What does it mean when we see "objects" as "sonorous bodies" that connect us with the past, tell stories, and have their own vitality? In resonance with the 15th Fellbach Small Sculpture Triennial, an ephemeral space opens up in the ifa Gallery that re-focuses restitution on despoiled "sonorous bodies" in relation to memorial and artistic practices. In museums these bodies are classified as "objects" and silenced inside glass showcases, while here they regain their vitality thanks to embodiments and links concerning their meanings, presence, and usage across the generations. "Objects" become "sonorous bodies."
The specific point of reference for this video-sound installation that will be created in the ifa Gallery, and will be enacted as a performance over three days, is the return of twenty-three "sonorous bodies" from the Ethnological Museum Berlin to the National Museum in Windhoek (Namibia). Shortly before the opening of the Fellbach Triennial, these "sonorous bodies" were prepared and packed for travel, a process that the artists Memory Biwa and Robert Machiri documented with a reflective artistic approach. Only a few days later Memory Biwa, co-curator of the Fellbach Triennial, installed works there by five artists from Namibia and South Africa: Thania Petersen, Vitjitua Ndjiharine, Philisa Zibi, Stephané Conradie, and Elisia Nghidishange. The confluence of these two processes activates catastrophic histories, relentless resistance, and memory-making in diverse ways.
Through video, sound, and performance, this project explores aural regimes and various forms of knowledge that enable a new experience and reflection of historical events and the relevant people and geographies, while also sounding out forms of togetherness.
3 day programme conceived by Pungwe (Memory Biwa & Robert Machiri), in collaboration with Nikola Hartl and ifa Gallery Stuttgart. In resonance with 15th Triennale Small Sculpture Fellbach.
The 15th edition of the Triennial of Small Sculpture Fellbach deals with the vitality of things. The exhibition "The Vibration of Things" raises fundamental questions of the present – questions that are central to our coexistence on this planet. Starting from the assumption that objects are vital, living, and bearing power vitality , artistic positions are presented that deal with socially highly topical questions of ownership, interconnectedness, resonance, restitution and responsibility.
Curated by Elke aus dem Moore together with Memory Biwa, Antje Majewski and Gabriel Rossell Santillán.
