Video, Mixed-Media-Installation, Performance
by Steffi Weismann and Çiğdem Üçüncü
exhibitions:
– AARC#1 (Artists Against Racism Collaborative) Apartment Project & Errant Sound, Berlin, June 2020
– This far and no further Galerie Nord Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin-Moabit, August 2020
– Spor Klübü, Project space in Berlin-Wedding, Screening, Sept. 2021
Çiğdem Üçüncü and Steffi Weismann entered into a dialogue and developed a collective audiovisual work in reaction to the 19th February racist terrorist attack in Hanau. The materiality of broken glass and the sounds developed from it form the basis with which actions and memories are interwoven:
The first part of the video shows a performative intervention on the street which consists of the empathic gesture of repairing the commemorative posters of the attack’s victims. The second part of the video involves a text that reflects on the childhood memories of a girl with foreign origins in Hanau and addresses injuries that have become brutally visible after the incident.
The work combines abstract artistic methods with personal experiences. German, Kurdish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Romanian and English voices are interwoven and do not allow a passive gaze. They rather seem to ask: When do I reach the point to get involved?
Six months after the 19th February terrorist attack, Çiğdem Üçüncü and Steffi Weismann continued their collaboration and talked to activists, survivors and relatives of the victims in Hanau. With the material they’ve gathered on site, they developed a performance for the Galerie Nord in Berlin-Moabit. This mixed media performance carries the voices of the victim’s relatives into public space and enables the audience to confront with the topic on a personal level. The performance was followed by an artists’ talk with members of AARC about the combination of art with politics, its importance and boundaries.
