Joanna Warsza, Marina Naprushkina, Aleksander Komarov, and Nikolay Karabinovych, Anna Chistoserdova (moderator)

The title of the discussion refers to the work of artist Marina Naprushkina, in which she runs through different landscapes and manifests for an inclusive, non-exploitative future. The modern world is highly mobile. However, the conditions of this mobility are not equal, but separated by social, economic, ethnic boundaries. The experience of digital nomadism of IT professionals differs from the experience of exclusion of those who flee from political persecution, fleeing wars and authoritarian regimes, ethnic groups that face demonization and discrimination. The discussion asks questions: how do artists work with the theme of migration, make the experience of "the other" more visible, and build infrastructures of help and support to secure a future for all? And also how the experience of the life of artists which can also be described as nomadic can be comprehended in a situation of migration crisis?

Participants: 

1. Joanna Warsza is the co-curator of the Polish Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale, an interdependent curator, Program Director of CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts in Stockholm, and an editor of more than ten publications in the fields of art, politics, the public sphere or performativity. She was an artistic director of Public Art Munich from 2016 to 2018. Her other curatorial projects include the Göteborg Biennal, Göteborg, 2013 and, as associate curator, the 7th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, 2012. Originally from Warsaw, she lives in Berlin.

2. Marina Naprushkina is an artist, feminist and activist. Her diverse artistic practice includes video, performance, drawings, installation, and text. Her work engages with current political and social issues. Naprushkina is mostly working outside of institutional spaces, in cooperation with communities and activist organizations. Naprushkina is focusing on creating new formats, structures, and organizations based on self-organization overlap in theory and practice. 2013 Naprushkina initiated the initiative Neue Nachbarschaft/Moabit. The initiative grew up to one of the largest initiatives in Berlin and build up a strong community of people with and without migrant and refugee background. Naprushkina was awarded the ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture (2017) and the Sussmann Artist Award (2015). Naprushkina participated a.o. at the Kyiv Biennale (2017), the 7th Berlin Biennale (2011), 11th International Istanbul Biennale (2009).

3. Aleksander Komarov is a visual artist based in Berlin. From 2000 to 2010 was a member of the Kunst & Complex artists’ initiative in Rotterdam. He is the co-founder and Art Director of the Artistic Research Program and International Residence Air Berlin Alexanderplatz. Aleksander is co-founder of Pxflux, a media platform to present time-based artworks. He has been teaching contemporary art and interdisciplinary practices at NYU Berlin since 2018. Aleksander’s works have been presented internationally at different venues of contemporary art, including Hot Docs International Documentary Festival in Toronto (2008), The Way of the Shovel at the MCA Chicago (2013), and the Istanbul Biennial (2007).

4. Nikolay Karabinovych lives and works between Antwerp, Amsterdam and Kyiv. The artist engages with a variety of media, including video, sound, text, and performance. In 2020 and 2018, he was awarded the first PinchukArtCentre Special Prize. In 2021 he graduated from the Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK) in Ghent. In 2017, Karabinovych was an assistant curator of the 5th Odessa Biennale. His work has been shown at M HKA (Antwerp, BE), PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, UA), Jewish Museum of Belgium (BE), Museum of Modern Art, Odesa (UA). In his artistic practice, Karabinovych addresses complex social (hi)stories, particularly those from the expanses of Eastern Europe combining them with personal family narratives. In his work, which questions notions of identity, belonging and exclusion, the artist often refers to music, which plays an important role in his practice. He revisits epochal songs, genres and personalities and uses their ability to illuminate a different era in a different climate or socio-political arena.

5. Anna Chistoserdova (moderator) is an art manager, curator based in Berlin since 2021. She is the managing partner and co-founder of two independent galleries, Podzemka and Ў gallery of contemporary art in Minsk, as well as the  co-founder, manager, and curator of the NGO Ambasada Kultury based in Vilnius. She manages the perspAKTIV project, a program of art residencies in Germany and Poland for Belarusian culture workers. Her interests include contemporary art, socially engaged art, international cultural cooperation, and cultural policy