December 19 – 20, 2023, 10 AM – 1 PM
Many thanks to the critic, curator and artist Andreas Schlaegel for his seminar A new story, an old story, a forgotten or untold story? 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.
“When posting on instagram or Facebook we are presented with the option of presenting a „story“, basically a succession of images or videos to outline a historic event, thereby turning the documentation of this event into our own personal story. But what does it do to us as human beings and artists, if we turn our everyday lives into stories – does it make us rock stars or influencers?
To explore the artistic aspects of artistic self-historicizing/self-mythologizing, we will look at artists associated with “Individual Mythologies” – a concept from the 1970ies, suggested by Harald Szeemann, often considered the godfather of contemporary curating. With this term he addressed the work of artists who aspired to conjoin differing streams of energies, practices, ideas, and forms, allowing insights into unique personal universes with references to archeology, ethnology, forensics.
But can we still discover currency in historic works by Michael Buthe, Paul Thek or Marian Zazeela? How do they tell their stories? And how would our stories differ from theirs? What can we learn from these storytellers? And always: what’s missing from the stories we tell and are told?” (Text by courtesy of Andreas Schlaegel)
Andreas Schlaegel (born 1966 in Kinshasa, DRC) is a critic, curator and artist, based in Berlin. His critical writing is published regularly by international art magazines, such as Flash Art International (Milano), Frieze (London), Kunstkritikk (Kopenhagen/Oslo), /100 (Berlin) and in arts publications by renowned art institutions such as the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MUSAC, Leon; Aspen Museum, Colorado; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/Main; Thyssen Bornemisza Contemporary, Vienna; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf to just name a few. Last year he co-edited Lucid Knowledge, the critical reader, accompanying Hamburg Phototriennial.
His artwork is invested in creating collaborative formats, oscillating between sculpture, painting, drawing and musical performance and has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Most recent projects include the exhibition ACO-DEMO at Kindl Kulturzentrum, Berlin, in November 2023, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his band Art Critics Orchestra. The upcoming year will see releases of new records by his band projects Van Urrgh and Die!Landschaft.
