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A Melancholic Complicity, at Sternschuppen in the Pavillon der Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
by Giovanni Casu.
in collaboration with Sternschuppen, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Gebaude Galleria Moderna, Dirty Jewels.
With artworks by Turbojambon, Dirty Jewels, and Giovanni Casu
In her 2015 lecture "I Dreamed a Dream: Politics in the Age of Art Mass Production" at HKW, Hito Steyerl asks how an elitist activity became a mainstream lifestyle. A curious event helps to approach this question. In the August 2024 heatwave, intensified by anthropogenic climate change, a six-by-four-meter stratum of spray paint, layered over a decade in Prenzlauer Berg, collapsed like a thick, wet carpet before hardening again. This graffiti fordite recalls the slime in Ghostbusters II, embodying collective urban energy. Historically, industrial fordite, also called Detroit Agate, formed in car factories from overspray and was later used as costume jewelry. Similarly, city walls accumulate layers of acrylic, creating sedimentary archives of symbolic contestation. Berliner graffiti writers exemplify the struggle for artistic existence, operating largely outside institutional frameworks while navigating risk and precarity. Graffiti fordite reflects globalized hip-hop culture, neoliberal competition, and localized rituals of survival. Its aesthetic is inseparable from its conditions of production, performing late capitalism. Ephemeral tags are erased yet persist digitally. Visibility comes at a price, as rebellious energy is mediated by the structures it once opposed. The process depends on infrastructural permission, requiring local density and institutional tolerance. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of illusio describes this affective complicity, the belief that the game is worth playing and that symbolic rewards are real.
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Patrick Jambon' artwork description: A list of art openings in Berlin created by the performance artist Patrick Jambon, who uses the pseudonym Turbojambon.
Functionally, the list is a daily, meticulously researched itinerary of contemporary art gallery openings across the German capital. Patrick Jambon began his non-stop performance art piece approximately 25 years ago. Compiled daily from various sources and transcribed manually onto paper, the list formalizes the artist’s movement from one exhibition opening to the next, transforming the act of culture consumption into the subject of the artwork itself.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Pavillon der Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Germany
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
