Special Cooperations
(Re)Spacing – Mash Up @ Culture Night Giessen
Dance Performance by and with Emma Jane Howley & Jeff Pham, Maja Mirek & Borys Jaźnicki as well as Pin-Chen Hsu & Omar Torrico Real
Fig: Maja Mirek
Saturday, 25.05.2024, 6:30 + 9:00 pm, Kunsthalle Gießen
A cooperation with the Stadttheater Gießen
Fig: Maja Mirek
To mark the first Culture Night Giessen, the Kunsthalle Giessen is presenting a mash-up of the previous performances in the “(Re)Spacing” series. The recourse to the three previous choreographies not only offers a retrospective of the Kunsthalle’s exhibitions since its opening in April 2023, but also allows something new to emerge from the excerpts of past dance performances.
Under the title “(Re)Spacing”, the dancers of the Stadttheater Gießen dance ensemble explore the transformative power of the exhibition space. The performances and choreographies will be created in collaboration with the artists and exhibitions that were shown in the Kunsthalle in the run-up to the respective “(Re)Spacing”.
On the occasion of the Kulturnacht, the dancers will present parts of the choreographies they have developed themselves. In their performance “Jamais-vu”, Emma Jane Howley and Jeff Pham explored the digitally created fantasy creatures by artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez, while Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki referenced the dark imagery of Sibylle Ruppert in “unearthing”. Pin-Chen Hsu and Omar Torrico Real show an excerpt from their (re)spacing performance “Let’s Think Beyond Uranus”, which focuses on Emma Talbot’s exhibition.
Under the title “(Re)Spacing”, the dancers of the Stadttheater Gießen dance ensemble explore the transformative power of the exhibition space. The performances and choreographies will be created in collaboration with the artists and exhibitions that were shown in the Kunsthalle in the run-up to the respective “(Re)Spacing”.
On the occasion of the Kulturnacht, the dancers will present parts of the choreographies they have developed themselves. In their performance “Jamais-vu”, Emma Jane Howley and Jeff Pham explored the digitally created fantasy creatures by artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez, while Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki referenced the dark imagery of Sibylle Ruppert in “unearthing”. Pin-Chen Hsu and Omar Torrico Real show an excerpt from their (re)spacing performance “Let’s Think Beyond Uranus”, which focuses on Emma Talbot’s exhibition.
(Re)Spacing – „A Journey to Share“
Dance performance by and with Pin-Chen Hsu, Omar Torrico Real & Rose Marie Lindstrøm
Fig: Maja Mirek
Wednesday, 08.05.2024, 7 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
Offical greeting by Frank-Tilo Becher, Mayor of the City of Giessen
In cooperation with Stadttheater Giessen
Fig: Maja Mirek
In two intertwined performances, dancers of Stadttheater Gießen explore the upheavals and transience of different stages of life. In doing so, they relate to the latest exhibition at the Kunsthalle Gießen, “A Journey You Take Alone” by British artist Emma Talbot.
In their choreography Let’s Think Beyond Uranus Pin-Chen Hsu and Omar Torrico Real developed a shameless poetics inspired by Talbot’s large-scale silk paintings. Playfully they reflect on analogies between organic bodies and planets and the transgression of dual ways of thinking, such as those of gender and sexual categorization. In a seemingly endless process of skinning, they appear to turn their bodies inside out. They constantly reveal new surfaces and change their form. In a humorous and passionate pas de deux, they finally circle around the symbolism of fertility and a never-final death.
The performance wants to challenge the audience by showing a singular look at the transience of human existence in this world and ask about its nature, possibilities and limitations.
Inspired by the themes of birth and loss as well as Talbot’s sculptures, Rose Marie Lindstrøm explores in Traces of a Body from a feminist perspective the question of how the transformations and events of life that are inscribed in the body can be visualized and what traces are left behind by bodies in a ghostly presence. The choreography focuses on the hair and circular movements, which become visible as paintings on silk and touch on the cycle of life from rebirth to death. With endlessly circling head movements without revealing the face, the performer reaches a hypnotic trance state that invites the inner ghosts to dance with the body and revitalize it as a living archive. In doing so, she confronts the apparent contradiction between the feeling that the body vessel is merely a shell for memories and emotions, that can only be inadequately shared, and the actual potency of bodies and voices.
