June 24–August 29, 2021
A SAVVY Contemporary research, exhibition, performance and publication project in collaboration with Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai & ifa Gallery Berlin.
At SAVVY Contemporary
Reinickendorfer Straße 17
13347 Berlin
June 24–August 22, 2021
Thursday–Sunday, 2–7pm
With: Tanya Aguiñiga, Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Nora Al-Badri, Memory Biwa, Benji Boyadgian, Hamze Bytyçi, Nora Chipaumire, Julien Creuzet, Ndidi Dike, HumboldtHuaca, Gladys Kalichini, Maurice Mboa, Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela, Noara Quintana, Michael Rakowitz, Gabriel Rossell Santillán, Akram Zaatari
And Saitabao Kaiyare & Elena Schilling (SAVVY.doc)
AT ifa Gallery Berlin
Linienstraße 139-140
10115 Berlin
June 24–August 29, 2021
Tuesday–Sunday, 2–6pm
Thursday 2–8pm
With: Pio Abad, Samia Henni, Jumana Manna, Oumar Mbengue Atakosso, Bhavisha Panchia, Michael Rakowitz
Laboratories
This project is being developed in local laboratories with our international partners in Cameroon (The Forest), Colombia, Nigeria (Nosona Studios), Palestine (Sakiya), Philippines, Rwanda (Iriba Center) and United Arab Emirates (Jameel Arts Centre)
Tuesday: The Phoenix
It is enough that you pass by words
For the phoenix to find its form in us,
And for the spirit born of its spirit to give birth to a body…
Spirit cannot do without a body
To fire with itself and for itself, cannot do without a body
To purge the soul of what it has hidden from eternity
So let’s take fire, for nothing, but that we become one!
–Mahmoud Darwish, from “The Seven Days of Love”
How does one complicate the current discourse on restitution, which seems to have manoeuvred itself into a cul de sac?
The debates centre the notion of return, limiting the expansive and layered subject of restitution. We cannot think of restitution without thinking of the wounds that were inflicted upon dispossession at any given time, as well as the violences that accompany epistemic, material or human deprivation and destruction, as we see in Anglophone Cameroon, Palestine, Myanmar or Colombia. We cannot reduce restitution to the return of objects while the people who are to receive them neither have the luxury of breathing, nor the lands to plant their seeds, or an abode to shelter in. So, how can we deliberate restitution in a context wherein time and space have not only changed but have become more precarious and the savagery of coloniality has assumed other forms?
This project unfolds through a series of laboratories, invocations, publications, and exhibitions dedicated to the entanglements of restitution, rehabilitation, and reparation as a possibility of going beyond the notion of just return. Together with artists, writers, and other intellectuals and activists we reflect on notions of restoration—not only of the subjects/objects taken away from peoples and places, but also to think of a restoration of the peoples and places that have had to exist in a state of cultural and psychological deprivation.
With this project, we intend to address the restitution debate from a different positionality within the German context and beyond, by including various perspectives and voices. Critically questioning the role of European institutions and ethnological museums—examining precisely their political, economic and institutional contexts—we look at the power structures, asymmetries and colonial continuities within the discourse. Confronting ourselves with possibilities of complicating the current discourse with situated reflections, we offer a platform for a decentralised discussion able to include voices and positions across geographies and disciplinary perspectives.
Team
Artistic Director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (SAVVY Contemporary)
Curators Elena Agudio, Arlette-Louise Ndakoze (SAVVY Contemporary), Nora Razian and Rahul Gudipudi (Jameel Arts Centre), Alya Sebti (ifa Gallery Berlin)
SAVVY Contemporary
Exhibition production: António Pedro Mendes
Production assistance: Billy Fowo
Curatorial assistance (exhibition): Kelly Krugman, Meghna Singh
Curatorial assistance & Editing (research and bulletins): Sagal Farah, Meghna Singh
Coordination laboratories: Billy Fowo
Management: Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Lema Sikod
Communications: Anna Jäger
Graphic design: Juan Pablo García Sossa
Art handling: Kimani Joseph, Rafal Lazar
Light design: Emilio Cordero
Tech: Bert Günter
Ifa Gallery Berlin
Co-directors: Inka Gressel, Susanne Weiß
Exhibition production: Stefano Ferlito, Ev Fischer, Matthias Merker
Digital communication: Anna Giannessi
Funding
The project is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes), Art Jameel Dubai and ifa Gallery Berlin. The installation by Michael Rakowitz is made possible by courtesy of Galerie Barbara Wien.
