Group exhibition

• Fri 22 – Sun 31 07 2016 •
KINDLY DISINVITED Youth Academy of the Arts of the World

With the "Youth Academy", the Academy of the Arts of the World supports young, up-coming artists. In the course of the past year, the eleven participants of the current annual program addressed the issue of anti-racist discourse production in practical and theoretical workshops critically reflecting their own privileges, being white, migration, possibilities of solidarity, and questions of self/representation in art. The results of their experiences put into artistic practice will be on display from 22nd to 31st of July 2016 in the ACADEMYSPACE in Herwarthstraße 3, 50672 Cologne. The group exhibition‘s title KINDLY DISINVITED tackles the question of who is invited to this kind of events. Who enjoys the privilege of an invitation to participate in a vernissage? Who is not likely to be welcome to such an event? Who has the privilege of inviting?

The opening night will be complemented by two additional performances: Walter Solon‘s "pitch-performance" announces an upcoming, possibly impossible film project referring to his short film "Erster Schritt", which is screened in the exhibition. The film deals with the Jewish-German song and dance competition Jewrovision raising questions of representation related to this context. FEG’s performance by contrast shifts ascriptions of color and gender: What happens when a male white body re-enacts performances by women of color? This reenactment explores the representational gap opening up because of such shifts.

Guest curator of the complete annual program was Berlin-based artist Ulf Aminde, whose artistic works critically examine questions of authority and representation of marginalization. During the workshop weeks, Nanna Heidenreich, Massimo Perinelli, Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst, and Cana Bilir-Meier, among others, looked for possibilities to not only question their privileges, but to make use of them and at the same time give rise to solidarity regarding increasingly urgent political issues.

KINDLY DISINVITED
Group exhibition of the Youth Academy of the Arts of the World
22 07 ‒ 31 07 2016
Wed ‒ Fr: 15:00 ‒ 19:00, Sat/Sun: 13:00 ‒ 19:00
ACADEMYSPACE, Herwarthstraße 3, 50672 Cologne
Opening: 22 07 2016 from 18:00 to 22:00
Performance program:
Walter Solon 19
FEG 19:30

With Ronja Bader, Maria Chatzidimou, Manon Diederich, FEG, Anna Lebedeva, Adrian Robanus, Blanca Barbat Soler, Walter Solon, Nina Weber, Argia Helen Wehner and Elsa Weiland