Arbeitsgruppe Kunst. 50 Jahre "neue Gesellschaft"

Arbeitsgruppe Kunst. 50 years of “new society”
June 22–August 4, 2019

Opening: June 21, 7:30–11pm

The nGbK turns 50 this year. But how to celebrate the anniversary of an association whose history cannot be told as a sequence of curatorial signature statements but, rather, as an on-going collective analysis and debate of the role art plays in society? How can the institutional and activist knowledge produced over several decades be read critically and put into practice in the present day?

Exhibition Arbeitsgruppe Kunst
Özlem Altın
Alice Creischer/Andreas Siekmann
Aykan Safoğlu in cooperation with Nihad Nino Pušija

For the exhibition, the invited artists Özlem Altın, Alice Creischer/Andreas Siekmann and Aykan Safoğlu, in cooperation with Nihad Nino Pušija, took different approaches to the accumulated histories in the nGbK archive: associative, analytical, or sometimes by seeking the face behind the documents. In the artistic works they created in this process, they expose structures of desire, inquire into the roles art plays in generating value on the capitalist property market, and speak of creative friendships forged beyond institutional narratives. The diversity of these perspectives is living proof that telling “history” in the singular cannot do justice to 50 years of practicing grassroots democracy.

Learning Places
One-day symposia, so-called “learning places,” turn the spotlight on critical issues arising from the underlying principles, methods and ethics of work in the arts and cultural sector. Invited guests and other participants pursue in-depth exchange in a participatory and non-hierarchical setting. Past nGbK projects serve as a point of departure for the discussion of collective, artistic and activist strategies for the future.