Translocal, Transnational, and Hybrid Spatial Spaces

We (Francesca Ceola and Simone Rueß) designed a processual multimedia workshop to encounter, reflect upon, and upend questions on translocality, of transnationalism, and of hybrid cultural and space-oriented structures. Working actively with the workshop room using time-based, graphic, and performative languages, we aimed to ground broad, abstract concepts in graspable experiences. We first got into the atmosphere of thinking visually by watching and discussing Camilo Bravo Molano’s audio-visual work “Liquid Homes”: a film portrait mapping a displaced person’s experience in Portugal. The participants were then invited to share ideas and explore possibilities to translate and elaborate on the broad concepts of translocality, transnationalism, and hybrid spatialities. We used graphic prompts, language, and performative explorations to enhance this embodied analysis that we developed both individually, then collectively. The workshop closed with a lecture by Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka through a self-reflection on spatialities of migrants and transnational affect. She put in words aspects and differences of transnational and translocal homes introduced to us through Bravo Molano’s film images in the beginning of the workshop.

More to read about on our blogpost @sfb1265

Facing Pairs and Changing Dialogue Partners: A Drawing-Exchange in Transition

The participants were sitting along tables, in a line, in the room. In the middle of the tables, a line of drawings was laid out: to stimulate sensorial reflections including division, connection, detachment, leaving behind, and new beginnings. The lines drawn on paper represented a visual simplification of complex relationships of translocality, transnationality or hybridity. They could be associated with borders, border crossings, border dissolutions, and separation. The drawing paper and pens handed out to each participant invited personal pictorial reproductions, transformations, or further developments of the graphic proposals. Participants in pairs exchanged about the graphics lying between them in one moment, only to be urged to abandon the conversation at the next, leaving their exchanges behind, and proceeding to the following dialogue partner. Engaging in couple-of-minutes increments almost overwhelmed us with a threefold intensity: the sound of all engaged voices, the flow of ideas, and the frantic timing of conversation changes.

The series of drawings laid out on the tables to initiate and orient participants’ conversations were inspired by the artist Chiara Carrer’s book Pensar el espacio. Reflejos, superficies, y colores (transl. “Thinking the Space. Reflections, surfaces, and colors”). Some drawings are a direct re-interpretation of Chiara Carrer, while others were developed from the drawing research of Simone Rueß and her conversations on spatial imaginations with more than 30 interviewees from all over the world. (excerpt of the blogpost @sfb1265)

A Room with Borders, Barriers, and Open Forms: An Embodied Non-verbal Interaction

(...)

Participants were confronted with the challenge of having to leave their present position in the room to reach another point in the space, limited by the four structural walls but also some additional cardboard walls. Acting in their own space, participants initially imperceptibly created a common structure of changing distances in the room. Forms and shapes of paper left behind, foreign lines, and cut-outs found at the next position, they gradually triggered more conscious interactions with spatial traces of the others. One sequential letter after the other, local and migrated shapes formed fragile hybrid common figurations. (excerpt of the blogpost @sfb1265)

Islands of Creation and Synthesis: Individual and Collective Reflexion, drawings and ensembles by María Linares (1), anonymous participant (2), Ludovica Tomarchio (3), Workshop part 5, 2024.

Islands of Creation and Synthesis: Individual and Collective Reflections in a Shared Space

(...)

The rapid, time-framed and place-constrained interactions explored during the workshop can be observed and were intentionally initiated as cues for refiguration of spatial, social, psychological, and cognitive (as in how associations of ideas are enhanced) arrangements and constellations that tell us something around concepts of translocality, transnationality, and hybrid cultural space-oriented structures. The setup of a laboratory with sequential tasks and reflection allowed us to grasp the nature of these spatial structures both in an abstract and elementary way. Film, verbal exchange, figurative language, movement, drawing, symbols, performance, objects, language, and lecture. In diverse media and transdisciplinary reflections, we looked at these formats and terms from various sides, as if we deconstructed their characters into multifaceted multiple layers. Thinking towards expanding the edges of the refiguration theory vis-à-vis territorial structures, we engaged with the diffracted meanings of translocalization with a postnationalist critique to explore practices, memories, and meaning-making at multiple levels: socio-material, ecological-economic, and symbolic-transcendent. As a result, the drift of notions, shifts, and hybridization were not just a conceptual exercise but also a figurative and embodied one". (Conclusion in our blogpost @sfb1265)

ZUHAUSE/HOME

People with experiences of flight and migration often create a new home in temporary forms of housing such as container villages. At the same time, they remain connected to their homeland through memories and contacts with those “back home,” while seeking ways to live out their cultural everyday needs.

In a workshop at Kunsthalle Tübingen, I invited participants from Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Pakistan to share memories of a home, to explore mental images of their current (hybrid) home, and to imagine visions of a future form of living. These individual ideas were captured in a collective large-scale drawing and documented in a video – both as a creative process and as a vision of communal life.

Menschen mit Flucht- und Migrationserfahrung schaffen sich meist in temporären Wohnformen wie Containerdörfern ein neues Zuhause. Gleichzeitig bleiben sie über Erinnerungen und Kontakte zu „Daheimgebliebenen“ mit ihrer Heimat verbunden und suchen nach Möglichkeiten, ihre kulturellen Alltagsbedürfnisse zu leben. In einem Workshop in der Kunsthalle Tübingen lud ich Teilnehmer*innen aus Afghanistan, Albanien, Armenien, Türkei, Irak, Libanon, Nigeria und Pakistan ein, Erinnerungen an ein Zuhause zu teilen, mentale Bilder eines derzeitigen (hybriden) Zuhauses zu erkunden und Visionen einer zukünftigen Wohnform zu imaginieren. Diese individuellen Vorstellungen wurden in einer gemeinsamen großformatigen Zeichnung festgehalten und in einem Video dokumentiert – als kreativer Prozess und als Vision eines kollektiven Zusammenlebens.

