Fr, 29.11.2024, 19:00 und/and Sa, 07.12.: 15:00-19.00 Gespächsrunde/Talk: 17:00-19:00
Freienwalder Str. 31
13359 Berlin
Close To The Edge
Group Show
Performances ab/from 20:30: “Axe” Catherine Lorent, sound performance; “Blockiert” DJ Sporty Jack aka Matthias Mayer, music performance
Intro:
Since 2005, quotes from past decades (mostly from the 1980s) have been the title of the annual One Night Group Shows at the end of November in Spor Klübü. Other projects, especially the pandemic, had led to a 4-year break in this exhibition format. Last year the thread was resumed with the exhibition “Zero Tolerance” and 135 participating artists. With 189 artists participating this time, the density of works in the exhibition space is again significantly increased.
“Close To The Edge”
The 1980s, the last decade of the Cold War, is characterized by the threat of violent disputes in the East-West conflict with initially rearmament and later disarmament, the opening up to the Eastern Bloc up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of neoliberalism, the actor Ronald Reagan as American president for two terms, the beginning of the era of Chancellor Kohl. A whole weird decade often on the edge. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious rapped in 1982 in their hook line: “Don’t push me ’cause I’m close to the edge – I’m trying not to lose my head – It’s like a jungle sometimes – It makes me wonder how I keep from going under”. They bring the social criticism of the black, marginalized and oppressed population into hip-hop as proof of failed politics.
Switch. Over four decades later. Once again, an American re-elected President Trump enters his second term. With a sense of victory that can no longer be averted, he proclaims a coming golden age of America and a return to former greatness at the expense of the poor, the weak, those who think and live differently, women and migrants. The Ampelcoalition in Germany is falling apart. War and the Cold War are already making a comeback in Europe. The world is unsafe. Propaganda and lies instead of truths. Violent intimidation as normality. The law of the strong. Fascists are warming up. Will the punished attackers of the storming of the Capitol in January 2021 soon be pardoned?
Will the 1980s get a revival that will be even closer to the edge?
Matthias Mayer