"Crossing Walls", A Guided Audio-Walk with Astrid Kaemmerling
Event Information
Description
Astrid Kaemmerling's Crossing Walls, is a guided audio-walk presented as part of the programming for The Body Electric. Crossing Walls is limited to 15 participants only.
Drawing on the history of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a barrier which divided East and West Germany from 1961-1989, collected stories from witnesses will provide guidance as we navigate imaginary and real walls in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Practicing psychogeography, Astrid Kaemmerling’s art practice is the exploration of selected spatial experiences. Her work unites place memories of the past, such as collected travel experiences, with an exploration of specific neighborhoods and selected urban places. Exploring space via the practice of walking is an important aspect of Kaemmerling’s approach. Placing an emphasis upon the pedestrian experiences of the built environment is deeply embedded in the historic legacy of the Situationist International and influenced by thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre and Michel De Certeau.
The Body Electric an exhibition curated by re.riddle developed in collaboration with 41 Ross Alley and The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco for their series Present Tense 2019: Task of Remembrance, which brings together projects that reflect on the complexities, gravity, and responsibility of remembering.
The Body Electric is a group exhibition that interprets the task of remembrance by spotlighting the corporeality of memory. The exhibition aims to examine the ways in which the human body functions as vessels for memory—and specifically, how memory impacts the flesh. The exhibition is on view from April 17 - May 19, 2019 and is free and open to the public with an opening reception on April 17th from 6-8pm. The opening reception will feature a 30 minute chair conversation with artists ALEXANDMUSHI, who will use a nonverbal language to communicate and learn about each other’s histories along with a poetry reading from author JiaJing Liu.
The Body Electric examines the potency of memory embodied in gestures and habits in relation to 'indirect' modes of memory via inscribing, recording or documenting. Corporeal memory may be characterized as being an embodied memory and/or an embodied remembering. Embodied remembering situates memory as being intrinsic to the body, because it re-enacts the past, it need not represent it. As such, the exhibition will consider motion, action, activity, and gesture of memory as it pertains to flesh and surface of the body. Artists ALEXANDMUSHI, Daniela Baldell & Émile Noteris, Mark Baugh-Sasaki, Takming Chuang, Yosh Han, Summer Mei-Ling Lee, Lan Liu, Little Warsaw, Patricia Reinhart, Gabriele Stötzer, Wong Kit Yi and Shadi Yousefian will present their various approaches and perspectives, ranging from mid-20th century to contemporary views, on how memory impacts the flesh.
