The starting point for “Everyone an Island After All?” was the GAK’s history of public art projects. But instead of doing more of the same, we first wanted to examine the contagions, stratifications, and territorial structures that permeate the city in its current complexity. The images that can be seen in public space mainly serve the purposes of capitalism and consumption, suppressing subjective realities instead of addressing them. How can artistic and, not least, painterly ways of working create a space of imagination in relation to these orders?
The project consists of an exhibition, continues the (semi-)public reappraisal of the GAK archive, initiates a dialogue between Bremen and external actors, and invites further guests to lectures and talks. Together, these parts can be understood as forms of approaching urban complexities. They have to do with money and with work, with consumption and distinction, with stories told and untold, with identities, with power, with structures of violence, and always with the question of who enters and can enter which spaces.
The major public art projects that the GAK has previously been involved in dealt with similar themes. What are the points of contact today? Has the optimistic wish “No one is an island” formulated back then come true? What is actually at stake in Bremen’s public space?
Exhibition, Events, Conversations
With contributions by, a.o.: Hodan-Ali Farah, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Aria Farajnezhad, Sonia Gomes, Anneli Käsmayr, Silvia Kolbowski, Effrosyni Kontogeorgou, Bubu Mosiashvili, Patricia Okkels, Claudia Piepenbrock, Dana Reina Téllez, Chris Reinecke, Tim Reinecke, Elif Saydam, Doris Weinberger
Events
Thu, 25.05.23, 7 p.m.
Joerg Franzbecker & Florian Wüst
Berliner Hefte zur Geschichte und Gegenwart der Stadt: Publizieren als urbane Praxis
Lecture (de)
Fri, 26.05.23, 7 p.m.
Opening
Thu, 08.06.23, 7 p.m.
Silvia Kolbowski
That Monster: Spectator’s Unconscious
Screening and Lecture (en)
Thu, 15.06.23, 7 p.m.
Irmgard Emmelhainz
Toxic Loves. Impossible Futures
Lecture and Conversation (de/en)
Sun, 25.05.23, 5 p.m.
Elena Ishchenko
(Russian) Colonial Violence: Counter/Monuments
Talk & Walk (en)
Tue, 27.06.23, 7 p.m.
Suzanne Lacy & Alistair Hudson
What Kind of City?
Conversation (en)
In collaboration with Festival Changing
City—50 Jahre Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Bremen, Senator
für Kultur Bremen
Support
Der Senator für Kultur der Freien Hansestadt Bremen
Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Zusammenhang mit dem Programm NEUSTARTplus Plattformen der bildenden Kunst der Stiftung Kunstfonds