Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonanzen von Eslanda und Paul Robeson | Führungen

In the organizer's words:

Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson (1895-1965) and Paul Robeson (1898-1976) were two exceptional personalities of the 20th century. Their political and artistic work was an expression of a way of thinking that understood the world in terms of relationships and of uncompromising resistance to all forms of oppression. The exhibition and festival project "Every Artist Must Take Sides-Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson" by the Akademie der Künste is dedicated to their lived practice and its relevance for today. In dialog with materials from the Paul Robeson archive, twelve artistic positions negotiate questions of solidarity, collective freedom and mutual responsibility in sound and spatial installations, video works, sculptures, collages and photographs.

The Paul Robeson Archive was founded 60 years ago at the former German Academy of Arts in Berlin in the GDR. The extensive collection provides an insight into the life and work of Paul Robeson - African-American singer, actor, lawyer and activist - and Eslanda Goode Robeson - author, anthropologist, UN correspondent, artist manager and political intellectual. The couple linked the anti-racist struggle in the USA with anti-colonial movements in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, the international workers' struggles in the spirit of socialist internationalism and the anti-fascist freedom struggles in Europe - for example in the Spanish Civil War. The title of the exhibition also refers to the latter: a quote from Paul Robeson's speech at the Royal Albert Hall in 1937 in solidarity with the International Brigades, in which he called for a clear stance against fascism.

The artistic works focus on the actualization of these resistant and relational practices, the role of voice, sound and body, as well as the questioning of geopolitical constellations between anti-colonial liberation movements and the Cold War. The ideas of international solidarity and universal humanity negotiated therein form the thematic resonance space in which the contemporary artistic works combine with the archive materials.

Project management and co-curation: Johanna M. Keller, Tomke Braun
Artistic direction: Lina Brion, Anujah Fernando
Curatorial advice: Ibou Diop, Aidan Erasmus, Julia Gerlach, Baruch Gottlieb

"Every Artist Must Take Sides - Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson" is a project of the Akademie der Künste in cooperation with the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, and the Haus für Poesie, Berlin.

Artists: James Gregory Atkinson, Leila Bencharnia, Sonya Clark, Andrii Dostliev & Lia Dostlieva, Ângela Ferreira, Masimba Hwati, patricia kaersenhout, Ariel Orah, Kirsten Reese, Matana Roberts, Dread Scott, Katharina Warda

overview of the mediation program

Guided tours

Thu 5 pm: 8.1., 15.1., 22.1.
Sun 2 pm: 30.11., 7.12., 14.12., 21.12., 28.12.

€ 5 plus exhibition ticket

Guided tours by curators
Thu 5 pm: 20.11., 27.11., 11.12., 18.12.
Sun 2 pm: 16.11., 4.1., 18.1., 25.1.

Participatory exhibition tour: "Musical Universalism. How works of art can be traded as (future) archives" with Jeanne-Ange Wagne
Sun 2 pm: 23.11., 11.1. (DE)
Thu 5 pm: 4.12. (EN)

For sighted, blind and visually impaired visitors (with ABSV Berlin e.V.)
Thu 5 pm: 27.11. (curatorial), 15.1. (regular)

For deaf and hearing visitors (with DGS translation)
Sun 2 pm: 30.11. (regular), 18.1. (curatorial)

Special guided tours
Registration: kunstwelten@adk.de
Groups DE/EN € 100 plus exhibition ticket per person

Price information:

€ 5 plus exhibition ticket