14 August 2024
It/D, 2023, Lecture Performance, 25 min

Text and film are the result of Heike Baranowsky’s intensive study of the meridian line in the Roman church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The meridian was laid in front of the altar 320 years ago in order to take astronomical measurements and calculate the dates for Easter in advance. It was laid at a time when the geocentric view of the world was still the doctrine of the church. As an astronomical instrument, however, the meridian was able to prove the opposite.
The film shows the sunspot, or more precisely the image of the sun, as it moves across the floor and the furnishings of the church over the course of an entire year. The soundtrack, spoken live, describes the architectural, historical and political context as well as the narrator’s observations under the special conditions of the Covid pandemic and compares it with previous pandemics such as the Spanish flu.

CAMERA: Volker Gläser, Heike Baranowsky
TEXT: Ursula Rogg
SPEAKERS: Heike Baranowsky, Sophie Hüsler
POSTPRODUCTION: Volker Gläser
SOUNDMIX: Titus Maderlechner

14 to 28 August 2024

Franz Ackermann, Heike Baranowsky, Baatarzorig Batjargal, Nomin Bold, Badam Dashdondog, Karl-Heinz Jeron, Simone Körner, Munguntsetseg Lhagvasuren, A.R. Penck, Nadine Rennert, Tuguldur Yondonjamts, Dalkh-Ochir Yondonjunai,

From July 26 to August 15, 2024, artists have the opportunity to participate in an Art Camp in Mongolia.

During the first three days in Ulaanbaatar, we will visit the Zanabazar-Museum and the Chinggis Khaan National Museum and meet with curators and artists to learn more about Mongolia’s cultural background, which is characterized by Tengrism, Buddhism, Khanate cultures and shaman traditions that are still alive in a post-nomadic republic and give women a stronger role in gender relations.

The Art Camp will be set up near a nomadic ger village located near Bayannur in Bulgan province, halfway between Ulaanbaatar and Kharakhorum.

The stay will take place in gers (Mongolian traditional yurts), far away from electricity and water connections. From there, historical sites and sacred mountains will be visited, as well as the old capital Kharakhorum. During this time, the participants share the nomadic-style yurts. No electricity, no running water, sleeping and eating together in the gers (with an occasional break in the next settlement for refreshments).

From August 14 to 28, an exhibition will be held at the Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum featuring the works created during the Art Camp.

A MONTH OF SINGLE FRAMES

Lynne Sachs with and for Barbara Hammer, U.S., 2019, 14 min

In 1998, filmmaker Barbara Hammer had an artist residency in a shack without running water or electricity. While there, she shot film, recorded sounds and kept a journal.  In 2018, Barbara began her own process of dying by revisiting her personal archive. She gave all of her images, sounds and writing from the residency to filmmaker Lynne Sachs and invited her to make a film with the material.  Through her own filmmaking, Lynne explores Barbara’s experience of solitude. She places text on the screen as a confrontation with a somatic cinema that brings us all together in multiple spaces and times.

Heike Baranowsky, It/D, 2023, Lecture Performance, 25 min

Text und Film ist das Ergebnis der intensiven Beschäftigung von Heike Baranowsky mit dem Meridian in der römischen Kirche Santa Maria degli Angeli. Die Meridianlinie wurde vor 320 Jahren vor dem Altar, verlegt, um astronomische Messungen vorzunehmen und die Daten für Ostern im voraus zu berechnen. Sie wurde zu einer Zeit verlegt als das geozentrische Weltbild noch Doktrin der Kirche war. Als astronomisches Instrument konnte der Meridian jedoch das Gegenteil beweisen.

Der Film zeigt den Sonnenfleck, präziser das Bild der Sonne, wie es über den Fußboden und die Einrichtung der Kirche über ein ganzes Jahr hinweg wandert. Die Tonspur, live gesprochen, beschreibt neben dem architektonischen, historischen und politischen Kontext auch die Beobachtungen der Erzählerin unter den speziellen Bedingungen der Covid Pandemie und vergleicht diese mit Vorgängerpandemien wie der Spanische Grippe. 

22 June – 29 September 2024

Franz Ackermann, Heike Baranowsky, Baatarzorig Batjargal, Munkhtsetseg Batmunkh, Nomin Bold, Enkhzaya Erdenebileg, Gerelkhuu Ganbold, Karl Heinz Jeron, Simone Körner, A.R. Penck, Nadine Rennert, Dashdemed Sampil, Narbaysgalan Ulambayar. Musik: Chinbat Orkhonbaatar, Tanz: Tsatral Tumendemberel

The exhibition uses selected works of art to convey key aspects of the nomadic culture of Mongolia’s understanding of nature.
At the centre of the exhibition is “The Great Blue Sky” – an element of Mongolian culture that has shaped its identity to this day and refers to the principle of a shapeless sky god in Tengrism.
This principle is visualised in Bronze Age rock paintings in the Altai Mountains, which present the forces of nature in shamanic symbols. The exhibition contrasts this with the cosmologies of A.R. Penck, who translates a post-communist, fraying world into sign systems. Instead of contextualising the material aesthetics of Joseph Beuys with Mongolian shamanism as before, the exhibition focuses on the forces of nature in Mongolia’s visual memory, which come into conflict with the effects of modernity.
Further influences on contemporary Mongolian art are fed by Lamaism, which is still visually powerful today.

Bronzezeitliche tengrisch-schamanische Steinritzungen im Altai Gebirge. © Unesco Altai Mountain