Exhibition: In the Blink of A Bird / Sis Collective / nGbK – neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst

21/12/2018

nGbK
neue Gesellschaft
für bildende Kunst

Exhibition
In the Blink of A Bird
Saturday, 27 April 2019 — Sunday, 02 June 2019
sis_poster
Adress:nGbK, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
Open: Daily 12:00-18:00, Fri 12:00-20:00
Language(s): German, English
Entry: free
Organized by: neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst

The project »In the Blink of A Bird« was initiated by the artist collective Sis*. Working collaboratively, Sis negotiates themes of freedom of expression, bureaucracy, and immigration. In Turkey, print and radio media in particular are increasingly subject to regulations that restrict freedom of speech. To demonstrate the subversive potential of these media, the artists of the collective chose techniques from these fields for their work.

In May 2017, Depo Istanbul hosted the first exhibition of »In the Blink of A Bird«, a multimedia installation that included »Incoming Papers« (printed matter) and »HisTV« (video works). Unfolding between these two poles, the current exhibition at the nGbK integrates additional content by employing materials that have been gathered over the past two years. During this time, many people from Turkey have moved to Europe, and mainly to Berlin. Therefore, the notion of relocating is conceptually taken into account in the exhibition. For the nGbK, Sis developed new modules for their installation, like a wall newspaper and a printing press as well as the »Bureaucratic Application Anxiety Consultation Agency«. A new performance devised for this fictive agency, which offers to help newcomers navigate the bureaucratic jungle, will be presented to the public twice during the exhibition period.

*Sis is a collective of artists from Turkey founded in 2016 during a stay in the project space Apartment Project in Berlin. The increasing suppression of freedom of speech in Turkey forced the artists to work with indirect forms of expression. Since then, Sis has been exploring collective production. The collective is constantly shifting in size, and coming together in different constellations, with new members actively joining while others are stepping aside.

Sis Collective and collaborators:
Selda Asal, Özgür Atlagan, Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli, Fatma Belkıs, Berk Asal, Emre Birişmen, Savaş Boyraz, Şafak Çatalbaş, Onur Ceritoğlu, Ece Gökalp, Yasemin Nur, Gümüş Özdeş, Ceren Oykut, Melih Sarıgöl, Özlem Sarıyıldız, Sandra Schäfer, Nihan Somay, Gökçe Süvari, Berkay Tuncay, Merve Ünsal, Seçil Yersel & Özge Açıkkol
TheFirstPaperWorkers: Evrim Kavcar, Güneş Terkol
TheSecondPaperWorkers: Şahika Aslantürkiyeli, Hakan Öktem, Hüseyin Varaha
TheThirdPaperWorkers: Zümrüt Çavuşoğlu, Senem Denli, Özgür Erkök Moroder, Sina Muehleisen
Publication Editors: Erden Kosova, Umut Yıldırım
Incoming Papers Archive: Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Didem Erk, Bengi Güldoğan, Gülsün Karamustafa, Evrim Kavcar, Komet, Göksu Kunak, Ali Miharbi, Sevgi Ortaç, İz Öztat, İrem Tok
HisTV Archive: İmre Azem, Mehtap Baydu, Elmas Deniz, Gaye Günay, Borga Kantürk, Evrim Kavcar, Zeynep Kayan, Ezgi Kılınçaslan, Artıkişler Kolektifi, Julia Lazarus, Lara Ögel, Azra Deniz Okyay, Florian Wüst

Message from SIS:
“Hellooooooooo! Are you having trouble with bureaucracy? Do you need a visa, a residency permit, or some funding, maybe? Are you tired of having your home space violated by immigration papers, recommendation letters, or project proposals? Do you find yourself thinking about alternative ways of production, in case you never get funding? Do you sometimes wonder how things would be, if you hadn’t left your previous home for Berlin? Do you wonder, at this very moment, what your friends are doing, knowing that you will be miles away from them at least for a while? Do you want to live the rest of your life free of the thought: “Dear Lord! Will I be able to get through it this time?” Do you want to put an end to that, once and for all? Well then, come and see us at nGbK. We are SIS, the world’s first and best Bureaucratic Application Anxiety Consultants EVER! Yes ma’am, yes sir, yes master, yes, yes, yes! So come on, we will FIX YOU UP with some good quality Bureaucratic Application Anxiety Therapy. In collaboration with our “Post-Truth Spa Center,” we will sing your papers and make a lovely song of your application. We will make a movie from the story of your papers. We will share your frustration about the application papers and, if necessary, scream our lungs out with you. We will show your papers love. We will show you papers like you have never seen before. We will even show you our papers. The place is full of papers. Oh, by the way: please don’t come with actual application papers when you come to see us. Don’t worry! We will provide you with everything you need—as far as we can.”

nGbK project group:
Berk Asal, Fatma Belkıs, Gümüş Özdeş, Kristina Kramer, Özgür Atlagan, Şafak Çatalbaş, Selda Asal, Yasemin Nur

Further Dates
26Friday, 26. April 2019, 17:30
Performance: In the Blink of A Bird (second rendition). By: Sis Collective
26Friday, 26. April 2019, 18:00
Performance: Operating the Hayal Machine. By Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli
26Friday, 26. April 2019, 19:00
Opening: Exhibition
26Friday, 26. April 2019, 21:00
Performance: Black on Black, By: Ceren Oykut & Fezaya Firar
30Tuesday, 30. April 2019, 13:00
Workshop: Newspaper Workshop, By: Sis Collective
30Tuesday, 30. April 2019, 18:30
Live program: HisTV Studio Session »Hands Off My Friend« with the group »Friends of Osman Kavala«
3Friday, 03. May 2019, 13:00
Recordings: HisTV Open Studio
4Saturday, 04. May 2019, 14:00
Panel: What’s Not Happening in Istanbul?
4Saturday, 04. May 2019, 16:30
Panel: Art At Stake / What are the limits of free expression for an artist?
4Saturday, 04. May 2019, 19:00
Panel: ›New Wave‹ Migration from Turkey: Displacement, Survival and Solidarity
14Tuesday, 14. May 2019, 13:00
Workshop: Newspaper Workshop, By: Sis Collective
14Tuesday, 14. May 2019, 17:00
Performance: Operating the Hayal Machine. By Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli
15Wednesday, 15. May 2019, 15:00
Recordings: HisTV Open Studio
15Wednesday, 15. May 2019, 18:00
Performance: Post Truth Spa Center – seance02, Von: Şafak Çatalbaş
18Saturday, 18. May 2019, 17:30
Workshop: Newspaper Workshop, By: Sis Collective
23Thursday, 23. May 2019, 13:00
Recordings: HisTV Open Studio
27Monday, 27. May 2019, 16:30
Lecture: Erinnerung und Vergessen in einem Bild: Strategien und Deklinationen des Bildes in totalitären Systemen. By Zeynep Sayın
28Tuesday, 28. May 2019, 18:00
Filmscreening: »Turkey on the Edge« by İmre Azem
1Saturday, 01. June 2019, 17:30
Performance: In the Blink of A Bird (second rendition), Von: Sis Collective
1Saturday, 01. June 2019, 18:00
Performance: Operating the Hayal Machine. By Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli