Tupacproject consists of the construction of a monument dedicated to Tupac Amaru Shakur, the Black Panther rapper who died in 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas Valley.

Since the opening exhibition at the Marta Herford Museum in 2005, it has stood imperturbably in front of the Gehry architecture: the life-size sculpture by Tupac Shakur.

Raised on a nearly 5 m high pedestal and with arms folded behind, shirtless and eyes lowered, the life-size monument by the Italian artist Paolo Chiasera (*1978, Bologna) is one of the first works of art that the visitors* even before entering look into Marta. And meanwhile it has become an integral part of the “museum skyline”.

For many, however, the presence of the gangsta rapper in Herford remains a mystery, as does the German rapper Marteria, who visited the Tupac statue together with rap colleague Casper last summer. Marteria lost a €50 bet because he doubted the existence of a Tupac statue in Herford.

With contributions from Lorenzo Benedetti, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pier Luigi Tazzi.

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Through the work on a collective publication, differently located artists (Marseille and Frankfurt) meet within the realm of literary expression. The writing of prosaic, autofictional/autobiographic texts, as well as poems with the emphasis of the localization of one’s own identity, feministic and general political themes, is the starting point of the planned publication. 

This writing, that is part of their whole artistic practice, is what connects the four participating artists. Hereby text seems to be a meaningful media of connection. In the context of the release of the publication, two readings have taken place at Voiture 14 in Marseilles and at saasfee*pavillon in Frankfurt am Main between March and June 2023. 

The Publication itself, as well as the readings, aspire to transport the intimate, to share something private, and through that question a private and political reality. The interdisciplinary practice of the participating artists, that combine in performance, sculpture, photography, social artistic practice in public spaces, music-production and more, will show not only in the format of the readings but also in the publication itself. The publication is no classical book, but rather a collection, a personal archive of text, memory and emotion (anger, lust, grief, sorrow, empathy and tenderness). 

The goal of the project is, to balance (geographic) distance, through the confrontation with similar themes from different perspectives. The reality of life stays different, but a speaking tube appears, a connecting aspect – through the constant, careful perceiving of one’s own reality and the digesting through the writing process. 

Handmade in an edition of 80.

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Dear friends,

We are happy to invite you to Cults and Culture on Thursday, July 13th from 7:00 PM, a talk by Alex Head in which the author will discuss his book Ricochet – Cultural Epigenetics and the Philosophy of Change (Ljå Forlag, Oslo, 2021).

Reflecting on discoveries and debates that have occurred in the two years since its publication, artist Alex Head will read from current works in progress to highlight specific aspects within his ambitious book 
Ricochet to discuss the architecture of power.

It is now well documented that cults have been used to disseminate disinformation. For example the extremist cults of MAGA, The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who’s recruitment pipeline has been funded by Big Oil and crypto libertarians in an attempt to overthrow the United States and 
crash their and the world’s economy.

But what about the arts more widely, is there a form of culture that is transparent about its ideology, particularly in today’s hyper-accelerate media vortex? Are all cultural institutions not also in some way cultish? The cult of patriarchy being just one obvious example that transcends both religious and cultural institutions.

Focussing on specific evidence of how cults have been used to spread disinformation and other historical data the artist will discuss the central motif to his work Ricochet, – the Sacred Date Palm Tree – as a expression of the anti-rhizome. Are we, the unwitting public being continuously gaslit by Sacred Date Palm tree’s in the form of neoclassical architecture? And if so, what can we do to review and 
refocus personal and political objectives as users navigate the web architecture of the app?

Join us at Motto Berlin on Thursday, 13th of July for an insightful talk where we will explore the profound themes of Ricochet and run across topics like January 6th, Classical Architecture, White Supremacy, BND Building Berlin, Mental Health, Libertarianism, Bitcoin, Gold Standard, Going Offline, Art, Publishing, Design, Cultural Epigenetics, Memory, Witnessing and Social Media.

–

Alex Head

Ljå Forlag

Lo Yuen Yi is an artist that is hard to define. She specialises in using text to document artists and their creative endeavours and using drawing to deconstruct and reconstruct both words and concepts. Traces is divided into two parts—words and drawings—but the same questions underlie the two: who am I? What is art? What is the essence of memories? Each question is independent yet intertwined. 



The drawings are a collection of pencil sketches, including portraits of a hand, mad women speaks featuring frames, work in progress which records the making of a hardbound book, cosmos-shells unearthed in my garden collecting shells from soil, tools Dad remade with tools as the subject etc. From defining oneself, to symbols of doubt, to capturing the broken traces left by memories. 



The words are made up of seven essays which start with a discussion about the space for creativity and end at fixation on cities. As everything disappears, Lo asks: what are memories? Are there any left? In response, she replies:



The meaning of memory is within each person’s experience

It has its own language

Your memories are not mine

My memories are not bigger than his or hers


Pages: 2 books, 170 pages in total with 4 postcards

Binding: Pamphlet binding & Saddle-stitching

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The photographs that are included in this book form part of the archive of the photographer Alberto Flores Varela. The majority were taken on commission by the Sociedad de Cuauhtémoc y Famosa (SCyF), an institution established in 1918 for Cervecería Cuauhtémoc (Cuauhtémoc Brewing Company), a company that marked the foundation of modern Monterrey. It´s worth noting that the context of those years was of revolution. The business´ elite was threatened by the labor rights included in the new constitution of 1917, which featured the right to strike. This is how the “most fortunate” workers of modern Monterrey were domesticated. It was thus decided to sacrifice freedom of expression, free association, and democratic representation of the workers, among other rights, in exchange for maintaining employment in “the company.” This book depicts the first flash of restrained disillusionment: ¨forever loyal.¨These images represent the seed of the social order that was established in many industrial cities around the world. 
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Las fotografías que integran este libro forman parte del archivo del fotógrafo Alberto Flores Varela y la mayoría fueron tomadas por encargo de la Sociedad Cuauhtémoc y Famosa (SCyF), institución creada en 1918 por Cervecería Cuauhtémoc, empresa fundadora del Monterrey moderno. Cabe recordar que el contexto de aquellos años era de revolución. La élite empresarial se encontraba totalmente amenazada por la cartera de derechos laborales contenidos en la nueva constitución de 1917, que incluía el derecho a huelga. Callados, en la mesa familiar, sonriendo, levantando un poco más la botella, no tanto, ¡no se muevan! Así fueron domesticados los trabajadores “más afortunados” del Monterrey moderno. Estas imágenes representan la simiente del orden social que acabó por instalarse en muchas ciudades industriales del orbe. Así se decidió sacrificar la libertad de expresión, la libre asociación y la representación democrática de los trabajadores, entre otros derechos, a cambio de conservar el empleo en “la compañía”.

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Korazon #1
a sensual and political magazine

With KORAZON, we want to dive into topics previously discussed by Amauta’s writers within the current context of cultural activities no longer being subsidized by the government, but rather turned into for-profit projects. In this mag, we want to show how crucial identity and collective culture are to a country and how important it is to invest in us as a multicultural territory. This platform’s aim is to bring attention to issues that affect us as Peruvians, especially those that we hardly emphasize and pinpoint as oppressive or holding us back as a community.

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