Sequences: Entangled Internationalisms

From February 2, 2024, the Research Department of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), in collaboration with the Albertinum, will present the three-part exhibition series “Sequences: Entangled Internationalisms.” Each “Sequence” is based on a historical case study that shows a specific internationalism with India, Namibia or Ghana that emanated from, traversed or manifested itself in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The project understands internationalism as a network of cultural practices. The exhibitions go beyond national borders to examine how global cooperation can work for a fairer and more socially just world in the field of tension between artistic freedom, working conditions and state structures.

The “Sequences” are curated by artists and researchers from Asia and the African continent. From there, they explore memories of the exchange with the GDR on the one hand, and on the other, they turn their attention to the art collections in Dresden in dialog with SKD researchers.

“Sequences” uses a transhistorical method: historical works are presented in this way in order to capture the conditions under which they were created. At the same time, these works are sources of knowledge about generations that are used to create memories in the present. In collaboration with Spector Books in Leipzig, a printed and digital research edition will be published for each “sequence”.

Till the Sun rises is the first of the “Sequences: Entangled Internationalisms”. It is curated by artist, researcher and curator vinit agarwal, who is also the founder of the Oralities Research Lab, an international project in the form of a library and event space in Jaipur dedicated to oral knowledge transmission as a medium of the future.

The presentation was curated in India and created in dialog with the artists Chetna Vora, Aarti Sunder and Moses März. The sequence takes the film OYOYO (1980) by Indian filmmaker Chetna Vora (1958–1986), who studied at the University of Film and Television in Potsdam/Babelsberg in the GDR, as its starting point. The film portrays students from Ethiopia, Chile, Guinea-Bissau and Mongolia who live in a hall of residence in Berlin-Karlshorst. How can a film be used to understand an internationalism today that has intertwined a polyphony of the world with the GDR?

OYOYO is an archive of sounds, of feelings between home and being here, of struggles and love. For the exhibition Until Sunrise, two contemporary works have been created based on the film: a large-format artistic diagram made of textile with embroidered lettering, quilted graphs and arrows, sewn-on images and printed text fields by Moses März, produced by women from a handicraft cooperative from villages in the Barmer district near the India-Pakistan border, and a rice paper drawing by Aarti Sunder that is over eight meters long. Also on display are objects from the Kupferstich-Kabinett, the puppet theater collection and the SKD archive, which were selected in response to the historical context of the project. 

“Sequences” is the curatorial and artistic research part of the international research project “Decolonizing Socialism. Entangled Internationalims” (2019–2024), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation at the HEAD Genève of the HES-SO and in partnership with the research department of the SKD. The content of the series corresponds with the exhibition Revolutionary Romances. Global Art Histories in the GDR, which can be seen at the Albertinum until June 2, 2024.     

Artistict director: Doreen Mende

Program
February 6, 4:30pm
Exhibition tour with curator vinit agarwal in English
Meeting point: atrium of the Albertinum

March 6, 6pm
Talk with the artist and mapmaker Moses März and the author Annett Busch
Atrium of the Albertinum

March 29 to April 7
JAIPUR PROGRAM: the Oralities Research Lab in Jaipur in India will host readings, a conference, film screenings and workshops

April 22 to 28
City walk on the topic of cultural exchange between the GDR and India in cooperation with the TU Dresden.
The Albertinum

April 23, 7pm
Film screening of the first digitized long version of OYOYO by Chetna Vora in cooperation with Zentralkino Dresden and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin