museo de la democracia

museo de la democracia is a fictional institution for the preservation, exhibition and mediation of democracy as a phenomenon of the past or an endangered species. Between April and June 2021 the museo de la de- mocracia is guest in the nGbK space. In collaboration with artists, theorists, activists, museologists and others, the museum presents at this show 25 works, with which it seeks to safeguard, imagine and interpret different relics of the memory of a post-democratic society.

The museum‘s temporary collection and public program are articulated in three conceptual chapters:

1) Plaza del Kiosco [Kiosk Square]
2) Departamento de Oportunismo y Oportunidades [Department of Opportunism and Opportunities]
3) Oficina de Sueños [Office of Dreams]

The chapters addresses both the exhibited works and an events program that takes place online and outside, and includes performances, guided walks, video screenings, workshops and debates.

In its collection and exhibition practice, the museo de la democracia reflects on the aesthetic independence and political co-dependence of Latin American countries in relation to different cultural, historical, and political discourses and narratives. The museum‘s work focuses on a period that stretches from the pre-Hispanic past, to the liberation struggles of Latin American independence activists and thinkers, to the triumph of the ›societies of control‹ (Gilles Deleuze). Using Latin America as a point of reference, the collection examines, in a non-linear and historical-fictional way, the gradual process of ›erosion‹ or ›emptying‹ of the concept of ›democracy‹ and its institutions. The museo de la democracia presents works and collaborations that lead to incommunicable, fabulous, telluric, dreamlike, and necessarily critical perspectives of democratic processes in a perpetual state of redefinition.

Connections are created between historical and theoretical research material within a transdisciplinary, hybrid dramaturgy that moves between the analogue and the digital, the real and the fictional, and between public and exhibition space. This dramaturgy revolves around events from Latin America‘s recent history and present – which echo and mirror global realities.

Events:

16 April 2021, 19:00
Livestream
Online opening of the museo de la democracia

19-21 April 2021 (Original with en subtitles)
www.museodelademocracia.net
Online video forum (I)
»Dreams, Phantasmagoria and Memories of the Anti-Epic in Latin America« with films by Gustavo Artigas and Grace Passô

24 April 2021, 14:00 (en)
Vimeo /ngbk.de
Curatorial tour of the museo de la democracia with Daniela Labra

26-28 April 2021 (Original with en subtitles)
www.museodelademocracia.net
Online video forum (II)
»Dreams, Phantasmagoria and Memories of the Anti-Epic in Latin America« with films by Zoltan Kunckel and Fernando Llanos

28 April 2021, 19:00-20:00 (de)
Livestream
Performative lecture
»Museum in Museum: An Encounter between the museo de la democracia and the Simón Bolívar Museum« by Zoltan Kunckel

1-7 May 2021, (12:00-/-12:00)
www.museodelademocracia.net
CENTINELA Online
Film by Galería CIMA / Santiago de Chile

5 May 2021, 19:00-20:30 (de)
Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/98069413939
Online talk
»Archive in Archive: An Encounter between the museo de la democracia and nGbK Archive« with Eva-Christina Meier

8 May 2021, 15:00 – 16:00 (de)
Ernst-Thälmann-Monument (Greifswalder Str.52, 10405 Berlin)
and Marx-Engels Forum (Karl-Liebknecht-Str., 10178 Berlin)
Leaflet distribution action in public space with Cora Hegewald and Erik Göngrich
»Gift of Friendship: Ernst Thälmann Island and the GDR Beach«

10-12 May 2021 (Original with en subtitles)
www.museodelademocracia.net
Online video forum (III)
»Sacrificial Zones« with films by Ana Alenso and Marilyn Boror Bor with VOCES de Guatemala en Berlín

12 May 2021, 14:00-18:00 (en)
via Zoom - Please register at anmeldung@ngbk.de*
Online workshop
»Push ups on Art, Activism, Money and Performance« with Daniela Labra

15 May 2021, 17:00 - 18:00
Meeting point: in front of nGbK, Oranienstr.25, 10999 Berlin + Livestream on website
Silent march with VOCES de Guatemala en Berlín
»Mourning procession for loss of identity due to name change«

19 May 2021, 19:00-20:30 (en/es)
via Zoom - Please register at anmeldung@ngbk.de*
Reading circle and talk
»Spiritualist Re-reading Session: Galeano, half a century« with Julia Mensch, with the book »Open Veins of Latin America«

21 May 2021, 14:00 (es/en)
Location: Berlin-Mitte
Self-guided Audio Tour
»To die in Berlin« with Teobaldo Lagos Preller
Podcast with tracks in Spanish and English / e-map / geo-tracking

25 May 2021, 18:00 - 18:45 (en)
Via Zoom, with registration. No limit of participants.
Online mask workshop
»Environmental Disasters in Brazil« with Kiyoshi Yamamoto

7-13 June 2021, 12:00 (Original with en subtitles)
www.museodelademocracia.net
Online Screening
»Marcela Moraga & Salvemos el río Renaico«

9 June 2021, 19:00 - 21:00 (en)
Zoom, with registration. 25 participants
Online workshop
»Upcoming museums. Projecting Situated Institutionalities« with Sara Buraya Boned

12 June 2021, 19:00 - 20:30 (en)
Livestream + Zoom, unlimited participants
Online talk with Marcela Moraga, Maria Thereza Alves and Julia Mensch
»The Long Day of the Communal Museums«