pöpp 68 - privat, öffentlich, persönlich, politisch

“The personal is political!” This phrase was used in the feminist movement in the period of 68 to question the separation into private and public and to demand that things regarded as personal be placed on the political agenda and understood in their true social dimension.

The exhibition pöpp68 deals with participation and with the concepts - private, public, personal and political - between 1968 and the present day. It shows results produced by cooperations: participative projects, participation will also take place in the exhibition. It will be extended and opened up to other audiences by events, workshops, discussions… It will thus be constantly changing right up to the finissage.
pöpp68 is a contribution by the New Society for Visual Arts (NGBK) to 40 years of 68. An international conference held in June 2008 opened up a discussion on participation in the period from 68 to the present day. It asked about opportunities for participation and forms of resistance. How can collective processes of settlement be produced? How disagreement be coped with? How can one deal with power relations, including those found in participative art projects?

The exhibition will show a diverse range of works, documentations of work, material concerning works and contemporary documents. It will also include a variety of media: videos, books, magazines, installations, rooms.
Six pöpp68 projects examine a number of issues at the heart of debate in 68: fascism, issues of body and power, gender politics, experiences with authority and anti authoritarianism, popular culture and critique of consumption.
In these participative projects a number of cultural workers who were already active in 1968 (Claudia von Alemann, Kirsten Dufour, Rainer W. Ernst, Sanja Ivekovic, Barbara Kleinitz, Christophe Kotányi, Bojana Pejic) are cooperating with artists from the 1961-70 generation. The projects are taking place up to November 2008 at a variety of places in Berlin, Norway, Russia as well as in the exhibition at NGBK.

The exhibition shows the results of the participative projects – some of which are also being continued within the exhibition – as well as one work by each of the project partners demonstrating their artistic, political and scientific positions. As well as five locations for the participative projects and project partners there is another space in the middle of the exhibition in which workshops, events and a continuation of the conference will take place. It will also contain the documentation of the conference with videos, published e-mail résumés, photos, statements…

At the Finissage will be presented the publication dealing with the political relevance and the representation of collective processes and with participatory practice. With contributions by Suzana Milevska, Sabine Hark, “Ultra-red”, Veronica Sekules, “Espace Masolo”, Wiebke Trunk, Eva Sturm, Susanne Bosch, Rahel Puffert, Stephan Geene, den Projektbeteiligten (s.u.) and other authors.

The projects:

Die Globalisierung ist eine politische, öffentliche Angelegenheit - Globalization is a political, public matter
Seraphina Lenz, Rainer W. Ernst and Paula M. Hildebrandt
The NGBK is surrounded by fashion shops with labels that stand for an alternative life style. Here inside the exhibition we will install a workshopsituation

Introducing Fascism and Nazism
Nanna Lüth, Sanja Ivekovic and Bojana Pejic in Kooperation with Christine Lohr and Students of the Kant Gymnasium, Spandau
“Introducing Fascism and Nazism” is a fascism compendium in a comic-strip style that never appeared in German. In 2002, Sanja Ivekovic invited documenta 11 visitors to comment on the book. In 2008, it serves as a point of departure for a school project on body images.

Engagement und andere Spleens - Getting Involved and Other Quirky Behaviour
Ulrike Solbrig, Kirsten Dufour and Hilde Methi
In Kirkenes (Norway) women from Murmansk are selling souvenirs under unreasonable working conditions. Kirsten Dufour and Ulrike Solbrig together with Hilde Methi take matters into their own hands. At a fictional 10th anniversary of the Russian Market they invite all parties involved to a picnic into a tent in the name of the local worker’s rights pioneer, “Ellisif Wessel“.

Körper - Sprache - Macht: Sex und Revolution in den 68ern - und heute? - Body - Language - Power: Sex and Revolution in ‘68 - and today?
Rebekka Uhlig and Barbara Kleinitz
What do power structures have to do with body awareness and body expression? In this workshops, we are searching for artistic translations and forms of acting: playful, improvising, experimental with body, language, voice, personal writings.

Jurassic Park 68/Eine Erzählwerkstatt ohne Moderator - Story-telling workshop without a moderator
Jole Wilcke and Christophe Kotányi
We believe 68 not to be a thing of the past – something completely different will come, as yet without a name – but raising similar questions. 68 was a cultural revolution: What does adherence to the idea of change mean today. You are invited to: let your thoughts and yourselves drift with our wall news-sheet

Zeitraffer / der Ort des Geschehens - time lapse / on the scene
Claudia von Alemann and Giuliano Vece
In a video workshop we will explore the question of which memories of a time remain. Will we manage to construct a kaleidoscope of these moments? Where was I, and what are my reference points to 68? How far is a fictitious perception true? And where and how should we locate the documentary evidence?