Performance program: State and Nature

The inaugural major exhibition under the new direction at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, State and Nature, will be prolonged until November 21, 2021 and continues with a leading performance program. Composed of new commissions by Alexandra Pirici, Regina José Galindo, Mehtap Baydu and projects specifically conceived for Baden-Baden, the program brings together what defines contemporary understanding of performance with specific notions, aspects, and dynamics of the performance field. From politics to choreography or social engagement to sound elements and filmic space, it engages publics in many layers and methods of remembering, forgetting, relocating and resetting through performative tools of artistic research. Çağla İlk and Misal Adnan Yıldız manifest their approach in their statement:

“We are feminist, queer, migrant, trans-political subjects. This program might be the source of disorientation, which Baden-Baden needs, or the point of distraction that this city demands. We see how Baden-Baden could become a conceptual stage for experimenting with everyday life. Even just sitting at the Lichtentaler Allee for an hour one might observe so many miracles of nature and orders of state happening around the Kunsthalle as part of everyday reality. This location is our muse, and the politics it brings, our homework…’’

The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is an institution of the State of Baden-Württemberg under the auspices of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts. The exhibition is funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). 

Program

Black Cracker: October 29, 8pm
The multifaceted sound artist is the opening act of the performance program of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, creating an open space for many communities who are invisible, especially in institutional settings or formal structures.

Alexandra Pirici, Terraform, 2021: October 31, November 2–6 & 11–14, 2–6pm / Premiere: October 30, 2–6pm
Performers: Liliana Ferri, Patrick Ngabonziza, Mircea Ghinea, Yurika S. Yamamoto, Jared Marks, Gabrielė Bagdonaitė
Set, mask design & photo: Andrei Dinu
Alexandra Pirici demarcates another space within the exhibition space and shaping a common world, which we are part of while constantly changing it, and changing together with it.

Regina José Galindo, Birds, 2021: November 7, 2pm
Regina José Galindo creates a space for exchange and self-determined representation with actors who now live in Baden-Baden in the course of migration movements since 2014.

Mehtap Baydu, With Mothers and Daughters, 2019–21: November 13, 7:30pm
Many of Mehtap Baydu’s works are created with a network of women. Thus, as the title With Mothers and Daughters suggests, her appearance at the Kunsthalle also becomes a performative act of coming together and sharing with women.

Denise Ferreira da Silva & Arjuna Nauman: November 19–20, 6pm 
Film screening: 4Waters/Deep Implicancy (2019) and Soot Breath/Corpus Infinitum (2021)
Two video works by filmmakers Denise Ferreira da Silva and Arjuna Neuman will be shown as part of the performance program including themes of global relations as migration, violence, colonialism, and the destruction of the environment.

Robodynamic Diffusion (RDD): November 20–21, 2pm 
RDD is a project by Michael Akstaller, Nele Jäger, Oliver Mayer, and Jan St. Werner. The focus of RDD (Robo Dynamic Diffusion) is the unfolding of the spatial effects of sound by decoupling sounds from instruments to move freely in space, so the venue itself becomes part of the instrument and is actively involved in the composition.

The exhibition State and Nature and its performance program will end with a performance by Jan St. Werner on November 21, 2021. 

Foyer intervention: Paulinhx Desbats

More information kunsthalle-baden-baden.de.