WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? Contemplations on the Notions of Hostipitality - INVOCATIONS

Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans

Much is happening today that calls for a reflection on hospitality in Germany, in Europe, and in the world at large. While departing from the national context of Germany, and taking Derrida's notion of "hostipitality" - that is the presence of hostility in all hospitality and hosting - as a point of commencement, the project is not limited in geography, history, philosophy nor culture to these origins, but rather addresses concepts of hospitality in a global context. By inviting, and being host to, artists, curators, musicians and other thinkers to reflect on the various thought and lived concepts of hospitality, the project creates a space for exchange, mutual respect and learning to pose questions that might instigate further thoughts. In an age of flourishing resentments and antipathy towards all that seems conceptually or physically ‘strange’/ a ‘stranger’, in a time when the historical violence of the guest (as a colonizer) over the host is reiterated and fortified, and in an era that increasingly turns hospitality into a neoliberal commodity, it becomes urgent to reconsider hospitality’s gradients of power.

Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans

Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans

Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? is conceived across interrelated ‘spaces of contemplation’ which will be activated and animated through an exhibition and a weekend of invocations including performances, concerts, lectures and talks:

I GUEST, I HOST. WHO IS THE GHOST? explores power gradients between host, guest and becoming ghost - the zombifying transformation process between guest and host, as well as the violences implicated in these transitions through looking at settler colonialist projects and their perverting of who is ‘guest’ and who is ‘host’.

FORGING A BRIDGE: FROM ‘WIR SCHAFFEN DAS’ TO ‘DAS BOOT IST VOLL’ probes the gradual shift of hospitality towards hostility. Unpacking the breakdown of the German ‘Willkommenskultur’ after the arrival of mostly Syrian migrants in Germany in the summer of 2015, we observe how the summer of grace became the autumn of rage and the winter of nightmares, as the initial goodwill turned into the resurgence of the extreme right in Germany.

CARESSING THE PHANTOM LIMB: 'HEIMAT' - PROGRESSION, REGRESSION, STAGNATION?  looks at the power of the notion of Heimat that has come to characterize privileges and the common denominators of those who are viewed by the majority as eligible to partake in the privileges. 'Heimat' could be the sum of our singular beings, cultures, religions and philosophies. 'Heimat' could be inclusive and unifying – sensitive to the historical, political and economical realities that have made people move forcefully or willingly. Isn’t the current state of Heimat rather regressive and a mere caressing of a phantom limb?

RIDING THE TIDE: ON HOSTIPICAPITALISM revisits the notion of hospitality in neoliberal capitalism, which has successfully transformed hospitality from virtue into ubiquitous commodity.

Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson | Photo: Marvin Systermans

Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans

SCHEDULE

08.06.2018 

FORGING A BRIDGE: FROM 'WIR SCHAFFEN DAS' TO 'DAS BOOT IST VOLL'  

16:00 Ulf Aminde and Miriam Schickler  PERFORMANCE

17:00 Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Elena Agudio and Denise Ryner INTRODUCTION

17:20 Seloua Luste Boulbina TALK

18:00 Heidrun Friese TALK

18:40 BREAK

19:00 Lynnée Denise DJ LECTURE PERFORMANCE

19:40 Niklas Maak TALK

20:20 BREAK

20:30 Negros Tou Moria  MUSIC

21:15 Sepake Angiama and Clare Butcher (aneducation) TALK

22:00 Nacera Belaza PERFORMANCE

22:30 Ulf Aminde, Sepake Angiama, Nacera Belaza, Seloua Luste Boulbina, Clare Butcher, Lynée Denise, Heidrun Friese and Niklas Maak CONVERSATION

23:30 Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore MUSIC

09.06.2018

CARESSING THE PHANTOM LIMB. HEIMAT - PROGRESSION, REGRESSION, STAGNATION?

15:00 Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson PERFORMANCE | Meeting Point: silent green courtyard

16:00 Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Elena Agudio  and  Denise Ryner INTRODUCTION | Meeting Point: Nettelbeckplatz

16:10 Farkhondeh Shahroudi PERFORMANCE PROCESSION | From Nettelbeckplatz to SAVVY Contemporary

16:50 Jihan El-Tahri TALK

17:30 Safiya Sinclair POETRY

18:10 BREAK

18:30 Naeem Mohaiemen FILM INTERVENTION

19:10 Denise Ferreira Da Silva TALK

19:50 Massimo Perinelli, Ibrahim Arslan LIVE STREAMING from Cologne with Meral Şahin, Mitat Özdemir and Ulf Aminde

20:30 BREAK

20:45 Ibrahim Arslan, Jihan El-Tahri, Naeem Mohaiemen, NSU Tribunal, Safiya Sinclair, Massimo Perinelli CONVERSATION

21:45 Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore MUSIC

10.06.2016

I GUEST, I HOST. WHO IS THE GHOST?

13:00 Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Elena Agudio and Denise Ryner INTRODUCTION

13:10 Tania Willard TALK

13:50 Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson PERFORMANCE  | Meeting Point: silent green courtyard

14:15 BREAK

14:30 Robert Nichols TALK

15:10 Lerato Shadi PERFORMANCE  

15:50 Nahed Samour TALK

16:30 BREAK

16:40 Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia PERFORMANCE

RIDING THE TIDE: ON HOSTIPICAPITALISM

17:20 Mohamed Amjahid TALK

18:10 Joshua Chambers-Letson TALK

18:50 Kettly Noël PERFORMANCE

19:20 BREAK

19:30 Joshua Chambers-Letson, Peter Morin, Robert Nichols, Kettly Noël, Lerato Shadi, Tania Willard CONVERSATION

20:30 Negros Tou Moria MUSIC

21:30 The Hospitality Duo: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore MUSIC

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? is a project within the framework of 4Cs: From Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture, a collaborative project that investigates conflict and models for intercultural dialogue supported by the European Commission through Creative Europe – Culture. 4Cs was developed amongst the following partners: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas Universidade Católica Portuguesa FCH|UCP (PT), Tensta Konsthall (SE), SAVVY Contemporary (DE), Royal College of Art (UK), Fundació Antoni Tàpies (ES), Vilnius Academy of Arts (LT), Museet for Samtidskunst (DK) and ENSAD (FR).

https://savvy-contemporary.com/en/events/2018/hostipitality-invocations/

Video (Day 1) | FORGING A BRIDGE: FROM 'WIR SCHAFFEN DAS' TO 'DAS BOOT IST VOLL'

Video (Day 2) | CARESSING THE PHANTOM LIMB. HEIMAT – PROGRESSION, REGRESSION, STAGNATION?

Video (Day 3) | I GUEST, I HOST. WHO IS THE GHOST?