The Entire Story Starts Where

The Entire Story Starts Where: Connections and Exclusions of Translocal Positions

From May 15 until July 2, 2023, exhibitions, film screenings, workshops, lecture performances, and roundtable discussions on the relationship between connections to and exclusions from global networks will be held at various locations in Cologne.

In globalized networks, the ability to join groups and systems, along with their logics, is considered an essential prerequisite for participation. The curatorial project The Entire Story Starts Where, however, is interested in deviant practices that temporarily and strategically connect to media, economic, political, scientific, social, and cultural networks while also stepping away from them, subverting them, and so producing self-determined exclusions. The project inquires into the alternative, deviant spaces and networks that emerge in this way, focusing on the frictions, conflicts, and ruptures that accompany the violations of common practices of networking. What are the consequences for the actors concerned? And what potentials for shaping future lifeworlds can emerge as a result of new translocal connections?

The projects explore how the colonial continuities of a Western-influenced capitalist plantation logic are subverted by an agricultural cooperative in Mali (Raphaël Grisey & Bouba Touré), how the marginalized spaces of Muslim presence are animated in post-migrant societies (Asma Aiad), how the fragile utopias of southern global alliances flare up in a historical moment, only to break down soon after due to their internal and external resistances (Naeem Mohaiemen), and how new mobilities thwart colonially constructed urban spaces, as in Dakar, Senegal (Kaddu Yaraax).

With Asma Aiad, Raphaël Grisey, Olivier Marboeuf, Naeem Mohaiemen, Lana Sirri, Eszter Szakács, Soso Soumaré, Bouba Touré, and Mamadou Diol & Leity Kane (Kaddu Yaraax).

Conceived by members of the DFG Research Training Group connecting—excluding. Cultural practices beyond Globalized Networks: Aminata Estelle Diouf, Carolin Höfler, Sandra Kurfürst, Simon Meienberg, Nina Möntmann, Simone Pfeifer, and Agnes Stillger.

In cooperation with Akademie der Künste der Welt, Filmhaus Köln, GLASMOOG, Unser Ebertplatz, Kölnischer Kunstverein, and Temporary Gallery.

Events:
My Life Began Several Centuries Ago: An Ecosystem of Circulating Images
An exhibition by Raphaël Grisey and Bouba Touré, curated by Aminata Estelle Diouf and Agnes Stillger June 2–July 2, 2023. Opening: Thursday June 1, 2023, 6–9pm. Venue: Akademie der Künste der Welt, ADKDW Studio.

Part of the exhibition are the Xaraasi Xanne—Crossing Voices filmscreening and a talk with Raphaël Grisey, Olivier Marboeuf and Soso Soumaré at Filmhaus Köln on June 2, 2023, 6–9pm. More.

Muslim*Present in Cologne 
An Intervention in public space by Asma Aiad, curated by Simone Pfeifer. Venue: Social Media & Poster Walls in the City of Cologne. Intervention: June 10–24, 2023. Talk & readings with Asma Aiad and Lana Sirri (in German), moderated by Fatima Remli: Saturday, June 10, 2023, 7–8:30pm, Ebertplatz (Passage), 50668 Cologne. More.

Langer Tag
An exhibition and public talks around the unstable nature of transnational solidarity by Naeem Mohaiemen, curated by Nina Möntmann. Exhibition: June 14–18, 2023. Venue: Temporary Gallery—Centre for Contemporary Art.

Two Meetings and a Funeral
Film screening with an introduction by Naeem Mohaiemen, Kölnischer Kunstverein—Die Brücke on June 15, 2023, 4–6pm.

Public talks by Naeem Mohaiemen and Eszter Szakács, Friday June 16, 2023, 5–8pm, Temporary Gallery—Centre for Contemporary Art. More.

Colliding Circulations
An exhibition by Mamadou Diol and Leity Kane (Kaddu Yaraax), curated by Simon Meienberg, supported by Carolin Höfler and Julian Hoffmann. Exhibition: June 16–July 1, 2023, GLASMOOG—Space for Contemporary Art & its Discourse.

Public talk with Mamadou Diol and Leity Kane (Kaddu Yaraax) on May 17, 2023, 7pm at the Köln International School of Design of TH Köln, room 240. More.