WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW?

CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE NOTIONS OF HOSTIPITALITY

We cordially invite you to a weekend of invocations in the framework of the project  WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? Contemplations on the Notions of Hostipitality  which unfolds through an exhibition, performances, lectures, film screenings and other time-based experiences to deliberate on concepts of hospitality and the triggers of hostility in hospitality.

Much is happening today that calls for a reflection on hospitality in Germany, in Europe, and in the world at large. While departing from the national context of Germany, and taking Derrida's notion of "hostipitality" - that is the presence of hostility in all hospitality and hosting - as a point of commencement, the project is not limited in geography, history, philosophy nor culture to these origins, but rather addresses concepts of hospitality in a global context. By inviting, and being host to, artists, curators, musicians and other thinkers to reflect on the various thought and lived concepts of hospitality, the project creates a space for exchange, mutual respect and learning to pose questions that might instigate further thoughts. In an age of flourishing resentments and antipathy towards all that seems conceptually or physically ‘strange’/ a ‘stranger’, in a time when the historical violence of the guest (as a colonizer) over the host is reiterated and fortified, and in an era that increasingly turns hospitality into a neoliberal commodity, it becomes urgent to reconsider hospitality’s gradients of power.

Ulf Aminde & Miriam Schickler | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Ulf Aminde & Miriam Schickler | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Ulf Aminde & Miriam Schickler | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Ulf Aminde & Miriam Schickler | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Denise Ryner | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Denise Ryner | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Seloua Luste Boulbina | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Seloua Luste Boulbina | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Heidrun Friese | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Heidrun Friese | Photo: Marvin Systermans
DJ Lynnée Denise | Photo: Marvin Systermans
DJ Lynnée Denise | Photo: Marvin Systermans
DJ Lynnée Denise | Photo: Marvin Systermans
DJ Lynnée Denise | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Niklas Maak| Photo: Marvin Systermans
Niklas Maak| Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sepake Angiama and Clare Butcher (aneducation) with Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sepake Angiama and Clare Butcher (aneducation) with Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nacera Belaza | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nacera Belaza | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sepake Angiama and Clare Butcher (aneducation) | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sepake Angiama and Clare Butcher (aneducation) | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nacera Belaza | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nacera Belaza | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore  | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? is conceived across interrelated ‘spaces of contemplation’ which will be activated and animated through an exhibition and a weekend of invocations including performances, concerts, lectures and talks:

I Guest, I Host. Who is the Ghost? explores power gradients between host, guest and becoming ghost - the zombifying transformation process between guest and host, as well as the violences implicated in these transitions through looking at settler colonialist projects and their perverting of who is ‘guest’ and who is ‘host’.

Forging a Bridge: From ‘Wir schaffen das’ to ‘Das Boot ist voll’ probes the gradual shift of hospitality towards hostility. Unpacking the breakdown of the German ‘Willkommenskultur’ after the arrival of mostly Syrian migrants in Germany in the summer of 2015, we observe how the summer of grace became the autumn of rage and the winter of nightmares, as the initial goodwill turned into the resurgence of the extreme right in Germany.

Caressing the Phantom Limb: 'Heimat' - Progression, Regression, Stagnation?  looks at the power of the notion of Heimat that has come to characterize privileges and the common denominators of those who are viewed by the majority as eligible to partake in the privileges. 'Heimat' could be the sum of our singular beings, cultures, religions and philosophies. 'Heimat' could be inclusive and unifying – sensitive to the historical, political and economical realities that have made people move forcefully or willingly. Isn’t the current state of Heimat rather regressive and a mere caressing of a phantom limb?

Riding the Tide: On Hostipicapitalism revisits the notion of hospitality in neoliberal capitalism, which has successfully transformed hospitality from virtue into ubiquitous commodity.

Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Farkhondeh Shahroudi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Jihan El-Tahri | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Jihan El-Tahri | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Jihan El-Tahri  | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Jihan El-Tahri | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Safiya Sinclair | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Safiya Sinclair | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Naeem Mohaiemen | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Naeem Mohaiemen | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Denise Ferreira Da Silva | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Denise Ferreira Da Silva | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Ibrahim Arslan and Massimo Perinelli | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Ibrahim Arslan and Massimo Perinelli | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Introduction by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Introduction by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore  | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Photo: Marvin Systermans

Throughout this project we look from the micro-level to broader entanglements - from  SAVVY Contemporary’s home, role and presence in its space in Wedding as host to artists and other collaborators, as well as guest within the context of our neighborhood, to the possibilities of moments of unconditional hospitality and the nation state’s strategies of hostility towards its weakest citizens and the newly arrived.

WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? is a project within the framework of 4Cs: From Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture, a collaborative project that investigates conflict and models for intercultural dialogue supported by the European Commission through Creative Europe – Culture. 4Cs was developed amongst the following partners: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas Universidade Católica Portuguesa FCH|UCP (PT), Tensta Konsthall (SE), SAVVY Contemporary (DE), Royal College of Art (UK), Fundació Antoni Tàpies (ES), Vilnius Academy of Arts (LT), Museet for Samtidskunst (DK) and ENSAD (FR).

Tania Willard | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Tania Willard | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson  | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Peter Morin and Aaron Wilson | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Lerato Shadi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Lerato Shadi | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nahed Samour | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nahed Samour | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Introduction by Raisa Galofre | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Introduction by Raisa Galofre | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Robert Nichols | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Robert Nichols | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Canoafolk: Rueda de Cumbia | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Mohamed Amjahid | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Mohamed Amjahid | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Joshua Chambers-Letson | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Joshua Chambers-Letson | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Kettly Noël | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Kettly Noël | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Kettly Noël | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Kettly Noël | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Introduction by Elena Agudio and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Introduction by Elena Agudio and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Negros Tou Moria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Marvin Systermans
Hospitality Suite: Jacques Coursil and Marque Gilmore | Marvin Systermans