Urban spaces, especially here in the Ruhr District, are crisscrossed by countless visible and invisible traces of the past. Buildings and monuments bear witness to mining and heavy industry. How can these places and their stories be viewed and negotiated today? What performative strategies can be found to change our perspective on the past and to envision a different present and future?

The artist and activist Idylla Silmarovi and the anthropologist and filmmaker Edgar Kanakykõ Xakriabá explore in their work how personal memory can become a counter-narrative to colonialized societal consciousness in a performative manner. Together, the artists work at Plataforma Ka'adela. In their home country of Brazil, they develop collective actions in public spaces as a means to further this approach.

During a two-week workshop, interested individuals from Essen and the surrounding area can explore and gain insights into the collective performances, memories, and political struggles in Brazil and contribute their own experiences. The artists warmly invite participants to collaborate with them in developing collective actions aimed at reclaiming public spaces, images, and narratives, amplifying the voices and stories that have been marginalized or overlooked.

The starting point of each meeting will be the images and photographs from the artists' collection that emphasize the struggles, memories and artistic and political actions in Brazil, or better said, Pindorama. With this, they propose to collectively demarcate other cartographies in the city and in bodies based on a collage of artistic languages involving: performance, dance, cinema and photography in an ethnographic, documentary and performative perspective as a strategy for international artistic and political dialogue and also for blurring borders, including those that separate art and life.

The workshop is free of charge. Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions, though attending individual sessions is possible with prior arrangement. The artists are eager to welcome a diverse group and especially invite individuals with international family backgrounds to join.

For questions or registration, email service@pact-zollverein.de. The registration deadline is 07. June.

• Wed. 12.06. 19 - 21 h
• Sat. 15.06. 14 - 18 h
• Sun. 16.06. 14 - 18 h
• Wed. 19.06. 19 - 21 h
• Sat. 22.06. 14 - 18 h
• Sun. 23.06. 14 - 18 h

Please register at: service@pact-zollverein.de

Sat. 22.06. 18 h
Performative Reading with Idylla Silmarovi, Edgar Kanakykõ Xakriabá and the workshop participants
As part of Memories & Resistance