UNBOUND
An Accessible and Flexible Residency for Artists with and without Disabilities
UNBOUND is Germany’s first flexible and accessible residency and exhibition program for artists with and without disabilities working across multiple disciplines. A flexible and accessible residency means that artists are supported financially, creatively and can carry out the residency at a location, pace and scale that suits them best.
The first edition of UNBOUND ran from October 2022 to July 2023 and was funded by the Senatsverwaltung für Inneres und Sport in connection with the Special Olympics, which was held in Berlin in June 2023. The project was a pilot project that we hope will develop into a permanent feature of Berlin’s cultural landscape. We will create a Handbook at the end of 2023 to document our experiences and the feedback of our participating artists.
Six artists participated in the residency, where they each received a stipend to create a new work on the theme of “connection”. They participated together in a series of creative workshops, and received one-on-one mentoring, before presenting their work in a final exhibition at CLB Berlin during the Special Olympics in June 2023.
Our Artists in Residence
Heike Bollig is a Berlin-based visual artist and art educator. After an apprenticeship as a wood sculptor at the Berufsfachschule für Schreinerei und Holzbildhauerei in Berchtesgaden, Bollig studied sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich and media art at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe from 1997 to 2004. Bollig’s artistic work includes various long-term projects in which she deals with everyday culture, parallel economies, and the question of what influence context has on the perception of art. She gained international attention with the long-term project Errors in Production, which is dedicated to errors in industrial production.
Credit: Stange und Spirale (Plakat), 2012, 59,4 x 84 cm, Ausstellungsansicht „Amateurism“, Heidelberger Kunstverein 2004.
Catherine Rose Evans is a Berlin-based Australian artist and writer who works across photography, sculpture, installation and text. Her work focuses on geologic time and where this intersects with our own human timescales: as found in our bodies, their materiality and our lived-histories as they unfold against geophysical forces. Initially trained in science, and then photography, her work is characterised by a material intimacy that subverts the utility of everyday materials such as rocks and carpet to give unexpected shifts in our perception of light, weight, scale and balance.
Photo by Piotr Pietrus
Rita Mazza is a deaf queer freelance artist, actress, visual sign performer and dancer. She received several awards for her lead role of Sarah in God’s Forgotten Children with Theater Artisti Associati Company in Italy. Additionally, Rita Mazza also serves as the artistic director of Festival del Silenzio, an international performing arts event focused on sign language and deaf arts. She speaks Italian Sign Language fluently as well as German, French and International Sign. Since 2010 Rita Mazza has lived in Berlin and is currently working as an artistic director and performer on visual sign performances in Berlin. She has a longstanding collaboration with Making A Difference.
image: Dandelion II, Sophiensaele, January 2022 (credit: Mayra Wallraff)
Born in 1979 in Stendal Denis Meier is a Berlin based visual artist working across a variety of media including painting, wall drawings and installations and site specific works in public space. He has exhibited in both Germany and France in such recent shows as Slumber, Frontviews Berlin; Man ist nicht behindert, man wird behindert, oqbo – Raum für Bild, Wort und Ton, Appartement, Berlin; Manic 3, Maniac Episode 3, Künstlerhaus Dosenfabrik, Hamburg; retraho, betahaus, Berlin; and Painting and the like, Paris CONCRET, Paris.
https://www.instagram.com/remiemeier/
Credit: Dennis Meier
With his collages and sculptural assemblages, the Berlin artist Macks Querfeldt creates a universe of his own – he uses everyday found materials (newspaper clippings, packaging, pieces of wood, flyers with lettering and pictures), in order to lure out meaningful and meaningless levels of association through adaptations such as overpainting and gluing over in the Dada tradition, which can be quite subversive. Macks Querfeldt has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Germany and has exhibited work in a solo exhibition at Galerie Art Cru in 2020: “Launch-Na klar”.
Credit: Macks Querfeldt
Asako Shiroki was born in Japan in 1979.
“Through the forms of fragments of furniture and architecture such as a chair, table, lattice or wooden frame, my works provoke physical memories of forms and evoke the viewer’s individual memories. At the same time, while forms consistently remain as fragments, imagined function is suspended, floating around without a destination and blurring the outline of these memories. As you follow the blurred memories beyond the haze, it feels as if you have stepped into a different place, as you become more sensitive to sound, scent, resistance of the air, and colors that you have never been aware of. In this moment, you are likely looking on happenings with a bird’s-eye view more on ‘your’ side, as the amount of buoyancy slightly exceeds that of gravity”
http://asakoshiroki.com/index.html
Credit: Dale Grant
The Exhibition
Exhibition Opening Hours:
Wed-Fri 1-7 pm, Sat & Sun 12-5 pm
Mi-Fr 13-19 Uhr, Sa & So 12-17 Uhr
June 10-July 16
Address: CLB Berlin, Aufbau Haus at Moritzplatz, Prinzenstraße 84.2, 10969 Berlin
About the exhibition:
What does connection mean and what does connection require? How are we all connected to each other as human beings, how do we connect to the non-human world around us, and what happens when we dis-connect?
The Space Between brings together the work of six artists seeking to answer these questions. The exhibition is the result of Germany’s first accessible multi-disciplinary artist residency program, which has been made possible through the cultural program of the Special Olympics. The exhibition thus takes its departure from the central concept of the games itself: connection. The spirit of the games lies in the act of bringing together athletes with learning disabilities based on their individual sporting talents, yet forges a connection between them as a team of collaborators. This solidarity is necessary for winning medals, just as solidarity between disabled and nondisabled people is necessary for resisting everyday ableism.
