Vlatka Horvat

Venue: HAU1

With Vlatka Horvat, Bani Abidi, Candice Breitz, Hana Yoo, Iz Öztat, Marina Naprushkina, Season Butler

from 15:00: Tatreez Berlin: Embroidering together against the heartbreak

Part of “Love is a Verb #2”

What do personal photos reveal about social upheavals and changes? For “Before What Came After,” artist and performance maker Vlatka Horvat invites a group of international artists living in Berlin to a live encounter: In doing so, they share personal images and stories from their archives and interweave them with reflections on migration, diaspora and change.

An improvised performance that unfolds within a rule-based structure creates joint perspectives and dialogues about the past, present and future — and about the possibilities of everyday resistance. Horvat and her guests draw on their experiences of living in countries that have experienced some form of collapse, upheaval or instability. The photos they show — everyday scenes, objects and places — become starting points for stories, observations and speculation. In the course of the performance, diverse yet interrelated experiences of immigration and diaspora enter into a dialogue. Personal image archives reveal traces of social and political changes as well as the germs of possible futures.

Candice Breitz (born in Johannesburg) is an artist whose work has recently focused on the conditions under which empathy develops. In doing so, it reflects a media-saturated culture that is characterized by an indifference to the plight of those who are confronted with adversity in the real world.

In her artistic practice, İz Öztat (born in Istanbul) uses form, material, space and language to deal with state violence and the denials that are inherent in official national narratives. She works at the interface of art and education in self-organized, institutional and academic contexts.

Marina Naprushkina (born in Minsk) is an artist who works across media with painting, video and text. In 2007, she founded the “Office for Anti-Propaganda.” In her artistic practice, Naprushkina deals with forms of resilience, feminist narratives, and care networks.

Season Butler (born in Washington, DC) is an author, performer, and dramaturge who writes about youth and aging, loneliness and community, and the fragile constructs of hope. Her debut novel “Cygnet” was published in 2019.

Hana Yoo (born in Busan) works with multimedia installations, film and performance. It deals with collective anxiety and transcendental experiences that are characterized by polarization and “othering.”