Ultrasanity

On Madness, Sanitation, Antipsychiatry and Resistance

In the exhibition 'Ultrasanity' western scientific methods and perspectives of mental health are questioned. In their works, the participating artists examine (mis)conceptions of psychopathologies by situating them in the context of coloniality, racialization, objectification, and patriarchal oppression. The exhibited works deal with the claustrophobic structures imposed in particular by educational systems. Through poetics of collective engagement, they explore various possibilities of resistance to social normalization.

Research, Performance and Exhibition

The exhibition is part of a research, performance and exhibition project. Over the course of a year, SAVVY Contemporary, together with clinicians, artists, patients, cognitive scientists, scholars and practitioners, explored the various grammars of violence inscribed in universal therapeutic models and the pharmacologization of care still practiced today. The artists' works are presented at the ifa Gallery Berlin and at SAVVY Contemporary. Visitors are confronted with traumas and fears of expulsion and poisoning. The potential of certain forms of delirium beyond a romanticism of madness will be explored. Also, community engagement and the spiritual, systemic, cross-generational histories are given a fundamental meaning in the formulation of healing methods.

Curators

Elena Agudio and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung

Co-curator

Kelly Krugman

Participating artists at ifa Gallery Berlin

Leo Asemota
Virginia Chihota
Jaswant Guzder
Eva Kot’átková
Tracey Rose

Participating artists SAVVY Contemporary

John Akomfrah
Ulf Aminde
Yassine Balbzioui
M’Barek Bouhchichi
Virginia Chihota
Larisa Crunțeanu
Alessandra Eramo
Lukas Hofmann
Immy Mali
Teresa Margolles
Nathalie Mazeas
Lavar Munroe
Adjani Okpu-Egbe
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
Javier Tellez

Exhibition at ifa Gallery Berlin: 14 December 2019 – 9 February 2020
Exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary: 15 December 2019 – 26 January 2020

A project by SAVVY Contemporary in collaboration with ifa Gallery Berlin, the Association of Neuroesthetics, the Gnaoua Festival (Morocco) and Picha Art Lubumbashi (DRC)
The project is funded by the TURN Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes), the Foundation of Arts Initiative, and Association of Neuroesthetics (AoN Berlin).