nGbK-Lectures 2022 nGbK-Lectures 2022

Events:

Thursday, 29 September 2022, 19:00 (en)
nGbK event space
Panel discussion “Art & Collectives: What’s Next after Kassel? – Strategies in the Art Field” with Slavs and Tatars, foundationClasscollective and Ingo Arend, moderated by Ingrid Wagner

Since documenta fifteen and the grassroots democratic approach of the work of the collective ruangrupa, there has been a heated discussion about collective art production. The nGbK also sees itself in this non-hierarchical self-understanding. Therefore the association wants to deepen the discussion about working in a collective and exchange ideas about the meaning of this approach in the art business. What are the goals, what are the different models and what are the problems and challenges of collective work?

Invited are the artist collective foundationClasscollective, which exhibited at nGbK in 2020 and participated in documenta fifteen. Slavs and Tatars is an internationally active collective that takes a very broad and interdisciplinary approach to artistic work. Ingo Arend participates as a cultural journalist and as a member of the chair of the nGbK. The member of the chair Ingrid Wagner will moderate the discussion.

Saturday, November 12, 2022, 20:00 (en)
Apartment Project Kulturverein e.V., Hertzbergstraße 13, 12055 Berlin + Livestream
Talk “Where We Stand: European Cities, Colonialism and the Other Histories and Futures of Berlin’s Mitte” between Noa K. Ha and Giovanni Picker, moderated by Niloufar Tajeri

In their recently published book European cities: Modernity, race and colonialism, the editors, urbanists Noa K. Ha and Giovanni Picker, along with thirteen contributors, critically rethink European urban modernity, reviewing Eurocentric and historicist perspectives on 21st-century European cities. These perspectives seem to be evident not least in Berlin-Mitte, as well as in current debates surrounding the Humboldt-Forum and the development of the Molkenmarkt quarter.

The nGbK, which is due to move to its new premises close to these two locations in 2023, is affected by these debates. In their nGbK Lecture, in conversation with Niloufar Tajeri, Ha and Picker will highlight the degree to which the development of the district is not only shaped by capital and political interests, but also entangled in struggles over cultural hegemony. The positive references to an idealized past that are increasingly seen in city-planning discourse will be discussed against the backdrop of Berlin’s history: from the city’s colonial legacies to the expropriation of Jewish landlords during the Third Reich, and the East-West divide. In the introduction to their edited volume, with the help of postcolonial, decolonial, and critical race theories, Ha and Picker unmask the model of the European city as a Eurocentric one and argue for a shift of perspective.

Noa K. Ha is the scientific managing director of the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM). She has taught and researched at Berlin’s Technical University and was visiting lecturer at weißensee academy of art berlin. Her research investigates processes of urban production from decolonial, critical race theory, feminist and queer theory perspectives.

Giovanni Picker is Lecturer/Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Glasgow (UK). After obtaining his PhD in Urban Studies, he held a number of research positions in Italy, Romania, Russia, Hungary, Germany and the UK. His current research and teaching centre on the articulations of Urban Studies and Critical Race Studies, and empirically focus on Europe.

Niloufar Tajeri is an architect and architectural theorist currently working on a PhD at the DFG Research Training Group on “Identity and Heritage” at Berlin’s Technical University. Her work focuses on structural racism and coloniality in architecture and planning, and on urban uprisings and politics of memory in the neoliberal city.