Demokratie heute – Probleme der Repräsentation (Democracy Today – Problems of Representation) 28 March – 4 July 2021 Maschinenhaus M1 Pierre Bismuth, Claus Föttinger, Julia Lazarus, Erik van Lieshout, Marina Naprushkina, Oliver Ressler, Anja Schrey, Jonas Staal, Joulia Strauss Artists from The Hope Project, Moria Raha Amiri, Attaullah, Javad Emami, Fereshteh, Nazgol Golmuradi, Sahar Haqpana, Sara Hossini, Mohammad Jafari, Sara Juddin, Joseph Kangi, Senait Lelisa, Masoumeh, Ommolbanin, Rehab, Murtaza Safari, Sima, Jean-Paul Waroma, Batol Yasim Assembly RST Peter Friedl, Dieter Froelich, Bhima Griem, Nadira Husain, Daniel Johnston, Shila Khatami, Anna Meyer, Peter Niemann, Dan Perjovschi, Elizabeth Peyton, Markus Schinwald, Stefanie von Schroeter, Markus Uhr, Silke Wagner, Johannes Wohnseifer, Christine Würmell Many existing democracies around the world are in a crisis: Basic freedoms and options for political participation are being restricted—not least due to the growing influence of so-called global players. The mode of “voting only once every few years” is also leading to a kind of “democratic fatigue syn- drome” (David Van Reybrouck). No less problematic is the danger of right-wing populism as an answer to globalization and the resulting social and environmental degradation for large sections of the population. The exhibition Demokratie heute – Probleme der Repräsentation (Democracy Today – Problems of Representation) takes the vulnerability of the basic democratic order as its starting point. It illuminates problem areas such as the mediatisation of politics and the tension between inclusion and exclusion in decision-making processes. Furthermore, it reflects on new forms of political participation and the relationship between extra-parliamentary protest and official politics. In his series Abstractions (2019), Pierre Bismuth combines two flags of nation states into a single new flag in the context of the crisis in asylum policy. One of the two sampled flags represents the refugees’ country of origin, and the other the country in Europe to which they are fleeing. Bismuth’s new flags no longer represent a clear nationhood, but rather suggest hybrid identities. Erik van Lieshout’s work Untitled (2017) is based on a media photo in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former US President Donald Trump are standing at a lectern in front of the flags of both countries. In this historical picture, the politicians’ faces appear to be deformed into comic grimaces, which seem to reveal Merkel’s strategic politeness as well as Trump’s anti-intellectual populism. Thanks to support from the NGO The Hope Project, 22 works by artists from the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos will be presented in a St. Petersburg hanging. With their seemingly naive stories, the pictures that were created there in an open studio point to the failure of the refugee policy of Western democracies. At the same time, they cast doubt on the claim of “professional aca- demic” art as the only possible form of art that can be exhibited. Assembly RST, which was conceived as a brainstorming session, expands the project by taking up different aspects of the exhibition in free association. The works by the sixteen international artists pose fundamental questions on the subject of democracy today, such as the question of the monopoly on violence, lobbyism, and the politics of symbols. In an almost documentary style, Julia Lazarus’s video work Die Befragung der Bundesregierung (2021) reveals how the culture of discussion in the German Bundestag has changed noticeably with the arrival of the AfD after the 2018 Bundestag election. Rioting by AfD supporters who had been smuggled into the Bundestag was the reason for the debate shown here. The focus of Tribute to Sista Mimi (2019), a video work by the artist Joulia Strauss, is the musician Sista Mimi, who was a notable figure in the Refugee Strike Movement before her untimely death. The stereoscopic video shows demonstrations against the refugee policy in 2012 on the streets of Berlin and is accompanied by a protest song against German arms exports performed by Sista Mimi and the group Antinational Embassy. In the sound work Arche (2020/21) by Anja Schrey, students from a Berlin integration course imitate the sounds of animals in their lative languages—for example, a rooster’s crow in Japanese, Italian, and Lithuanian. The non-verbal, mutual understanding overcomes language barriers and connects the students in their empathy toward non-human nature. Claus Föttinger’s installation veldt & ocean reloaded (2000 – 2021) presents a bar that normally serves as a place of enjoyment and communication. For Demokratie heute, the artist developed an updated version, since the Covid-19 pandemic has made such a use impossible. Föttinger uses collages and photographs that deal with Germany’s recent political history, among other topics. He contrasts these with pictures from the world of film and journalism. Here the usual entertainment in a bar is transformed into a critical "politainment". In his passionate and partisan documentary films Anubumin (2017, with Zanny Begg), Emergency Turned Upside-Down (2016), In the Red (2014, with Ana Pečar), The Right of Passage (2013, with Zanny Begg), and his work EU Poster Project (2004), the activist and artist Oliver Ressler discusses political issues such as imperialist globalisation, asocial neoliberalisation, and the energetic resistance to these trends. The Right of Passage, for example, deals with the concept of citizenship, which always also entails the principle of exclusion and is thus dangerously close to nationalism. Marina Naprushkina is showing two wall works that deal with the “post-national” protests against the Lukashenko government in Belarus since the summer of 2020. The text work Ich möchte eine Präsidentin (2020) is a tribute to the musician and activist Maria Kalesnikava, who is imprisoned in Belarus, and also a reference to a text by the feminist artist Zoe Leonard. The canvases in Die Stärke der Schwäche (2020 – 2021) quote slogans from the demonstrations. Posters with flowers point to the numerous female demonstrators in Minsk who held flowers in their hands as a sign of peaceful protest. The installation New World Summit Rojava (2015 – 2018) by Jonas Staal consists of photographs, a video, and an architectural model. It presents the work of a parliament conceived and ultimately built by the artist, his studio, and the group Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava, which follows the principle of stateless democracy in the Rojava region of northern Syria. The focus is on aspects such as local self-government, gender equality, and a communal (not neoliberal, globalised) economy. The accompanying publication is being produced in cooperation with Florian Malzacher (author, curator, and dramaturg, Berlin) and will take the form of a newspaper, a medium that contributes to democratic decision-making. Curated by Raimar Stange Supported by Thanks to The Hope Project Greece KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art Am Sudhaus 3, 12053 Berlin, www.kindl-berlin.de Opening hours: Wed 12 – 8 pm, Thu – Sun 12 – 6 pm .