Our 6 artists are diverse in gender, (dis)ability, age, and ethnicity and produce work in a variety of formats including painting, sculpture, photography, sound, performance, installation and poetry. Each of them has developed a new work in response to the theme of connection from their diverse perspectives. For example, Macks Querfeldt through his multi-media collages, explores how we are all inherently connected to war, such as the current conflict in the Ukraine and it’s impact on chains of supply and demand, and the need to forge solidarity with others for survival. Similarly, with her socially engaged practice, Heike Bollig explores the role of connecting to one another through the human processes of healing and repairing. Catherine Rose Evans on the other hand, explores the science of connection by investigating gravity and tension through manipulating every day found objects. And finally, how we are (dis)connected to one another by language and communication is considered by Rita Mazza through visual sign performance, Dennis Meier via a poetic wall drawing utilizing Braille text, and Asako Shiroki whose sculptural installations explore perception by acting as translators between humans and the natural word.
Accessibility:
Directions: The U8 subway line and the bus line M29 both stop at Moritzplatz directly in front of Aufbau Haus.
From the subway stop Moritzplatz (no elevator), it is 100 meters to the CLB. From the bus stop Moritzplatz it is 25 meters to the CLB.
In the courtyard of the Aufbau Haus (entrance 30 meters to the right of the gallery) is a disabled parking space.
The main entrance to the event room (with the large window) is located on the right side of Aufbau Haus on the ground floor – directly accessible from the sidewalk on Oranienstraße.
Entrance: The main entrance consists of a double-leaf door made of glass and metal, which opens inwards. Opening hours vary therefore, to be on the safe side, always check the website under the respective event announcement.
WC: Toilets are located in the gallery. A barrier-free toilet is located inside the building complex and can be reached via an elevator. We will be happy to show you the way.
During the exhibition opening a quiet rest room will be available.
A variety of cafes can be found in the Aufbau Haus complex: https://www.aufbauhaus.de/
Assistant and guide dogs are welcome.
If you need assistance, please speak to us on site or contact us by phone: 0178 133 4761 or email: kontakt@clb-berlin.de
Public Program
Vernissage
Sat. 10th June
5-9 pm
5.30 pm: Official Opening Speech by the State Secretary of Sport Dr. Nicola Böcker-Giannini
(German Sign Language provided)
7-9 pm: DJ Bertolt Meyer
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Vielfalt und Zusammenhalt
Kulturelle Perspektiven für ein starkes Miteinander in Berlin
Mon. 19th June
6 pm
for more details please see: https://clb-berlin.de/en/events/vielfalt-und-zusammenhalt/
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Access as Engine
June 21st
7-8.30 pm
(German Sign Language and German-English language translation provided)
An interactive discursive event exploring the creative potential of accessibility in arts and design practices. Berlinklusion together with Nina Wiedemeyer (Bauhaus Archiv) and guest artists UNBOUND artist in residence Dennis Meier, artist Gerald Pirner and Berlinische Gallery’s Andreas Krüger will discuss the potential role of accessibility in the future of Berlin’s art scene.
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Tactile Exhibition Tours
Every Friday until the end of the exhibition.
4-5.30 pm
(In German)
A 1.5 hour exhibition tour led by Kirstin Broussard and Kate Brehme using tactile models and materials and rich visual descriptions, drawing from the visual elements of the artwork and sparking the other senses. Open to all audiences, priority to people with visual impairments.
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In Residence: A DiscussionWed. 12th July *POSTPONED UNTIL AUTUMN*
6-7.30 pm
(German Sign Language and German-English language translation provided)
Berlinklusion has launched the first accessible residency program for artists with and without disabilities in Germany. Curator of Cultural Education and Strategic Partnerships Daniel Neugebauer (HKW) in cooperation with Berlinklusion take this as an opportunity to talk to the participating artists about how to define access, what role solidarity plays and how complex the issue of visibility can be in a project that is part of the Special Olympics.
Exhibition Tour in DGS
Thursday 13th July 3pm
A 1.5 hour exhibition tour in Deutsche Gebärdensprache by Rita Mazza for D/deaf audiences.
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Finissage
Sun. 16th July
12noon-5pm
Come by for a relaxed FREE event to end the exhibition, and a final chance to meet the artists and curators over coffee and cake.
12-4 pm Drop-in workshop for families at our interactive table.
3-4 pm Curators’ tour with Kirstin Broussard and Kate Brehme in English (with DGS)
4-5pm informal get together with artists and curators
Project Team
Curated by: Kate Brehme and Kirstin Broussard from Berlinklusion
Produktion Assistance: Oona Burless
Graphic design: f450design.org
With thanks to our supporters: cultural partner CLB Berlin, funders Senatsverwaltung Sport und Inneres and Stiftung Pfefferberg, and program supporters HKW, Bauhaus-Archiv und Diversity Arts Culture
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UNBOUND is financed by the Senat Department of Sport and Internal Affairs and features as part of the 2023 Special Olympics Cultural Program.
and supported by the following partners
With special thanks to our cultural partner:
image credit: From the “Seed Project” by Kirstin Naomie Broussard
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