In their choreography Let’s Think Beyond Uranus Pin-Chen Hsu and Omar Torrico Real developed a shameless poetics inspired by Talbot’s large-scale silk paintings. Playfully they reflect on analogies between organic bodies and planets and the transgression of dual ways of thinking, such as those of gender and sexual categorization. In a seemingly endless process of skinning, they appear to turn their bodies inside out. They constantly reveal new surfaces and change their form. In a humorous and passionate pas de deux, they finally circle around the symbolism of fertility and a never-final death.
The performance wants to challenge the audience by showing a singular look at the transience of human existence in this world and ask about its nature, possibilities and limitations.
Inspired by the themes of birth and loss as well as Talbot’s sculptures, Rose Marie Lindstrøm explores in Traces of a Body from a feminist perspective the question of how the transformations and events of life that are inscribed in the body can be visualized and what traces are left behind by bodies in a ghostly presence. The choreography focuses on the hair and circular movements, which become visible as paintings on silk and touch on the cycle of life from rebirth to death. With endlessly circling head movements without revealing the face, the performer reaches a hypnotic trance state that invites the inner ghosts to dance with the body and revitalize it as a living archive. In doing so, she confronts the apparent contradiction between the feeling that the body vessel is merely a shell for memories and emotions, that can only be inadequately shared, and the actual potency of bodies and voices.
Fig: Maja Mirek
(Re)Spacing – „unearthing“
Dance performance by and with Maja Mirek + Borys Jaźnicki
Tuesday, 21.11.2023, 7 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
Offical greeting by Frank-Tilo Becher, Mayor of the City of Giessen
In cooperation with Stadttheater Giessen
Fig.: Maja Mirek
“(Re)Spacing” goes into its second round: the dancers Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki perform “unearthing”, a work inspired by the emotional darkness of Sibylle Ruppert’s works at the Kunsthalle Giessen.
The performance series “(Re)Spacing”, a collaboration between the Stadttheater Giessen dance ensemble and the Kunsthalle Giessen, returns for its second round in November. The dancers Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki were inspired by the last exhibition Dancing in Darkness by the artist Sibylle Ruppert. In “unearthing”, they take up the motif of bodies tearing apart and merging, transcending the boundaries between inside and outside, between human and animal. The dancers make reference to ancient mythologies. The performance of “unearthing” will take place once on 21 November 2023 at 19:00 in the Kunsthalle Gießen. Admission is free. Frank-Tilo Becher, Mayor of the City of Giessen, will give a welcoming speech before the performance.
The performance series “(Re)Spacing”, a collaboration between the Stadttheater Giessen dance ensemble and the Kunsthalle Giessen, returns for its second round in November. The dancers Maja Mirek and Borys Jaźnicki were inspired by the last exhibition Dancing in Darkness by the artist Sibylle Ruppert. In “unearthing”, they take up the motif of bodies tearing apart and merging, transcending the boundaries between inside and outside, between human and animal. The dancers make reference to ancient mythologies. The performance of “unearthing” will take place once on 21 November 2023 at 19:00 in the Kunsthalle Gießen. Admission is free. Frank-Tilo Becher, Mayor of the City of Giessen, will give a welcoming speech before the performance.
Fig: Maja Mirek
(Re)Spacing – „Jamais-vu“
Dance performance by and with Emma Jane Howley + Jeff Pham
Thursday, 13.07.2023, 7 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
In cooperation with Stadttheater Giessen
Fig.: Maja Mirek
With the series “(Re)Spacing”, the successful cooperation between the Kunsthalle Gießen and the Stadttheater Gießen will relaunch in July 2023, with members of the dance ensemble developing choreographies and performances that will be shown uniquely at the Kunsthalle.
