Article by Alena Sokhan // Sept. 30, 2014
The Forgotten Pioneer Movement, a collaborative exhibition, public seminar, and performance program, curated by Ulrike Gerhardt and Susanne Husse at District Kunst- und Kulturförderung will begin October 2, and run till November 29. The Forgotten Pioneer Movement refers to the last generation to grow up during the transition period, with a childhood in a communist reality and a puberty in a democratic one; a generation who experienced in their youth the unsettling collapse of the political and economic environment during the Perestroika. The Forgotten Pioneer Movement is the name the participating artists gave to a fictional group that currently has a powerful impact on society, but as the exhibit suggests, hasn’t yet reflected on their shared past in a collaborative effort. The artists who contributed to this exhibition bring into the present their individual and collective experiences, using vocabulary of the past and present to shape the encyclopaedia for the future.
CORO Collective – “Vocabulary Lesson” (2009), video still
The performance and exhibition project is composed of three parts:
SET #A uses the techniques of psychodrama to shape thoughtful interventions into the physical space of Berlin with workshops and performances. These events will focus on moments of historical rupture and the creative potential of discontinuity. A program of events can be found here.
SET #B is the exhibition which will be on display at the grounds of the historic Malzfabrik, the site of District, which attempts an engagement with the socialist past and Cold War era in a way that makes it relevant to the present. The works gather indexical traces that were forgotten or unacknowledged, constructing a historical account without mythologizing or generalizing.
SET #C, The Pioneer Camp of ReVision, is a public seminar running from October 3 to October 5, and on November 20. The seminar will include various lectures, artist talks, discussions, performances, and workshops, which will reconsider a range of issues from the ‘presence of the absence’ to collective memories. These events will take place at District and different locations in Berlin. Information about SET #C can be found here.
Photo: Privatarchiv Mitya Churikov, Kiew 2003
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Additional Information
DISTRICT KUNST- UND KULTURFÖRDERUNG
“The Forgotten Pioneer Movement” – LINA ALBRIKIENE, ERIKS APALAIS, BANKLEER, MITYA CHURIKOV, CORO COLLECTIVE, NICU ILFOVEANU, WILHELM KLOTZEK & DAVID POLZIN, MARINA NAPRUSHKINA, CLAUDIA RÖßGER, ZEMAT
Exhibition: Oct. 03 – Nov. 29, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, Oct. 02, 2014; 6pm
Bessemerstraße 2-14 (click here for map)
