a butterfly or any kind of object.)
Artist Talk with Stephanie Imbeau + Wilma Lukatsch
Location: Bärenzwinger Berlin (GE)
We are hosting an artist talk with Roaming Winters resident Stephanie Imbeau. We are joined by our guest, Wilma Lukatsch. A writer, curating researcher and editor based in Berlin, Wilma has graduate degrees in Art History, History of Religions and Sociology from the Freie Universität Berlin and the Humboldt-Universität of Berlin. She has since been working with artists and archives, and is focusing on developing a dialogue-based writing practice in close exchange and collaboration.
Together, Stephanie and Wilma will enter a conversation about Stephanie’s practice and intentions for the residency at Bärenzwinger.
Stephanie Imbeau’s work investigates how people seek community, personal safety and a place to belong. She uses representations of monumental and fragile houses, exploring their duality, both restful and transient. During her residency, she invites us to shed our certainties and rethink these multi-layered spaces that interweave our lives with those of others.
Retranscription: Artist Talk Wilma Lukatsch Stephanie Imbeau
Artist Talk with Sujatro Ghosh + Kavita Meelu
Location: Bärenzwinger Berlin (GE)
We were joined in this by a special guest, Kavita Meelu. Kavita is a Cultural anthropologist, culinary curator and community organizer.Her area of interest is at the intersection of food, identity and power. Exploring the crossovers in the modes of work and activism of Sujatro, they will talk about his intentions and hopes for his residency time at the Bärenzwinger.
Winter is often a time of rest and retreat, but also of reactivating the ‘preserved’. During his residency-period Sujatro is, among other things, working with retrieving dehydrated, fermented and pickled foods. This act is not only a practical way of bridging the hibernation of plants and animals, but also becomes an act of embodying memories.
Retranscription: Artist Talk Suajtro Ghosh and Kavita Meelu
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