POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers

Register and see the full schedule at Eventbrite. 

Saturday, July 30, 2022
Train intervention: Bahnhof Südkreuz Berlin 2:41pm and arrive in Luckenwalde at 3:12pm 
Train intervention: Berlin Südkreuz 3:47pm and arrive in Luckenwalde at 4:20pm 

Finissage and all exhibitions open for the final time for POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers curated by Lucia Pietroiusti in collaboration with Katharina Worf, Helen Turner and Adriana Tranca. 

Isabel Lewis and Sissel Tolaas join forces with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and composer Ethan Braun to create a moving and growing performance that takes the audience on a journey and addresses multiple senses. H_SPACE_H is a partitur that the public moves through in which smells, movements and sounds are guiding elements that amplify the experience of the bodily passage through the space and time between Berlin and Luckenwalde. H_SPACE_H is shown as part of the finissage of POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers at E-WERK Luckenwalde on July 30.  

The work has unfolded in multiple stages. On April 30 it commenced as a smell molecules intervention on a carriage of the RE3 train from Berlin/Südkreuz to Luckenwalde, produced using smell recordings of E-WERK Luckenwalde power station, undertaken by Tolaas while researching for the project. On June 11 another train journey took place and this time it included gestures and micro movements choreographed and created by Isabel Lewis. 

On July 30 the final version of H_SPACE_H will take place at the Mendelsohnhalle (alte Hutfabrik / Hat Factory) Luckenwalde. The work will again start with a train-ride from Berlin Südkreuz—on the RE3 to Luckenwalde. Visitors will join the procession to E-WERK and further on to the Mendelsohn Hat Factory.  A complex piece consisting of sound performed by Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop—composed by Ethan Braun—will be brought together with the smells and the movements in an incredible architectural monument. 

Inside the building, in the spacious halls of the former Hat Factory, Isabel Lewis, Sissel Tolaas, Kaleidoskop and Ethan Braun will fill the space with sounds, smells and choreography that play and experiment with different perspectives and perceptions. The architecture’s significant long sight lines, conceptually echoing the carriages of the train, and acoustic conditions will be activated with tailor-made sounds, smells and movements. 

Small and subtle hand gestures become impulse generators and codes between the performers, where they enter into dialogues with each other’s instruments, smell molecules and movements. The various sounds are picked up from the train ride—then reproduced as echoes—further added on are impulses from the other performers and then carried on into the space. Performers and musicians will be circling, walking, moving, singing and playing instruments and new variations, combinations and constellations are created again and again.

E-WERK Luckenwalde has presented POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers over the past twelve months for which H_SPACE_H is the final chapter. The programme is presented as a long term, cumulative exhibition, in an effort to champion new exhibition formats focused on slow curating and sustainable deceleration. It began in July 2021 with Sun & Sea by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė and continued to unveil newly commissioned works in a series of chapters by Himali Singh Soin, Karrabing Film Collective, Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, Cooking Sections, Tabita Rezaire, Isabel Lewis and Sissel Tolaas in collaboration with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and Ethan Braun.

“Taking inspiration from the institution’s experimental beginnings, Being Mothers has been an incredible exercise in what can be achieved by slowing down. The programme was profoundly motivated by all of the inspiring conversations we had over two years with the artists and their collaborators, who advised and pushed us to reconsider curatorial programming in response to planetary and existential burn out. We wanted the programme to constantly grow, shift, adapt and be infused with new meanings through the fresh constellations of works that emerged over the course of a year, producing new, unexpected narratives and viewpoints, which will continue to grow and anchor themselves at E-WERK as legacy projects. It has been a springboard for new considerations for our future programme, and how we can pilot and implement sustainable ways of curating.” —Lucia Pietroiusti, Helen Turner, Katharina Worf and Adriana Tranca. 

Stay tuned for news of E-WERK Luckenwalde’s 2023 programme, and POWER NIGHT 2024’s guest international curator. See kunststrom.com for details.

H_SPACE_H is commissioned by E-WERK Luckenwalde. POWER NIGHTS: Being Mothers, 2021 is supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, E.ON Stiftung, UBS. Womb Wisdom was commissioned by E-WERK Luckenwalde and Biennale Gherdënia, with the kind support of Serpentine Gallery and and Bureau des arts plastiques of the French Institute, Germany and the French Culture Minister. The Family (A Zombie Movie) was co-commissioned by Palais de Tokyo, Serpentine Galleries and E-WERK Luckenwalde. Static Range is realised with support of Serpentine Galleries, Prince Claus Fund, E-WERK Luckenwalde, HKW and WePresent.