The first piece is the dance performance “Jamais-vu” by and with Emma Jane Howley and Jeff Pham. In it, the two dancers are inspired by the recent exhibition Forced Amnesia by the Luxembourg artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez, which showed fantastic worlds and creatures in the form of sculptures and digitally generated images and video animations that seem to encroach on our everyday world. In their performance, Howley and Pham let these creatures materialise once again in modified form and deal with the question of how an encounter with the foreign and the other could proceed. What form of contact and cooperation can be imagined between these beings themselves, as well as between them and us humans?
The first piece is the dance performance “Jamais-vu” by and with Emma Jane Howley and Jeff Pham. In it, the two dancers are inspired by the recent exhibition Forced Amnesia by the Luxembourg artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez, which showed fantastic worlds and creatures in the form of sculptures and digitally generated images and video animations that seem to encroach on our everyday world. In their performance, Howley and Pham let these creatures materialise once again in modified form and deal with the question of how an encounter with the foreign and the other could proceed. What form of contact and cooperation can be imagined between these beings themselves, as well as between them and us humans?
Fig: NVIDIA Earth-2
Bioreactors and Biospheres
An audiovisual exploration of evolution as planet-building
28.-29.05.2024
Planetary Times Summer Workshop
In cooperation with Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
Fig.: Connor Cook, Photo: ©Haakon Korbi
The evolution of the Earth is largely dependent on the ability of biological matter to exchange and process information. The more complex life on Earth developed, the more powerful its information-processing capabilities have become. The data networks of today’s computer systems continuously interweave the biosphere and technosphere.
28.05, 3 – 6 pm,
Transdisciplinary panel discussion
between scientists and artists from the fields of evolutionary biology, AI research, bioinformatics and philosophy on the topic of “The Informatic Evolution of the Planet”.
Speaker:
Dr. Jochen Blom (computational biologist, JLU Giessen)
Christina Lu (AI researcher, Universität Oxford), and
Dr. Cécile Malaspina (philosopher, The New Centre for Research an Practice, London).
Keynote:
Ricard Solé (Evolutionary biologist, Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Moderated by: Darren Zhu (synthetic biologist) and Connor Cook (media artist and critic)
More informationen here
29.05, 10 – 5:30 pm,
workshop session. Register in advance via panel@planet.uni-giessen.de by May 21. We want to recreate these planetary dynamics on a micro level by using a Raspberry Pi enabled bioreactor (Pioreactor) to create immersive audiovisual worlds. The Pioreactor is capable of cultivating, monitoring and controlling algae cultures by communicating in real-time in both directions with a computer. Thereby, the Pioreactor functions as a simplified planetary model that illustrates the complicated interplay of biological matter, energy and information within the Earth system. The workshop participants will act as mediators and use the real-time data produced by the algae as input to create audiovisual worlds using the game design software Unreal Engine.
29.05, 6:00 – 7:30 pm,
cocktail reception: Visitors can experience an audiovisual performance by the artist and the results of the workshop.
The event is in English. Admission is free.
Pre-registration is only necessary for the workshop session on 29.05, 10 – 5:30 pm.
For more details, please see the event flyer.
Connor Cook is a media artist and researcher from California, currently based in Amsterdam. His work unravels the recursive relationships between technical systems and their broader ecological and cultural contexts through a practice of “computational performance.” Through audiovisual performances, he translates the complex dynamics of these interactions into collective, affective experiences that double as forms of critique. He holds an MA in Geo-Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven and a BA in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University.
Darren Zhu is a synthetic biologist and metascientist. He has worked with a range of biotech startups including fungal natural products company Hexagon Bio, genome engineering company Enevolv, and diagnostic biosensor company Synbiosys, and research organizations including the Berggruen Institute, Ethereum Foundation, and Gates Foundation. He holds a BA in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Yale University.
