Sudan Moves 2020
THE RESIDENCY
During a six weeks long artist residency in September and October 2020 five pairs of artists from Sudan and Germany had the opportunity to discuss what moves them and find ways to overcome the distance between them with online applications and platforms. Their collaborations reflect the socio-political struggles of their communities, finding similarities and differences, a process they express artistically. The aim was not only to produce works of art discussing the transformative circumstances the artists and all of us live in right now but also to experiment with the digital tools available across borders. The residency creates the opportunity to reflect on how an artist residency could be possible during a pandemic, how we can connect in a meaningful way and reach an audience without physical spaces being accessible and how we can use digital toos productively and securely in transnational art projects.
ACTS OF RESISTANCE: AN ANTHOLOGY
2020 will be marked as a year with significant shifts to social and political justice. Artists have consistently acted as commentators, critics and motivators in extraordinary circumstances. Artistic resistance presents itself in the refusal to accept or comply with injustices, documenting marginalised perspectives, and the ability to mobilise a critical mass to initiate change. From fighting against police brutality and racial injustice, to human rights violations in the Mediterranean, exploitation by corrupt government officials and the expansion of surveillance capitalism. The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst keeping the world in suspense. While in some areas it paved the way for right wing conspiracy theorists in others it seemed secondary to more pressing issues.
«Acts of Resistance: An Anthology» is the first virtual exhibition presented by the Goethe-Institut Sudan. 19 artists living in Sudan, Qatar, Germany and Switzerland showcase their collaborative work created in a six week transnational digital artist residency in the fall of 2020. Exploring new methodologies of conviviality, proximity and collectivity in and through the digital space, the creative process has in many ways called for the resistance to common practice, overcoming obstacles of digitality and spatial boundaries. Dedicated to different notions of artivism the exhibition centres on the artists’ lives and the current fast changing socio-political contexts they exist in.
From photography to paintings, installations, music and digital art, «Acts of Resistance: An Anthology» embodies an extraordinary collection, a witness of the transformative times we live in. The exhibition brings forth various theoretical questions, exploring the connections between politics and aesthetics, as well as how the artists relate themselves to politics and a variety of public discourses. While focusing mainly on the latest political uprisings in Sudan since 2018 and the ongoing socio-political shifts in Germany in the past years, it addresses personal narratives and alternative readings to the ongoing struggles of our societies.
With:
Azza Mohamed, Elmuontasir Elhassan, Horst Wegener, Julia Benz, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Mai Abusalih, Maimana Mohammed Elhassan Mohammed, Martin Poetter & Daniel Schreiber, N’golo Zerbo, Rana Marouf, Reem Aljeali, Sara Elhassan, The Urban Episode, Veronika Nepple, Zainab M. O. Gaafar