patricia@aestheticmanagement.com

///THE MOMENTAL -Curatorial platform for Presentation May 2006, Sparwasser HQ, Berlin. Exhibition, workshop & event platform questioning the situation of the non-monumental in the production of everyday life. Concept: Patricia Reed “ Through all the changes ‘something’ remains – that something is the moment…no sociological or historical determination can adequately define this temporality…its wish is to reinstate discontinuity, grasping it in the very fabric of the lived.” – Henri Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life Vol. II The Momental (Moment + Monumental) is a hybrid term, re-coined to open up a spatio-temporal territory encompassing the ephemeral instants and spaces that inscribe our everyday experience. The Monument freezes time, casting itself as a enduring memory that punctuates public space for our common reflection. Our everyday experience, on the other hand, is forever writing itself, residing in a phenomenal and unmeasurable temporality. The hybrid space of The Momental, then, seeks to mingle the personal and fleeting with the grandiose and enduring, setting up a polarity - where oppositions can collide, and act upon one another. The space of The Momental, recognizes the conflict of co-present temporalities – that of the mechanic and that of personal, and seeks to examine forms where a negotiation of the two can be played out. Given the hybrid nature of the concept, it seems only fitting to create a platform that, in itself, takes on a composite form. Shifting away from the monumental idea of the exhibition, The Momental will function both as a site of display and as a site of production/participation. Through an exhibition programme, coupled with ongoing events and workshops, the contents of the gallery will continually be rewritten – responsive to the activities and processes that comprise the platform. The Momental, as such, adopts the mentality of an event in process, where the activities inherent to its trajectories leave residues and become part of the exhibition. The gallery, in this case acts as an attractor, a meeting point – though fragments of activities and work will permeate the walls and seep back into the public space, engaging another type of surprise spectatorship. The contents of the gallery literally “leak” out side its confines, while participation from the outside can reciprocate and leak back in again. Exhibition: The Momental, as an exhibition focuses on artists whose work starts with a highly subjective perspective, yet whose form opens itself up to the experience of others. The works in the exhibition, in a general level, play within the conflicting realms of temporality outlined above (mechanical and phenomenal) through performative processes suggesting a meta-narrative. Selected artists: Germaine Koh (CA), Jeff Preiss (US), Åsa Ståhl (SE), Larissa Fassler (CA), Ivana Franke (HR) and Stephan Kurr (DE). Works in the Exhibition: To be released at a later date "Leaky gallery" Partners/Projects Jeff Preiss: Fragments of Film clips to be broadcast intermittently on Local TV– partnership pending Åsa Ståhl: Fragments of Tape Salads to be played intermittently onRadio – partnership pending Germaine Koh: Tagespiegel Stephan Kurr: Erste Entscheidung readiings as Radio Broadcast Workshops The Transient Institution – Institute of Urban Memory Markus Miessen (Architect, DE/UK) will conduct a two-day outdoor workshop on the marginalized spaces within Berlin. Key concepts include: -Utilising the potential of the urban void. Rather than colonising it, the interaction will stress the importance of these urban sites as activators for micro-political and spontaneous activity -Investigate the potential of a transient institution as a temporary host for individual items of urban memory. Participants will: -Receive an Urban Research Kit and follow the structure of a one-day brief (either individually or teamed up in pairs). This Kit will be distributed about a week before the meeting at Sparwasser, so there will be enough time for participants to explore the terrain and collect their findings -Collect physical objects, talk to strangers and set up a reference for their micro-urban archaeology -Document their findings using different media of their choice (photographic, written, verbal recorded, MiniDV) -Leave physical traces on site, as focal points of micro-political action in the city, scattered reminders of urban life -Leave memories/ exchange memories/ take memories with you...and refer to their new/ temporary home -Return to Sparwasser HQ and present and discuss their findings in an informal manner, stimulating discussion and debate regarding the spaces they travelledSparwasser HQ is a non-commercial artist run space. Interested in open, process-orientated participation, it is ultimately a platform for communication, where theory and practice, production and communication, politics and aesthetics collide as a form of alternative knowledge production. Erste Entscheidung Stephan Kurr in collaboration with Jürgen Krusche will also be conducting a presentation and city walk workshop. Details to be later announced. Dr. Mark Paterson (UK/AU) Web streaming video lecture and discussion from Australia Sensuousness and the everyday in measured space: haptic architectures http://www.ggy.bris.ac.uk/haptics Dr Christel Weiler + Research Guests Lecture on Performativity (abstract pending) http://www.sfb-performativ.de/ Discussion list to be published at a leter date