Fig: Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano
„WATER AS AN ENGINEERED PLANETARY SPACE“
Prof. Klement Tockner in dialogue with Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano
Lecture: Friday, 03.11.2023, 6 pm, Hermann-Levi-Saal Giessen
In cooperation with Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
Fig.: Prof. Klement Tockner
Fig.: Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano
We are pleased to announce that our successful cooperation with the Panel on Planetary Thinking will continue next year. The Think Tank at Justus Liebig University Giessen explores issues around sustainability from a planetary perspective. This July, two fellows of the Residence Fellowship were already guests at the Kunsthalle with the interim exhibition Unstable Planteary Spaces and presented, for example, the development of the Lake Chad region using satellite images (Adenike Titilope Oladosu).
The closing event this year will be the lecture WATER AS AN ENGINEERED PLANETARY SPACE – in the framework of the Planetary Lectures – by Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner. The Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research studies freshwaters, which hold a remarkable biodiversity and are fundamental for human well-being. Due to overexploitation, habitat degradation, invasion, climate change, dam construction as well as emerging stressors such as light, noise and synthetic chemicals, freshwaters are at risk. New management strategies need to be developed to counteract the decline in biodiversity. After the lecture, thought-provoking talks by this year’s Fellow Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano will open up the discussion to the audience.
The event will take place as a hybrid event in the Hermann-Levi-Saal in the Kunsthalle Giessen, as well as online. The lecture will be streamed online via BigBlueButton. If you are interested in participating, please register with panel@planet.uni-giessen.de until November 1st.
Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner is Director General of the Senckenberg Senckenberg Society for Nature Research and Professor of Ecosystem Sciences at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main (since 2021). He served as President of the Austrian Science Fund FWF (2016–2020), Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the Free University of Berlin (2007–2020), and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin (2007–2016).
Klement Tockner is an internationally renowned freshwater ecologist, particularly in the research fields of biodiversity, ecosystem science, and environmental management. He has published about 250 scientific papers, including a comprehensive book on European rivers (Rivers of Europe, Elsevier; 2nd edition in 2022).
Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano (Bogotá, 1991) is a visual artist and writer driven by questions about the interdependence of technology, territory, and ecology, seeking to imagine media beyond extraction. In addition to working with text, audio-visual media and digital space, he has also produced laboratories that promote collaborative experimentations with digital and analogue technologies. He has been an adjunct professor in the art departments of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague (The Netherlands) and Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), and in the Digital Narratives program at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). He has also been a programming coordinator at Plataforma Bogotá and at Espacio Odeón in Colombia.
The closing event this year will be the lecture WATER AS AN ENGINEERED PLANETARY SPACE – in the framework of the Planetary Lectures – by Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner. The Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research studies freshwaters, which hold a remarkable biodiversity and are fundamental for human well-being. Due to overexploitation, habitat degradation, invasion, climate change, dam construction as well as emerging stressors such as light, noise and synthetic chemicals, freshwaters are at risk. New management strategies need to be developed to counteract the decline in biodiversity. After the lecture, thought-provoking talks by this year’s Fellow Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano will open up the discussion to the audience.
The event will take place as a hybrid event in the Hermann-Levi-Saal in the Kunsthalle Giessen, as well as online. The lecture will be streamed online via BigBlueButton. If you are interested in participating, please register with panel@planet.uni-giessen.de until November 1st.
Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner is Director General of the Senckenberg Senckenberg Society for Nature Research and Professor of Ecosystem Sciences at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main (since 2021). He served as President of the Austrian Science Fund FWF (2016–2020), Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the Free University of Berlin (2007–2020), and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin (2007–2016).
Klement Tockner is an internationally renowned freshwater ecologist, particularly in the research fields of biodiversity, ecosystem science, and environmental management. He has published about 250 scientific papers, including a comprehensive book on European rivers (Rivers of Europe, Elsevier; 2nd edition in 2022).
Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano (Bogotá, 1991) is a visual artist and writer driven by questions about the interdependence of technology, territory, and ecology, seeking to imagine media beyond extraction. In addition to working with text, audio-visual media and digital space, he has also produced laboratories that promote collaborative experimentations with digital and analogue technologies. He has been an adjunct professor in the art departments of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague (The Netherlands) and Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), and in the Digital Narratives program at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). He has also been a programming coordinator at Plataforma Bogotá and at Espacio Odeón in Colombia.
