Haus der Kulturen der Welt is presenting the powerful exhibition Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests. “Musafiri” is an Arabic word that stunningly resonates with many languages and regions around the world. Its meaning covers all the shades that may exist between the concepts of “traveler” and “guest”, creating a powerful underlying topic for this exhibition. The artworks presented cross various countries and times, focusing on “who is welcomed and who is not, which perspectives are welcomed and which are not, and who decides on these limits”.
Ocean Vuong uses the backdrop of his mother's nail salon to question the imperialist bias that immigrant people are still facing in the United States, reflecting on class, migration, and geopolitical events.
Diane Severin Nguyen links the traumatic pasts of Poland and Vietnam through the life of a teenage orphan girl who is finally able to find a sense of love and belonging in a K-Pop collective.
Mondial 10 by Roy Dib tells us about the impact of the occupation of parts of Lebanon on its population through the trip of a couple, determined to do what may seem the simple act of going to watch the World Cup in another city. The micro-stories told by each artist resonate as a bigger common voice that advocates for a world where all travelers are truly welcomed and received as guests, not as enemies.
Galerie Bene Taschen has partnered with the Tresor Foundation to present the iconic work of Miron Zownir. His large format pictures are a haunting documentation of a past Berlin, displayed for the occasion out in the open, on the MegaFence of the Kraftwerk building.
The power of the exhibition lies in this installation, as it stimulates a dialogue between the Berlin of the present and the Berlin of the past, triggering new and unexpected connections. Zownir has documented the city since the ‘70s, always side by side with the people living on the margins.
His photographs are able to trace the ongoing evolution of Berlin and to document the resilience of its subcultures, showing there actually is no limit to its people's need for expression and community. Despite all the odds that may be faced once again in contemporary times, this exhibition feels like an ode to the resilience of the Berliners of both the past and the future.
Fotografiska is presenting two intriguing exhibitions on the limitless potential of human bodies. Viviane Sassen - The Body as Sculpture invites the public to break free from rigid beauty standards and to imagine bodies as something else. Through her ability to depict them as sculptures or surrealist collages, Sassen invites us to see them as places full of possibilities and suggestions, without any limits. Her personal experience as both a model and a photographer made her question the power of the medium and the impact of who is watching.
“My experience of being photographed by men influenced my approach – I wanted to create a kind of sexuality that defied the male gaze. One that felt fractured and discontinuous,”
Sassen says.
With her exhibition EX YOU opening on April 25, Šejla Kamerić also explores the limits put on ourselves by the labels the world gives us, in its attempt to define us. She asks us what it means to be “exed” from history, from a sense of belonging, from our own selves. Her experience of war and its consequences – as a person born in Yugoslavia – shaped her practice. Her work carries the weight of personal and collective history, and addresses trauma with a poignant eye, crossing boundaries with fierceness and intimacy.
Vaginal Davis is a multifaceted artist, who made the stretching of limits the foundation of her personal and artistic life. In her career spanning over five decades, she has defied any sort of boundary between practices: she is a writer, visual artist, self-proclaimed Blacktress, drag terrorist, filmmaker, gossip columnist, influential socialite, performance artist, educator, and a trailblazer for Black and queer counterculture. Gropius Bau celebrates her career and her boundless talents with the first comprehensive exhibition of her work in Germany, titled Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt.
The solo show underlines her ability to cross cultural fields that she explored geographically too, from Los Angeles to Berlin. Here she has been collaborating for years with the collective CHEAP. Together, they share the same distaste for limits that is expressed in their art in multiple ways. She uses performances, videos, concerts, installations, radio shows, photography, and writing to express herself and her take on the world. What comes out of her multifaceted practice is a powerful social commentary.
Her video That Fertile Feeling (1983) deals with the troubling issue of the access to healthcare in the United States, an incredibly urgent problem also in contemporary times. Her iconic movie The White to be Angry (1999) addresses the constructions and desires around white supremacy, tackling yet another topic that remains very relevant today. Her stunning practice shows us that no limits should ever be accepted or taken for granted and that humanity can express itself in infinite ways, if only one dares to.
DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM is inaugurating a new exhibition as part of Berlin Gallery Weekend, which we will cover in next month's review. On May 2, the gallery will present All the Charm of a Rotting Gum by artist Zuzanna Czebatul. Her practice is based on discarding our concepts of power and ideology.
By harnessing the infrastructures and architectures that may represent it, the artist aims to capture the uncertainties and fluidity that occur in real life, and she intends to cross as many societal limits as possible. This time, the focus of her attempt is the Pergamon Altar. The altar lies as a symbol of imperial power, colonization, and cultural appropriation. The fact that it will remain hidden from the public until 2027 due to renovations becomes an opportunity to reimagine its historical and iconographic significance. The monument becomes a platform for reflection and a powerful metaphorical link between the past and the present, challenging our perception of history and its impact on us.
