Conditions of Political Choreography

The Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) and the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) present Conditions of Political Choreography, a research project and exhibition of newly commissioned new works by artists working with diverse performative strategies ranging from visual art to dance, theater, video, and stage-based and participatory practices. The first iteration takes place at the CCA where Berlin-based architect Markus Miessen has transformed the galleries in which each week a new commission takes place. The second iteration will take place at the n.b.k. in Berlin in the summer of 2017 (n.b.k.: June 16–July 16, 2017) with a spatial intervention by New York-based artist Ohad Meromi.

An offshoot of the celebrations marking 50 years of German-Israeli diplomacy, this project looks to the future rather than the past and aims to move beyond the familiar bi-national discourse of victim/victimizer stemming from the Holocaust that underlines German-Israeli exchange. While the Holocaust is certainly one starting point, Conditions of Political Choreography seeks to form a sense of history in the face of increasing racism and populism today. Informed by the nationalist repercussions of the Israeli Occupation as well as migration to Germany, the project reflects the formation of transnational memory in the 21st century.

Diverse in themes and approaches, the works in Conditions of Political Choreography raise questions about the limits of belonging, artistic disciplines, and imposed structures. In parallel to rethinking context, the project challenges artists to use this framework to push against the constraints of architecture and the performative platform and in the process ask questions such as: what is the difference between being hosted (in a space, in a country) and being contained? When does the freedom to collaborate become an obligation to do so? What are the responsibilities that come with power?

Artistic contributions by Yochai Avrahami, Yael Bartana, Noam Enbar and Yonatan Levy, Christian Falsnaes, Ohad Fishof and Noa Zuk, Michal Helfman, Leon Kahane, Adam Linder, Antje Majewski, Markus Miessen, Ohad Meromi, and Susanne M. Winterling 

Discursive events with Bashir Bashir, Felix Fiedler, Avital Barak, Frederique Bergholtz, and Dorothea von Hantelmann

Curated by Marius Babias (Director, n.b.k.), Sergio Edelsztein (Director, CCA), Sophie Goltz (Curator, n.b.k.), and Chen Tamir (Curator, CCA)