Photo:Paul Hess
Unstable Planetary Spaces
Adenike Titilope Oladosu + Don’t Follow the Wind with Ahmet Öğüt and Eva & Franco Mattes
Artists Talk: Thursday, 06.07.2023, 6 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
Duration: 06. – 11.07.2023
In cooperation with Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
Fig.: Adenike Titilope Oladosu
Fig.: Don’t Follow the Wind
First time guest at Kunsthalle Giessen: The Panel on Planetary Thinking is a think tank at JLU Giessen that explores sustainability issues from a planetary perspective and communicates them to the public. From July 6th to July 11th 2023, fellows of the “Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence” program will present the results of their projects on the theme of UNSTABLE PLANETARY SPACES. The exhibition will be complemented by filmic installations and an Artists Talk on 6th July 2023. In tandems between art and science, the fellows of our innovative fellowship program work on the meaning of not simply live on an ever-changing planet, but actually being a part of it.
Nigerian climate activist Adenike Titilope Oladosu (I Lead Climate Action) examines satellite imagery of the Lake Chad region – a body of water that has lost a full 90% of its volume since the 1960s. By this, she provides insights into the multi-layered conflicts of a vital space for the region’s people and wildlife, and thus creates a basis for a peaceful conflict resolution.
UK-based curator and author Jason Waite(Don’t Follow the Wind)shows how non-human creatures make the radioactively contaminated Fukushima exclusion zone their home again. Comparing video footage from Fukushima to scenes captured in forests around Giessen, his project documents the transitory nature of planetary spaces in the presence and absence of various living beings.
The Artists Talk will take place in English and will be introduced in German. Pre-registration (panel@planet.uni-giessen.de) is requested.
Nigerian climate activist Adenike Titilope Oladosu (I Lead Climate Action) examines satellite imagery of the Lake Chad region – a body of water that has lost a full 90% of its volume since the 1960s. By this, she provides insights into the multi-layered conflicts of a vital space for the region’s people and wildlife, and thus creates a basis for a peaceful conflict resolution.
UK-based curator and author Jason Waite(Don’t Follow the Wind)shows how non-human creatures make the radioactively contaminated Fukushima exclusion zone their home again. Comparing video footage from Fukushima to scenes captured in forests around Giessen, his project documents the transitory nature of planetary spaces in the presence and absence of various living beings.
The Artists Talk will take place in English and will be introduced in German. Pre-registration (panel@planet.uni-giessen.de) is requested.
WHAT’S ON YOUR WALL?
In cooperation with the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung, the Kunsthalle Gießen has launched a new series entitled ‘What’s on your wall’, in which it asks people working in the cultural sector with a connection to the Kunsthalle what hangs on their walls – at home or in the office.
All features appear once monthly in the GAZ and on the Kunsthalle Gießen’s digital platforms.
All features appear once monthly in the GAZ and on the Kunsthalle Gießen’s digital platforms.
DE_CONSTRUCTIONS
Choreographic-performative interventions during the intervals between exhibitions
The Kunsthalle Giessen in cooperation with the Stadttheater Giessen / Tanzcompagnie Giessen
During the intervals between deinstallation and installation of an exhibition, dancers from the Tanzcompagnie Gießen will present independently developed choreographies that draw on the Kunsthalle Gießen. The choreographic-performative interventions respond to the unique situation within the Kunsthalle, which is otherwise unseen by visitors.
The Kunsthalle Giessen in cooperation with the Stadttheater Giessen / Tanzcompagnie Giessen
During the intervals between deinstallation and installation of an exhibition, dancers from the Tanzcompagnie Gießen will present independently developed choreographies that draw on the Kunsthalle Gießen. The choreographic-performative interventions respond to the unique situation within the Kunsthalle, which is otherwise unseen by visitors.