Exploring Echoes. Multiple Voices, Parallel Stories
September, 2024
Jam Factory Art Center and Center for Urban History (UA), HELLERAU – Euopean Centre for the Arts (GER), WRO Art Center (POL) and Pochen (GER) have joined forces to develop a joint residency program between the three Central-Eastern European regions.
The artistic exploration of the residency program is dedicated to the concept of “borders” and border experiences associated with the geopolitical situation in these regions. Ethical, physical and mental borders as well as the way in which people set “borders” in their interpersonal relationships are topics that will be explored.
Liera Polianskova will have the opportunity to visit Chemnitz and Dresden at the end of September, while Jacek Zachodny and Irène Mélix traveled to Lviv. Irène had to cancel her residency stay after the Russian bombings on September 4 in Lviv. She continued her research work anyways.
Concept
This collaboration is committed to the artistic and discursive exploration of local and transregional interdependencies within the cultural landscapes spanning Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. Our research focuses on understanding recent social and transformative changes, emphasizing the role of remembrance practices in gaining deeper insights into these shifts.
Thematically, the artistic investigations deal with (media) representations of “border experiences and situations” emerging within socio-political challenges and developments of these regions. Conceptually, we delve into ethical, physical, and mental boundaries, including how individuals set limits in interpersonal relationships to safeguard well-being and define autonomy. Collaborating with invited artists Irene Melix, Jacek Zachodny, and Liera Polianskova, we are paying attention to contemporary events and their cultural and societal dynamics. Engaging in cross-border forms of remembrance work is seen as crucial for fostering a “critical spirit” in democratic European societies currently at a pivotal “turning point” amid ongoing challenges. National identity politics build on the past, have an impact in the present and are the driving force for the future. The resulting political identities of nations create national and cross-border perspectives and (collective) forms of attribution. Continuities and parallels of the respective consortium members in the European cultures of remembrance are to be reflected upon critically in the research process.
The consortium advocates for a broad understanding of memory and reflection through private to collective or group memory as a key method of preservation and highlighting transregional similarities and differences. The act of multidirectional remembering is conceptualized as a dynamic process akin to “creating heritage.” This approach empowers and amplifies a range of voices and perspectives, such as postcolonial, queer, postmigrant. The discussions are therefore perceived as vibrant modes of critical reflection on the present, unveiling both continuities and discontinuities, drawing lines between the past and future.
Institutions:
Residency with Lithuanian Culture Institute
September, 2024
Jam Factory Art Center, together with Lithuanian Culture Institute co-organized the month-last art residency for Lithuanian artist Alexandra Bondarev.
Alexandra Bondarev is a young-generation artist working in the fields of analogue photography, documentary video, textual storytelling, and poetry. After living in multiple countries and travelling around different continents for the past decade, she has been spending more time in her native Vilnius since 2023.