Kunstraum Kreuzberg

Wild Frictions. Politische Poesien der Störung

26. Juni – 22. August 2021 

– English below
Photos ↓

Wild Frictions: Politische Poesien der Störung erforscht kleine Unterbrechungen, überraschende und unvorhergesehene Eingriffe, Zögerungen und Wiederholungen und deren Potenzial, alternative Formen des Seins und Handelns aufzuzeigen. Anstatt auf heroische, wortgewandte Figuren oder impulsgebende kollektive Momente zu blicken, verortet diese Ausstellung Emanzipation in subtilen, eigensinnigen Gesten im alltäglichen Leben, in spielerischen Ausrutschern oder auch in Zwischenräumen zwischen Lauten und Silben.

“…wildness as a provocation, a retreat from the conventional, an affront to the normal and the expected, and an environmental condition.”
(Jack Halberstam, Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire , 2020, p. 28)

Die subversiven künstlerischen Ansätze/ Aktionen/ Handlungen rufen gleichzeitig Gefühle der Entfremdung und des Kontrollverlusts hervor, die wiederum mit der Pandemie und den sozialen Aufständen verbundene Ängste und Anspannungen des vergangenen und dieses Jahres widerspiegeln – den persönlichen Stillstand, die zahlreichen Proteste und noch zahlreicheren Quarantäneverordnungen,  sowie wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Pausen.
Durch Text, Video, Sound, Installation und Performance wenden die Künstler:innen von Wild Frictions Strategien der Unterbrechung und Blockierung/ Obstruktion/ Widerstand an, um allgemeingültige Narrative, Unterdrückungssysteme und unbewusste strukturelle Routinen zu kritisieren, die unseren Alltag charakterisieren.

„Gesucht: die Lücke im Ablauf, das Andre in der Wiederkehr des Gleichen, das Stottern im sprachlosen Text, das Loch in der Ewigkeit, der vielleicht erlösende Fehler.“
(Heiner Müller, Shakespeare‘s Factory 1 , 1985, S. 13)

Diese störenden künstlerischen Gesten mögen Unbehagen oder Verwirrung erzeugen, beinhalten jedoch gleichzeitig/ dadurch ein immenses Potenzial: die Fähigkeit, zu untergraben und sanft zu korrumpieren, Risse auf der Bedeutungsebene zu erzeugen und neue Realitäten zu eröffnen. Wild Frictions lädt zu einer poetischen Analyse und möglichen Überschreitung der Grenzen ein, die heutzutage allgemeingültige Modi des Seins, Sprechens und Wissens bilden.

“When the facts change, I change my mind.”
(Nora Turato, from the series “I’m on the verge of TOTAL VICTORY”, 2021)

Teilnehmende Künstler:innen: Félicia Atkinson, Trisha Baga, Cameron Downey, Anna Ehrenstein, Nikita Gale, keyon gaskin, Birgit Hein, Steffani Jemison, Kahlil Joseph, Ani Kasten, Christine Sun Kim, Janette Laverrière, Ouecha, Laure Prouvost, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Jimmy Robert, Pilvi Takala, Banu Çiçek Tülü, Nora Turato

Kuratorinnen: Sandra Teitge und Amara Antilla
Recherche und Textarbeit: Linnéa Meiners, Jorinde Splettstößer
Projektmanagement: Sofia Pfister
Technische Produktionsleitung: Kristoffer Holmelund
Projektassistenz: Dani Hasrouni, Markus Hemann
Design: Louise Borinski

Der Kunstraum Kreuzberg/ Bethanien ist eine Einrichtung des Bezirksamts Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
Leiter: Stéphane Bauer

Das Projekt wird gefördert aus Mitteln der Senats- verwaltung fur Kultur und Europa: dem Hauptstadtkulturfonds, dem Fonds für Kommunale Galerien und dem Fonds Ausstellungs- vergütungen fur Bildende Künstlerinnen und Künstler.

– Wild Frictions wird zusammen mit dem Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati produziert, wo eine Version der Ausstellung vom 9. April bis zum 19. September 2021 zu sehen ist.


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Wild Frictions:
The Politics and Poetics of Interruption
June 26 – August 22, 2021


Wild Frictions: The Politics and Poetics of Interruption explores minor disruptions, surprising and unforeseen interventions, delays and repetitions and their potential to show alternative ways of existing and behaving. Rather than looking to heroic eloquent figures or stimulating united/ collective moments, this exhibition locates emancipation in subtle idiosyncratic forms of mischief-making, in the playful slippages or in the spaces in between sounds and syllables.

“…wildness as a provocation, a retreat from the conventional, an affront to the normal and the expected, and an environmental condition.”
(Jack Halberstam, Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire , 2020, p. 28)

The subversive artistic approaches/ actions/ acts simultaneously evoke feelings of alienation and loss of control, which in turn reflect anxieties and tensions associated with the pandemic and social uprisings of the past and this year – the personal gridlock, the numerous protests and repeated quarantines, as well as economic and social pauses.
Through text, video, sound, installation, and performance, the artists of Wild Frictions employ strategies of interruption and blockage/ obstruction/ resistance to critique universal narratives, systems of oppression, and unconscious structural routines that characterize our everyday lives.

