December 14, 2023, 10 am – 2 pm
Many thanks to the artist Dr. Shoufay Derz for her lecture Towards the unknown, Visual poetics of the ineffable and discussing the works of our participants within the Studio Program at BAI | Berlin Artist Residency, Art School, Arts Incubator, and Live Online Courses & Classes.
“This lecture centers around exploring the ineffable, aspects beyond expression yet potentially shared among us, and how these elements serve as catalysts for expansive and experimental storytelling techniques. Derz will give an overview of her artistic practice, focussing on key projects from the last ten years that include moving images, photography, textiles, sculpture, performance and text. The discussion will revolve around apophatic formations and the interplay between the expressed and the unspoken, highlighting select poetic and contemporary artworks. The poetics of the ineffable experimentally attempt to connect the silences in language with the holes in the social, structural and geological landscapes in order to reflect on the voids of the past, the present and the uncertainty of future landscapes. Furthermore, Derz will spotlight her ongoing work “Ritual of Eels: Loving the Alien”. This relational performance invites friends, family, acquaintances and strangers to participate in the “eel ritual” in various parks, gardens and uncultivated green spaces. From the sacred watercourses of the Gayamaygal people to the parks of Berlin and the lava banks of Lanzarote, these aliens/eels are repeatedly drawn to green realms and watery depths. For the artist, the figure of the alien echoed in the title of the work and in the green faces of her subjects, is a metaphor for transformation and our common unknowns. In the vein of the chromakey images, the colour green is conventionally erased and the background is replaced by a new fictitious landscape. The potential for disappearance and transformation is reflected in the landscape and the green faces. The eel too, is an elusive creature of metamorphosis, a shape-shifter linked to enigmatic stories of vast migration, that still to this day, their precise origins are unknown. These works encourage a conversation about belonging, alienation and our shared unknowns and are offered as a ritual for coming together, sharing imagination and being in the presence of people who might not otherwise be connected.” (Text by courtesy of Dr. Shoufay Derz)
Shoufay Derz, an Australian-born artist, researcher, teacher and curator of Taiwanese and German heritage, has worked in Berlin since 2019. As of 2022, she serves as the Co-director at The Institute of Endotic Research, focusing on exploring relational and community practices within and beyond the visual arts realm. In 2023, Derz was awarded her PhD, centred on her research titled ‘Towards the Unknown: The Visual Poetics of the Ineffable.’
Her research delves into the limits and possibilities of language and visual expression, particularly within diasporic contexts, engaging in conversations about belonging and alienation. Her artistic endeavours involve proposing rituals and alternate archives at the thresholds of world(s) beginnings and ends, inviting collective imagination to explore unknown possibilities. Her recent work playfully incorporates improvisational tactics and humour to convey the ephemeral and transformative facets, possibilities, limitations, and risks of site-specific storytelling. Spanning diverse mediums such as moving images, textiles, sculpture, photography, performance, and text, her interdisciplinary practice aims to link language silences with voids present in social, structural, and geological landscapes, contemplating temporal wounds and the uncertainties of future terrains.
Select exhibitions include The Outside Art Project at London’s King’s Cross curated by the Photographers Gallery, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, the Auckland Festival of Photography, and Dark Heart, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. Noteworthy residencies include Künstlerhaus Bethanien awarded by Creative Australia from 2019 to 2020 and a visiting artist position at The New School – Parsons, NYC, in 2017. Derz has received accolades such as the 52nd Blake Prize for Religious Art early in her career.
More information on the Dr. Shoufay Derz Website.
