Events/Openings

Opening: Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014, 7pm

Exhibition: Jan. 19, 2014 – Feb. 15, 2014

Artists: Athi-Patra Ruga, Mariechen Danz, Johannes Paul Raether, Iké Udé

Curator: To Whom It May Concern

Art directors: Dr. Bonaventure S.B. Ndikung, Dr. Elena Agudio
Opening Hours: Sat. 4-7pm and by appointment

SAVVY Contemporary I Richardstr. 20 I 12043 Berlin-Neukölln

“How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of
all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are
transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are
princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and
courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence,
something helpless that wants our love.” (Rainer- Maria Rilke, Letters to a
Young Poet, 1929)

Where does the fascination of myths emerge from, if not from their most unlikely and most powerful transformations of things into humans, of people into other people, of animals into humans, and vice versa? In myths a frog can turn into a prince, fire-breathing dragons into princesses, in a split second a pumpkin might mutate into a splendid golden carriage carrying a poor kitchen-maid—who temporarily transforms into a lady—to her prince.

These myths, told and re-told by the people for centuries represent an exception within an ontology, which tends to be dominated by dichotomies and oppositions, by clear demarcations between nature and culture, animals and humans, self and other, or original and copy. In myths these clear demarcations are transgressed and even superseded. There is something both uncanny and powerful in these often mimetic transformations and transgressions.

The exhibition Perhaps all the Dragons in Our Lives are Princesses aims at examining the ways in which the appropriation and exploration of alternative identities, i.e. conscious “impersonation”, conduce the (in-)cognisant revelation of the paradoxes of personhood and society. Framed around concepts of “corporeality”, “personality” and “materiality”, the exhibition brings together live performances, photography, videos and installations that investigate the desire to pass as someone or something else, i.e. the concept of somatic morphing.

https://www.facebook.com/events/275694889249882/