„Gesucht: die Lücke im Ablauf, das Andre in der Wiederkehr des Gleichen, das Stottern im sprachlosen Text, das Loch in der Ewigkeit, der vielleicht erlösende Fehler.“
(Heiner Müller, Shakespeare‘s Factory 1 , 1985, S. 13)

These disruptive artistic gestures may create discomfort or confusion, but simultaneously/ and therefore contain an immense potential: the ability to subvert and gently corrupt, to create cracks at the level of meaning and to open up new realities. Wild Frictions invites a poetic analysis and possible transgression of the boundaries that form universal modes of being, speaking and knowing today.

“When the facts change, I change my mind.”
(Nora Turato, from the series “I’m on the verge of TOTAL VICTORY”, 2021)

Participating artists: Félicia Atkinson, Trisha Baga, Cameron Downey, Anna Ehrenstein, Nikita Gale, keyon gaskin, Birgit Hein, Steffani Jemison, Kahlil Joseph, Ani Kasten, Christine Sun Kim, Janette Laverrière, Ouecha, Laure Prouvost, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Jimmy Robert, Pilvi Takala, Banu Çiçek Tülü, Nora Turato

Curators: Sandra Teitge and Amara Antilla
Research and text editing: Linnéa Meiners, Jorinde Splettstößer
Project management: Sofia Pfister
Technical production: Kristoffer Holmelund
Assistance: Dani Hasrouni, Markus Hemann
Design: Louise Borinski

Kunstraum Kreuzberg/ Bethanien is an institution of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg District Council.
Director: Stéphane Bauer

The project is funded by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe: the Fund for Municipal Galleries, and the Fund for Exhibition Payments for Visual Artists.

Wild Frictions is produced in collaboration with the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, where an iteration of the exhibition is on view April 9-September 19, 2021.

Nora Turato
Alright, Alright, Alright, 2021
PVC Foil
390 x 290 cm
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Wild Frictions.
Politische Poesien der Störung.
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija



Christine Sun Kim 
Tiny Traumas, 2020, Acrylic on wall, Dimensions variable

Jimmy Robert 
Paramètres, 2012, Color video, with sound, 5 min. 20 sec.
Photo: Dani Hasrouni

Nikita Gale 
DRRRUMMERRRRRR, 2019/21
Drum kit, rubber, water, steel, and water pumps
Dimensions variable
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Nikita Gale
DRRRUMMERRRRRR, 2019/21
Drum kit, rubber, water, steel, and water pumps
Dimensions variable
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Laure Prouvost
Metal Man – Security, 2019
Metal sculpture and video
140 x 150 x 100 cm
Courtesy of the artist and carlier|gebauer, Berlin
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Ani Kasten
Kurinuki Lidded Box, 2020

Large Gourd Vessel, 2019

Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Pilvi Takala 
The Stroker, 2018
Digital color video, with sound
14 min. 26 sec.
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Kahlil Joseph 
BLKNWS, 2019
Color video, with sound, and vinyl wallpaper
47 min.
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Nikita Gale
DRRRUMMERRRRRR, 2019/21
Drum kit, rubber, water, steel, and water pumps
Dimensions variable
Photo: Dani Hasrouni

Christine Sun Kim 
Tiny Traumas, 2020
Acrylic on wall
Dimensions variable
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Anna Ehrenstein
Acrylic Geographies, 2021, Mixed media 
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart

Tales of Lipstick and Virtue, 2017, Split Screen Install
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Anna Ehrenstein
Acrylic Geographies, 2021, Mixed media 
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart

Tales of Lipstick and Virtue, 2017, Split Screen Install
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Anna Ehrenstein
Acrylic Geographies, 2021, Mixed media 
Tales of Lipstick and Virtue, 2017
Split Screen Install
Courtesy of the artist, KOW
Berlin and Office Impart
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Anna Ehrenstein
Acrylic Geographies, 2021, Mixed media 
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart

Tales of Lipstick and Virtue, 2017, Split Screen Install
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Anna Ehrenstein
Acrylic Geographies, 2021, Mixed media 
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart

Tales of Lipstick and Virtue, 2017, Split Screen Install
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Anna Ehrenstein
Acrylic Geographies, 2021, Mixed media 
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart

Tales of Lipstick and Virtue, 2017, Split Screen Install
Courtesy of the artist, KOW Berlin and Office Impart
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Laure Prouvost
Metal Man – Swept under the carpet, 2019
metal sculpture, video, sheets of paper, tapestry, bags of cement
135 x 160 x 80 cm
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija


Cameron Downey
Hymn of Dust
VHS/digital video
10 min. 
Collaborators: Cooper Felien (design), Izzy Commers (videography),
booboo (sound)
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Félicia Atkinson 
Hand to Hand 1, 2021
Mixed material
Dimensions variable
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija


Banu Çiçek Tülü
Aural Rupture, 2021
8 min. 26 sec. (loop)
Sound installation
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Dani Hasrouni

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek TülüPhoto: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija

Opening: „Wild frictions“ with a performance by Istanbul Ghetto Club
and Banu Çiçek Tülü
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija