Performing Sovereignty
Schedule
Fri Jun 21 2024 at 07:00 pm to Sat Jun 22 2024 at 06:00 pm
Location
PAKT Foundation, Zeeburgerpad 53, Amsterdam | Amsterdam, NH
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We are excited to invite you to Performing Sovereignty—an unforgettable event featuring a performance evening on Friday, June 21, and an exhibition on Saturday, June 22. Performing Sovereignty presents the work of four exceptional artists: Rachel Monosov, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Göksu Kunak, and Johannes Büttner. They explore the complexity of bodies, identity and territory through performance and different personal perspectives. In doing so, they offer profound reflections on ancestral history, the relationship between body and nation-state, and the connections between land and identity. The artists invite us to consider how we relate to our bodies, our land and our history, and how these aspects shape our collective narrative. Each artist presents a unique exploration of personal, cultural, and political themes—from spiritual cleansing rituals to geopolitical power struggles, memories of 1980s and 1990s Turkey, and the concept of sovereign individuals. On Saturday, visit the exhibition to see the traces of these powerful performances. Additionally, don't miss the special activation of Rachel Monosov's work at 16:00.
Curated by Suzanne Wallinga, in conversation with Peter van den Hoogen
PROGRAM:
Friday, 21 June: Performance night, doors open at 19:00, program 19:30 - 22:00
Entrance 8 euros including one drink
Saturday, 22 June: Exhibition 14:00 - 18:00
Free entrance, extra performance Rachel Monosov at 16:00
Buhlebezwe Siwani’s Inhlambuluko is a performance centered around cleansing ceremonies that heal and open up spaces and the body. Using medicinal plants and sound, the performance is meant to be a meditation rooted in the way of negotiating the body and one's physical space in a tender way, allowing oneself to open up and be ancestrally and spiritually vulnerable. This performance is a meditation on one's own ancestry using healing methodologies to move between the past and present in a spiritual and cognitive landscape.
In Dead Earth, A Place of No Escape, Rachel Monosov threads together how geopolitical power struggle takes shape by control of land and resources, implementing nationally or racially segregated labor, manipulating locations of ruins, transforming them into forests, and denying recognition of native land rights through legal means. The work consists of a sculptural installation which is activated by performative interventions choreographed by the artist in collaboration with performers Camilla Brogaard, Rachell Bo Clark, and the opera singer Julia Shelkovskaia.
In Göksu Kunak’s AN(A)KARA, memories and confusions of a Muslim child appear as voices and objects speaking from a past of the 1980s and 1990s. While the performance gives an overview of this distinctive era of Turkey, the artist simultaneously addresses the clichés and clashes about the East-and-West and the ever-present (self-)censorship. Kunak explores Turkey's late modernity with a particular focus on the city of Ankara, and the bodies of the neoliberal TV hosts that are like monumental statues as they embody nationalist ideologies, serving as instruments of propaganda. The performance also explores the shift in a concept of time: from kısmet, the idea that fate predetermines a person's path, to the clocked fast pace of modernity and the friction in between.
Johannes Büttner's latest work delves into the world of sovereign individuals across various European countries, with a specific focus on 'Liberland'. As a performer, creator of spatial installations, musician, and video artist, Büttner is known for his ability to shed light on and explore societal issues, and his newest project is no exception. Büttner invites us into the world of sovereign individuals, those who place themselves outside the authority of the state and follow their own rules and laws. Through a series of expeditions, Büttner explores the motives and beliefs of these sovereigns, who may have a wide range of ideologies and motivations.
Image: Göksu Kunak, AN(A)KARA, 2022. Photo: Ethan Folk
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Where is it happening?
PAKT Foundation, Zeeburgerpad 53, Amsterdam, NetherlandsEvent Location & Nearby Stays: