Please join us this Saturday for an evening of outdoors readings/performances to celebrate the opening of Dark Advances: ‘Affect Aliens’ & Revolutionary Despair—a group show featuring works by Spiros Kokkonis, Candice Nembhard (okcandice), Kari Rosenfeld, Lou Lou Sainsbury and Kwamé Sorrell.

Readings/Performances by: Lucie de Bréchard, Toni Brell, Genevieve Costello, Danya, Jesse Darling, Susan Finlay, Céline Mathieu, Kari Rosenfeld, Anna Winslow.

Saturday 6 August
from 6pm

Motto Berlin
Salitzer Str. 68 (im Hinterhof)
10997 Berlin

Please note: Lou Lou Sainsbury’s new video work descending notes and sound piece The Law of Desire is Fascist made with Kari Rosenfeld and commissioned by Gasworks London will be showing all weekend as part of the installation. Visit the basement on Saturday and Sunday, between 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 pm.

Spiros Kokkonis was born in 1992 in Athens, Greece, where he currently lives and works. He is a long-distance runner and amateur boxer at S.P.C Amarousiou. In 2016 he co-founded the artist-run space Grace/ Athens. Spiros’ work is defined by a particular approach to materiality and openness to environment. Operating in a very specific context—politically, socially, and culturally—the artist creates images both influenced by and dealing with aspects of contemporary life. His surroundings being the subject and raison d’être of his practice, Spiros treats this environment as a never-ending material source. Through his process, he exploits preexisting forms and the meanings attached to them, making new images out of what has previously been made, said or done. Employing steel, aluminum, concrete, and appropriated material—a series of readymades (archives, spaces, images, sounds and objects) are being mixed, reformed and translated into images, sculptures, installations and videos that aim to imprint a personal say. A personal take on outer reality, wavering between feelings of embracement, hope, enmity and despair.

Spiros’ work has been exhibited at Athens Conservatoire, Parko Eleftherias, Art Space Pythagoreion, Saigon Athens, SHED London, Grace / Athens and Onassis Cultural Centre.

okcandice (one word, all lowercase) is a writer, artist-curator, poet and musician based between Birmingham, England and Berlin, Germany. Their multi-disciplinary practice is explained as «i’m working on it», dealing with grief, love, queer identities, oration in Black cultures and archival materials.

okcandice is a co-founding member of the collective poet & prophetess and founder of the queer film series ALL FRUITS RIPE. They previously worked as a co-producer for The R.A.P Party Berlin and currently run the project okcandice archive. Today, they host the experimental broadcast Bedtime Stories on Cashmere radio and work as a freelance curator, (song)writer and creative producer.

Kari Rosenfeld (b. Houston, TX) is an artist currently based in Berlin, Germany.  Kari’s work is focused on ontology, political and social affect, religious and mythological narratives, image, genre, and attachment. They have degrees in American Studies and Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin and graduated from Dutch Art Institute Masters of Art Praxis in 2021. They were a co-founder and Artist in Residence at the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Science—Alexandria where they facilitated courses in theory and visual media.

Lou Lou Sainsbury is a trans artist based in Margate, UK & Rotterdam, NL, working in live performance, video, writing, installation and textiles. She identifies as a time traveller, making things that unwrite histories of living beings into mythopoeic dreamscapes, informed by queer and ecological activisms. She often works in collaboration and develops long-term research-based projects through improvisation, collective study, material exploration and cinematic processes led by sonic thinking. Her work questions how we can become better listeners, and how bodies (human and more-than-human) can trouble historicity and geography, often writing tricksterish narratives for (im)possible worlds in the realm of science-fiction and gothic horror.

Recently graduated from the Dutch Art Institute, she was an associate artist at Open School East in 2017 after completing the BA in Moving Image at the University of Brighton in 2016. She was awarded Freelands Gasworks Partnership Programme (2021/22) and has exhibited individually at Gasworks, London (2022) and Well Projects, Margate (2020). Recent performances and group exhibitions include: Whitstable Biennale (2022), Centre for Contemporary Arts Prague (2021); Yaby and La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Nottingham Contemporary; Tate Modern, London; Yaby, Madrid (all 2019); and Flat Time House, London (2018).

Kwamé Sorrell (b. 1990) is an artist, poet, researcher and writer. Kwamé is co-founder of BlackMass Publishing, an independent press focusing on re/de/contextualizing black and African social vernacular through image and text. He lives and works under the sun. His work is rooted in language and form, as a way to explore the gap between art and tradition, music and sound, space and time; constantly in transition. (this bio is subject to change)

Please join us for a Book Presentation, Reading & Talk with Renée Thorne and Raimar Stange, at Motto Berlin.

Wednesday 27 July 2022
from 7pm

Motto Berlin
Skalitzer Str. 68 (im Hinterhof)
10997 Berlin

*Raimar Stange
Born 1960 in Hannover, Raimar Stange studied literature and philosophy. He works and lives in Berlin as a freelance critic and curator. Stange contributes regularly to Kunst-Bulletin, Zurich; Monopol, Berlin; artmagazine.cc, Vienna; Artist, Bremen and has written catalogue texts on, amongst others, Monica Bonvicini, Peter Friedl, Thomas Hirschhorn, Michel Majerus, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Silke Wagner, Johannes Wohnseifer and Stefanie von Schroeter. He curates exhibitions on climate change and post-democracy.

*Renée Thorne
Renée Thorne is an author and artist based in Basel, Switzerland. Her work spans from lyric essays and literary journalism to texts rooted in a performative practice. Renée recently finished an M.A. in Transdisciplinary Studies at Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and will begin teaching Creative Writing at Franklin University in the fall.

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Eurydice, Alive
Author: Renée Thorne
Publisher: art&fiction publications

Fusing essay, poetry and provocative prose, this hybrid work is an emotionally complex portrayal of loss and resurrection. The book ranges from memoir through myth to the overlapping lives of past artists in a fractal narrative traversing interior and exterior landscapes. In a brisk and unflinching account of the death of the narrator’s mother, the reader descends into the subterranean realms of grief as the loss unfurls into interconnected and unexpected stories of the underworld. From Eurydice’s indifferent return to Orpheus to a poet`s regret for the ghost that haunts him, each story is rich with the resonances in-between. Written in simple yet elegant prose, it is a story about emergence and the struggle to come alive. The result is a text as intense and urgent as the heartbeat the author is seeking.

Order the book here

Please join us for the presentation of Ingo Gerken: OFFENES BUCH, at Motto Berlin.

The artist will talk about the book, its ideas, problems and solutions with Jan Ketz (Raum für Zweckfreiheit, Berlin/Münster).

Saturday 9 July 2022
from 7pm

Motto Berlin
Skalitzer Str. 68 (im Hinterhof)
10997 Berlin

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Ingo Gerken: OFFENES BUCH
Texts by Eva May, Wolfgang Ullrich
Published by Hatje Cantz

Brilliant Bibliophilia

Ingo Gerken’s monographic catalogue literally opens a new chapter in his series of works, Bibliosculptures. Images of open exhibition publications or art magazines become the object of investigation here. Seemingly randomly opened book pages create a play of forces or connections between text, object, and image compositions. By depicting these views of books in the book, the medium itself is both the object and subject of analysis – typical of Gerken’s artistic practice.

INGO GERKEN (*1971) completed his studies of Fine Arts at Muthesius University in Kiel and studied Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art. He lives and works in Berlin.

Order the book here

Dear friends,

Motto and Sans titre (2016) are pleased to invite you to the opening of

« Retro »
a solo show by Robert Brambora

Saturday 2nd July, 2022
from 6pm

Motto Berlin
Skalitzer Str. 68 (im Hinterhof)
10997 Berlin


*The exhibition will be on view until 31.08.2022

Please join us to welcome artist duo and cultural association, HAWAPI, for a presentation of their publications and discussion with curator Harm Lux. 

Thursday 23rd June, 2022
from 7 to 9pm

Motto Berlin
Skalitzer Str. 68 (im Hinterhof)
10997 Berlin

7:00 until 7:45pm > HAWAPI introduce their work (intro by Harm Lux), followed by Audience Talk

7:50pm > Presentation of HAWAPI’s Publications

8:20pm > Open Discussion

*HAWAPI’S WORK PROCESS*

After some preliminary regional research, knowledge exchange and a get together, a concept grows and HAWAPI (Susie Quillinan & Maxim Holland) invite colleagues to participate in order to carry out artistic research and actions on site.

Two examples: In northern Peru, in the mountainous region of Sorochuco, lies the property of the weaver Maxima Acuna (family). The latter is now increasingly surrounded by Conga mining, a mining company that is not afraid to appropriate and privatise public water sources. Thirteen artists worked on site several times, and results were presented to the public.

In the “Pondores” project, 12 artists stayed – for longer periods of time – in the Colombian FARC transitional settlements to develop Empathy-building, playing and acting together with these young ex-combatants. 

We will also be presenting new publications from La Monja, books from Arequipa based artist- designer-theoretician, Sebastián Baudrand.

Order HAWAPI books here
Order La Monja books here

Please join us for a release party, listening session and conversation with Kristin Oppenheim, for her latest LP release, Voices Fill My Head, at Motto Berlin.

Friday 3 June 2022
from 6 to 9pm

Motto Berlin
Skalitzer Str. 68 (im Hinterhof)
10997 Berlin

7pm > Talk with Kristin Oppenheim and Adina Glickstein

8pm > Listening Session (musical selections from INFO and friends throughout the evening)

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Voices Fill My Head is Kristin Oppenheim’s second double LP release on the INFO label documenting her early sound works from the 1990s. Recorded between 1993 and 1999 in her Brooklyn studio this record features eight pieces composed solely of the artist’s voice. For listeners who were fond of Night Run Run, Oppenheim’s first release on the label, this record reveals yet another important chapter in Oppenheim’s oeuvre.

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Kristin Oppenheim is best known for installation art based in performance, film, and sound. She is represented by greengrassi in London and 303 Gallery in New York.

Oppenheim was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1959 and currently lives and works in New York City. Her work is included in public collections of the Art Foundation Mallorca Collection, CCA-Andratx in Mallorca; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the FNAC Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; the FRAC Des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou; MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; MAMCO Museum d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York.

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Order Voices Fill My Head (2LP) (PRE ORDER)
Order Night Run (2LP) (PRE ORDER)

Dear friends,

Please join us for the release of EVERYTHING LOOK BETTER WITH LOVE, artist book by MICHAËL SELLAM published by SALON DU SALON.

THURSDAY MAY 12th, at 7pm

In the presence of the publisher and friends.

MOTTO BERLIN
Skalitzer Str. 68, im Hinterhof
10997 Berlin

EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER WITH LOVE

The protocol for the production of the book EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER WITH LOVE published at Editions Salon du Salon is simple. There is a certain nonchalance, few gestures. These gestures directly question how a work is produced. The forms produced would have what Tristan Garcia calls an equal ontological dignity.

“We live in this world of things, where a cutting of acacia, a gene, a computer-generated image, a transplantable hand, a musical sample, a trademarked name, or a sexual service are comparable things”. (Tristan Garcia, Form and Object: A Treatise on Things, Edinburgh University Press, 2014, p. 1.)

It is a question of experimenting with a whole system of possible operations carried out with an unfailing form of love for things, gestures and beings.

—Michaël Sellam, Paris

SALON DU SALON is a project dedicated to contemporary art and a publishing house based in Marseille, France. Since December 2013, SALON DU SALON work with artists, authors and curators invited to develop proposals. Forms and development of collaboration are based upon the projects themselves, and have included, residencies, research, performance art, exhibition, publishing, and more.

Order the book here

Dear friends,

Please join us for the presentation of

Nervous Fossils: Syndromes of the Synthetic Nether
with the author Mochu, who will be reading excerpts from the book.

May 3rd at 7pm
@ Motto Berlin
Skalitzer Str. 68
10997, Berlin

Stationed around an art freeport megaproject in the Persian Gulf, and hopping across numerous locations real and fabricated, the book spins off into shadow-histories of synthetic colour production, abstruse citizenship schemes, nuclear warning signs, and syndromes leaking back from the future. During their idiosyncratic philosophical debates, the project employees gradually begin to sense a manic sensorium operating beneath their seemingly sterile financial and logistical systems. Troubles erupt while discussing works of art; futurist imaginaries of financialisation stumble upon the deep inertia of historical time preserved in museums and tombs. Monumental works of art pleasantly rotting in history enter into messy partnerships with volcanoes, hadopelagic planktons, and whimsical vibes of rich people. Stakes are endless while smiles are fake, as the debates swerve into the discreet horror of corporate gleefulness.

Mochu works with video and text arranged as installations, lectures, and publications. Techno-scientific fictions feature prominently in his practice, often overlapping with instances or figures drawn from art history and philosophy. Recent projects have explored mad geologies, psychedelic subcultures, and Indian Modernist painting. Mochu is a recipient of the Edith-Russ-Haus grant for Media Art and his practice has previously been supported by Ashkal Alwan, India Foundation for the Arts, and The Sarai Programme. Exhibitions include the 9th Asia-Pacific Triennial, Sharjah Biennial 13, 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, and Transmediale BWPWAP. He currently lives in Delhi and Istanbul.

Published by Reliable Copy in collaboration with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art.
Order the book here

Image by Adriana Preda.

We are pleased to invite you to “Mind The Gap”, the three-days-opening of the Cazul101 group show featuring works of Dan Perjovschi, Anca Bucur, artistic duo SABA (Silvia Amancei and Bogdan Armanu), Nicoleta Moise, Adriana Preda, Ioana Gheorghiu and Megan Dominescu.

28 April, at 6pm
@ Motto Berlin
Skalitzer Str. 68
10997, Berlin

Regularly using the subversive and progressive message in their practice, the artists are invited to reflect on the current political situation due to the high rise of extremist regimes in Europe and build a bridge between past and present, personal and political, highlighting the historical events that endangered the freedom of the individual.

The group show “Mind The Gap” is an alarm signal where image and text communicate to question and eradicate the toxic extremist behaviours experienced by the artists in the geographical space they develop their work.

After the three opening days, on 1st of May, from 7pm, the artist Dan Perjovschi will be present for an artist talk about the synthesis of the last years and the current situation in Europe.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Gaëlle Choisne
Book Launch and reading
•
Thursday, November 18, from 6:30pm
At Motto Berlin
•
With:
Lotte Arndt

Order the book here