August 2–8, 2021
The Sommerakademie Paul Klee (SPK) presents a digital program, curated by artist Dora García, beginning August 2, 2021. Over the course of seven days, the SPK features 14 public lectures with three speakers 2021, the new residents 2021/22, and the curator herself.
The conversations and public lectures aim to create common ground for SPK participants, and to lay the ground for our first real-life encounter in Bern, February 2022.
Curatorial framework 2021/22: Position Voice Mundo. The urgent need for feminization
“Position voice mundo” said Chicana feminist author Gloria Anzaldúa: determine your position, make your voice heard, understand and shape the world. We are in a period of transition or Nepantla, with the rise of patriarchal figures, the urgency of climate change, the erosion of democracy and equality. In the face of this, there is a transnational movement able to confront, resist, and move forward: feminism. Inclusive feminism implies a feminization of politics, to interact with the world not as extractive predators, but as free citizens taking sides with life. This involves a complete subversion of values leading to an inclusive way of being in the world, leaving no one behind. In the area of literature and the arts, this means to boldly question “quality” and the canon, and the possibility of other art circuits that do not reproduce privilege.
Speakers
Paloma Polo, an artist & researcher based in Utrecht, will be speaking about her most recent project on female militancy against the Franco dictatorship, and why it has been silenced and neglected, not only by official history, but also by their own male co-militants, using as a model the story of Dulcinea Bellido.
Anna Puigjaner, an architect, professor researcher and editor based in Barcelona, will speak about her ongoing investigation and writing on the “Kitchenless City,” a research project that addresses the ideological role of the kitchen in modern living, focused on New York’s kitchenless apartments with collective housekeeping services and related urban utopias.
Apolonija Šušteršič, an architect, visual artist, and researcher based in Oslo, will be speaking about her practice on alternative cultural economies, other forms of institutionalism, urban planning and architecture.
Read their bios here.
Residents
Ella Elidas Banda / Ozhopé Collective (based in Lilongwe, Malawi) / Nicolle Bussien (based in Bern/Zurich, Switzerland) /
Ghalas Charara & Camilla Paolino (based in Geneva, Switzerland) / Mela Dávila Freire (based in Hamburg, Germany) / Allison Grimaldi Donahue (based in Bologna, Italy) / Lena Ditte Nissen (based in Berlin, Germany) / Kadija de Paula (based in São Paulo, Brazil) / Sara Rivera (based in Metro Manila, Philippines) / Marnie Slater (based in Brussels, Belgium) / Majdal Nateel (Guest Resident based in Gaza, Palestine)
Our residents will be presenting their own practices and their views on our SPK 2021/22 common task. Read their bios here.
Curator
Dora García, based in Barcelona and Oslo, will be talking on (her practice in relation to) beehive minds, collective projects, and feminist agit prop practices.
Read her bio and her full curatorial framework here.
Program
All events will take place in CET via Zoom. Link on our website.
Monday, August 2
12am: Nicolle Bussien
4pm: Paloma Polo
Tuesday, August 3
12am: Allison Grimaldi Donahue
4pm: Dora García
Wednesday, August 4
12am: Mela Dávila Freire
4pm: Apolonija Šušteršič
Thursday, August 5
12am: Lena Ditte Nissen
4pm: Marnie Slater
Friday, August 6
12am: Kadija de Paula
4pm: Anna Puigjaner
Saturday, August 7
12am: Sara Rivera
4pm: Ella Elidas Banda / Ozhopé Collective
Sunday, August 8
12am: Majdal Nateel
4pm: Ghalas Charara & Camilla Paolino
The Sommerakademie Paul Klee 2021 is supported by Burgergemeinde Bern, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, and private donors. The Sommerakademie Paul Klee’s institutional partner is the Bern University of the Arts HKB.
