The the way in is the way out - symposium
Love, Live, and Die in Symbiosis* with Lucile Olympe Haute
Opening 13th december 2023 7pm
Artist talk 14th december 2023 7pm
Web-to-print workshop with Lucile Olympe Haute and Jeanne Mainetti around human life with microrganisms 25th & 27th january 2024
Performance with Lucile Olympe Haute 27th january 2024 7 pm
This exhibition shows the different facets of a single plural form of life, bringing together bacteria and yeast in symbiosis within the Kombucha culture.
This series of works by Lucile Olympe Haute shows the results of experiments with materials that are both scraps from beverage production and ritual objects. They invite us to question the ways in which we collaborate with, care for, cultivate or exploit other living things. More broadly, they question our collective values and their influence on our relationship with the world.
Are we capable of empathetic projection towards swarms of microscopic life, whose effects we perceive but not the individuals? The carbonaceous life forms brought together here are neither animal nor vegetable, but a heterogeneous symbiotic legion of non-ukaryotic living organisms. They reproduce, grow together, agonise and die in the exhibition.
On a daily basis, they are our allies and also our enemies. Yeast and bacteria populate our intimate microbiota. We control their presence, sort them out, cultivate or exterminate them. We collaborate with them on and in our bodies, as well as in our food. Each of us is inhabited by invisible beings, each of us is a symbiotic legion.
*Symbiosis: an intimate and lasting association between organisms of different species.
The exhibition and the events are friendly sponsored by the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, the Sparkasse Hannover and the Ministry of Sciene and Culture of Lower Saxony.
Screening of Night Soil Trilogy by melanie bonajo
in the context of the exhibition Wir sind nie getrennt gewesen - jenseits von Natur und Kultur we're showing all three parts of melanie bonajos Night Soil Trilogy in original version with German subtitel in a row.
Night Soil is an experimental documentary in three parts showing the huge disconnection most Western people feel to nature. In a semi- documentary style melanie bonajo explores how people today tackle feelings of fragmentation and alienation head-on. The central characters in their videos are in search of new rituals, a different relationship with nature and a reassessment of ideas surrounding gender, with the aim of combating a gnawing sense of emptiness. It is far from rare for this to involve an illegal and alternative way of life that exists outside the established system. bonajo portrays this with passion and elegance, and occasional bursts of absurdism, and they do not shrink from stepping into view themself. Beneath a layer of humour and apparent chaos lurks an ambivalent attitude to all kinds of technological and capitalist developments in modern society. Semi-documentary scenes alternate with hallucinogenic fragments that spring from bonajo’s imagination. They are shaped by an intensive collaboration with the main characters. These are mainly women, because bonajo believes their voices are insufficiently heard even today.
Kosmische Brocken - The Cinema of the mobile Kunstverein
The cinema series Kosmische Brocken (Cosmic Chunks) looks from different angles at the way the world is understood and made - and what it could become. The mobile Kunstverein shows documentary and fantastic films at Eichenpark in Langenhagen.
Cosmic chunks strike and shake the understanding of the world. How does it affect the dogs on the streets when one of them is abducted and shot into space? What might happen if virtual realities and biohacking become part of our everyday lives? How can we figure out a different way of dealing with each other, animals and our planet - and are we ready to follow through with it? The mobile Kunstverein doesn't have any answers, but invites you to cinema and conversation. That’s something for a start.
Sunday, 13. August, 18 - 21 h Space Dogs (FSK 12) Russian with german subtitles
Sunday, 17. September, 20 - 23 h Donna Haraway - Story Telling For Earthly Survival (FSK 0) English with english subtitles
Saturday, 07. Oktober, 20 - 23 h Secret Film. Science Fiction / Body Horror (FSK 16) Dubbed in german, no subtitles
Venue: Our Meeting point on all three occasions is the chapel in the Eichenpark in Stadtparkallee, 30853 Langenhagen. If the weather is nice, we will walk together from there to the location of the film screening. In case of bad weather we will watch the film in the chapel. If you arrive a little later, you can find your way to the screening by following the signs and markings on the ground! There will be a short introduction before each film and afterwards we invite you to end the evening with drinks and snacks.
Admission is free!
Accessibility Information: The premises of the chapel in the Eichenpark can be reached at ground level. The paths of the Eichenpark are accessible at ground level. A barrier-free toilet is located at about 200 m distance (3 minutes walk) from the chapel. We provide seating, drinks and food in limited quantities.
The project Kosmische Brocken is organized by Lea Schürmann, Theresa Tolksdorf and Gregor Kieseritzky as part of the mobile Kunstverein of the Kunstverein Langenhagen.
Kosmische Brocken is sponsored by the Bürgerstiftung Hannover, the Stiftung Kulturregion Hannover and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture.