5 October–11 November 2012
Opening: Thursday 5 October, 7pm
DISTRICT
Kunst und Kulturförderung
Bessemerstr. 2-14, 12103 Berlin
Curators: Susanne Husse, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, and Megan Marissa Steinman.
SAY IT LOUD is an exhibition that investigates how language is used in the construction of public identities and social interactions. Set against the backdrop of our contemporary communication strata which increasingly favors text-based connections over physical proximity, SAY IT LOUD asks artists and their audiences to consider both the hierarchies and possibilities woven into the relationship between words and actions.
The exhibition developed out of a series of questions: how do words code our daily activities, how does language convey conviviality and, conversely, control the promise of idea exchange? If in the beginning was the word, then how exactly was it said? If words inherently contain their own limitations, thus causing systems of communication to fail, what are the actions that can be produced as potential solutions?
SAY IT LOUD brings together a collection of works that critically appropriate speech and text, and which respond to these questions using three main categories of reflection. The first, Text Control, concerns a system of written words and symbols with endlessly fluctuating forms that undergird today’s technology-based correspondence. The second, Speaking Bodies, highlights works that utilize spoken word and performance strategies as a means for countering the current phenomena of virtual disembodiment, bringing into focus orating subjects who establish their material presence within larger historical narratives. The spatial position between body and text is explored within a discussion about Scripted Spaces, defined as locations where the activity of reading reveals the social ethos and codified behavior programs embedded within the public realm.
SAY IT LOUD investigates the potential for artistic action within an expanded field of communication, especially at those points where words are driven to the boundaries of their original functions. The artistic activities featured in the exhibition reflect upon the essential characteristics of language, while simultaneously exposing its inherent power dynamics. SAY IT LOUD asks both artists and audiences to reconsider their relationship as a collaborative one. This thus increases the intimacy of transmission and responsibility for the intended message by both parties via the performativity of speech acts and everyday interaction with physical and virtual environments.
Artist Speaks
The exhibition will be accompanied by a weekly program series of artist conversations, film screenings, lectures performances and music.
18 October 7pm Erik Bünger
25 October 7pm The Otolith Group, Falke Pisano
10 November 8pm Discoteca Flaming Star, 10pm Gewalt Disney
Open Call
In an effort to connect our investigation with Berlin’s local cultural producers, we have opened a space within SAY IT LOUD for the presentation and discussion of publication projects that focus on artistic writing and language as a medium within contemporary art. Public speakers, publishers, writers, book designers, and more are invited to contribute and display their recent works. The communal architecture of this space was developed by Lorenzo Sandoval based on his Narrative Machine series.
DISTRICT
Situated on the historic grounds of the Malzfabrik, DISTRICT BERLIN offers an interdisciplinary think and work space for cultural producers to reflect upon current social developments from a critical perspective, deal with urban spaces and modes of its appropriation in an effort to re-evaluate the commons.
