Please join us Friday, October 11th at 7 pm for the opening reception of 'From The Portfolio Of Freewill'
Nural Moser with Alessandro Rauschmann, Natalia Korotyaeva
Curated by Georgie Pope
Vernissage: Friday 11 October 2019, 19 – 22 H, performance at 21:30. Afterparty from 22 H with Bendik Giske (Powerline Agency), Dj Habibti, Naim and Panasiagirl (No Shade)
Running time: 11 October – 1 November 2019
Exgirlfriend Gallery, Lankwitzer Str. 14, 12107 Berlin
Female identity and empowerment under political, religious and gender power structures is the exploration of the next project on view at Exgirlfriend from 11.10 – 01.11 2019. Titled "From The Portfolio Of Freewill", curator Georgie Pope has focused on veiling as the specific tool for exhibition making, birthed from the visual language that is often synchronized in the works of Nural Moser (b. Vienna)."From The Portfolio Of Freewill" will feature new and existing video works as well as a performance during the show’s opening, by the German-Russian duo Alessandro Rauschmann and Natalia Korotyaeva.
“Freedom is not defined by Safety – Safety is defined by Freedom”. Under this code of conduct, Nural Moser started her ongoing project “Safety Travelling” in 2016. With lavatory selfies, Moser documents her airplane travels while varying her cultural garb with her persona as the veiled woman. Raised in Austria, Moser’s practice is informed by the story of her Syrian father, who migrated to Vienna in the late 1970s. There he met Moser’s Austrian mother in the feminist center of Vienna’s squatted cultural venue WUK. The crossing of Eastern and Western borders, as well as institutional authority, is thus a natural topic for Moser. Exhibited at Exgirlfriend will be selected “Safety Travelling” selfies and video works such as “Evet until Hajir” (“Yes until No”), in which Moser examines political codes communicated by society. Her concepts deal with humanism, political philosophy, inclusive feminism and sexual sensitive reading of religious writings.
The 21.30 H performance by Rauschmann and Korotyaeva is being newly conceived, as a gestural interpretation of the Email and WhatsApp correspondence that has unfolded during the research and art-making phase of their project. Pope has provided source material for further discussion, raising issues such as cultural appropriation, exoticization, and the risk of commodifying the identities of the oppressed.
As a continuation of the exhibition’s exploration, "From The Portfolio Of Freewill" will also include an afterparty on location from 22:00 H with live music acts. Bendik Giske (Powerline Agency) will transition the exhibition into the afterparty, using his saxophone with physicality, vulnerability and endurance as tools for expression. Non-binary rapper and producer Naim will also perform live, with DJ Habibti and Panasiagirl (No Shade) continuing the afterparty with a genre-bending exploration including RnB, arab, dancehall, hybrid club, trance and rave.
Georgie Pope is Curator of Independent Collectors, the non-commercial global guide to private collections of contemporary. Born in Australia and based in Berlin, Pope is also an art mediator at Berlin’s Boros Collection. In curating exhibitions, her interests lie in further activation of artists’ practices through experimental programming and public engagement.
All are welcome to stay late and join in the portfolio of freewill!