ANIMAL LOVERS

Opening: October 14, 7–11pm, with performance Animal Companion by Hana Lee Erdman 

Cats are entitled to the pension, chickens have social security and cows have union representation. If all domesticated animals had civil rights they would be able to participate in policymaking and could no longer be eaten. Fellow citizens cannot be eaten. Whereas some animals in our society are cared for and pampered, others suffer in large-scale industrial livestock facilities and animal testing laboratories. For centuries, the animal rights movement has fought for less violence and more equality in the treatment of animals. The struggle is profoundly political and has marked similarities to other historic efforts for emancipation. To this day, it is humans who stand in the way of an equal relationship, who despite their better judgement cannot relinquish their exploitative interests and claims to power.

With: Ant Farm, CMUK, Katja Davar, Hana Lee Erdman, Anselmo Fox, Thomas Hawranke, Hörner/Antlfinger, Hartmut Kiewert, Ines Lechleitner, Jochen Lempert, NEOZOON, Performances for Pets (Krõõt Juurak & Alex Bailey), Lin May Saeed und Sin Kabeza Productions

The exhibition ANIMAL LOVERS proposes that we not see animals as “the other” or as a projection surface for our own desires, preferences or fears, but rather that we see them as individuals with abilities and rights. The exhibited artworks give impetus for a new understanding of the relationship between humans and animals and encourage that we regard animals as our equals. Human-animal relationships are constructed by society and therefore modifiable. The selected works deal critically with existing inequalities; they expose contradictions and clichés in the daily and medialised treatment of animals. The invited artists encounter the animals as individuals and explore the possibility of artistic collaborations. The exhibition shows architecture that allows both humans and animals to find their bearings in the habitat of the other and scenarios in which this is miraculously already the case.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a selection of radiodramas, which can be heard in the exhibition space and on air on rbb’s kulturradio station.

Part of the project is a two-part publication: an exhibition guide and an essay booklet with contributions on the topic of human-animal relationships by Fahim Amir, Dietmar Dath, Sue Donaldson/Will Kymlicka, Hilda Kean, Mareike Maage, Massimo Perinelli, Hilal Sezgin, Kim Stallwood. nGbK Publishers. German/English. ISBN-13 978-3-938515-65-5

nGbK project group: Mathias Antlfinger, Anne Hölck, Ute Hörner, Mareike Maage, Friedrike Schmitz

Kunst im Untergrund 2016/17: Mitte in der Pampa
Art in the Underground 2016/17: The Middle in Nowhere
Hauptbahnhof (line U55) to Cottbusser Platz (line U5)
with international artists’ projects by Katrin Glanz, Claude Gomis & Saskia Köbschall, Laura Horelli, Anna Kowalska, Diana Lucas-Drogan, Ellen Nonnenmacher & Eva Randelzhofer, Various & Gould, Elizabeth Wood

Saturday, October 8, 5pm
Opening
Claude Gomis & Saskia Köbschall: Laboratorium der Solidarität
5:30pm
Concert by Claude Gomis & Band

“The Middle in Nowhere” is the title of the international open competition Art in the Underground 2016/17 run by the nGbK. The project asks questions spatially, socially and politically about how decisions are made in the “centre” that have an effect “in the sticks” and about the potential of the periphery’s self-will. Eight artworks will be realised in and around Underground stations on the U5 and U55 lines between Hauptbahnhof and Cottbusser Platz. The project space station urbaner kulturen in Hellersdorf is the project’s address for production and reflection. A “Place Internationale“ will be established through local practices of appropriation and direct communication on open land at Cottbusser Platz station as part of a collaborative program with local partners.

Venues:
Claude Gomis & Saskia Köbschall
Footbridge Kaulsdorf-Nord Underground Station (U5): until October 2017
Exit: Cecilienstraße

Elizabeth Wood
Platform Cottbusser Platz Underground station (U5): until October 2017

Place Internationale
Open land near Cottbusser Platz Underground station
Exit: Carola-Neher-Str./Auerbacher Ring

station urbaner kulturen
Cecilienplatz 5, 12619 Berlin, Thursday–Satursday 3–7pm

www.kunst-im-untergrund.de

nGbK Project group: Jochen Becker, Anna Gogonjan, Eva Hertzsch, Folke Köbberling, Adam Page, Valeska Peschke