In addition, together with the participants, we explored their inner images of home in narrative interviews, which I then translated into drawings. In this way, mental spatial images emerged that make visible both personal sensitivities, hybird identities and the socio-spatial conditions of refugees.

Ergänzend ergründete ich zusammen mit den Teilnehmer*innen in narrativen Interviews deren innere Bilder vom Wohnen, welche ich anschließend in eigene Zeichnungen übersetzte. So entstanden mentale Raumbilder, die persönliche Befindlichkeiten, hybride Identitäten, ebenso wie sozial-räumliche Gegebenheiten Geflüchteter sichtbar machen.

Blaue luftdurchlässige Wolke (vor März 2020), I

Przestrzeń Działań Społecznych

In the workshop led by Simone Rueß, a collective map was created based on a performative exploration of urban space. The starting point were mental images of selected spaces of Katowice and performative and linguistic interactions with places such as the train station, the shopping center and the pedestrian zone.

The aim was to draw attention to the network of socio-spatial relationships in Katowice. According to Martina Löw's relational spatial concept, space is a constantly changing arrangement of people, other living beings, goods and architectural objects. This space is synthesized through the processes of
perception, imagination and memory.

Furthermore, Simone Rueß' concept for the workshop was based on Kevin Lynch's (1960) idea of the mental image of the city and Grzegorz Kowalski's theory and teaching of the “own/common space”. (Excerpt summary of the workshop at NIAiU, Warsaw)

In dem von Simone Rueß geleiteten Workshop wurde eine kollektive Karte auf Basis einer performativen Erforschung des städtischen Raums erstellt. Ausgangspunkt waren mentale Bilder ausgewählter Räume von Katowice und performative und sprachliche Interaktionen mit Orten wie dem Bahnhof, dem Einkaufszentrum und der Fußgängerzone. Ziel war es, die Aufmerksamkeit auf das Netz der sozialräumlichen Beziehungen in Katowice zu lenken. Nach Martina Löws relationalem Raumkonzept zufolge ist der Raum eine sich ständig verändernde Anordnung von Menschen, anderen Lebewesen, Waren und architektonischen Objekten. Dieser Raum wird durch die Prozesse der Wahrnehmung, der Vorstellung und der Erinnerung synthetisiert. Simone Rueß‘ Konzept für den Workshop stützte sich außerdem auch auf Kevin Lynchs (1960) Idee des mentalen Bildes der Stadt sowie auf Grzegorz Kowalskis Lehre vom „Eigenen/Gemeinsamen Raum“. (Ausschnitt Zusammenfassung des Workshops at NIAiU, Warschau: https://niaiu. pl/2024/05/przestrzen-dzialan-spolecznych-podsumowanie-warsztatow/)

Fragile Remembering, Varation II

From 2019 to 2023, Simone Rueß visited senior citizens with memory disorders in the Ernst-Berendt-Haus of the Stephanus GmbH in Berlin Weißensee and let them describe their biographical memories which she then translated into drawings. These conversations were the basis for a detailed artistic analysis in the form of double time graphs, which reveal weightings of certain biographical and historical data in relation to memory capacity.

A video gives insights into the conversations with the protagonist K. H. Stauffer. Originally from the region of Lviv, K. H. Stauffer’s family fled from today’s Poland near Wroclaw to Rhineland-Palatinate in 1945, where he grew up with his family on a four-sided farm. He later managed the farm himself for many years. He not only expresses his spatial experiences of displacement linked to current geopolitical conflicts, but also finds ways to describe his embodied limitations and physical restrictions as a senior citizen suffering from Parkinson’s disease. With the help of animated diagrams and a documented light installation, the film expresses the conflictual resonance of time and space along fragile remembering.

Corresponding to the short film portrait, the floating color installation portrays the space biography of another patient, representing and abstracting the biographical conversations over a period of 3 years. Based on diagrams, colored strips of different lengths materialize the narrated and remembered experiences. They rotate around their own axis, forming a kinetic landscape, expressing the constantly changing memory capacity. Each horizontal line materializes a conversation, each colored strip a sentence. Each color stands for a remembered person (relatives, friends, community, etc.).

Blaue luftdurchlässige Wolke (vor März 2020), II

Rosafarbene Wolke (März 2020)

city/sound/scape (Nowa Huta)

Nowa Huta is a unique testimony to urban and social 're-figuration' in today's Europe. Originally designed from the top down as an ideological, socialist, and urban planningproject, Nowa Huta has been undergoing an ongoing economic and social transformationsince 1989. The accompanying geographical changes and the progressive changesof Kraków have led to new residents, different everyday activities, and altered patternsof movement. The audiosphere is also undergoing a profound transformation, whichis linked, for example, to the closure of the industrial context. In an interdisciplinarydialog, Simone Rueß and Rafał Mazur bring together analyses of urban structures andsoundscapes in the form of a hybrid mapping. Residents are invited to actively participateand reflect on their neighbourhoods in the context of local and global upheavals. An audio-visual 5-channel installation makes the artistic investigations spatio-temporally experienceable.

Nowa Huta ist ein einzigartiges Zeugnis einer urbanen und sozialen 'Re-Figuration' im heutigen Europa. Ursprünglich von oben herab als ideologisches, sozialistisches und städtebauliches Gesamtprojekt angelegt, erfährt Nowa Huta seit 1989 eine andauernde wirtschaftliche und soziale Umgestaltung. Die damit einhergehenden geographischen Veränderungen und die fortschreitende Polarisierung der Nachbarschaft mit Krakau, führen zu neuen Bewohner*innen, anderen Alltagsaktivitäten und veränderten Fortbewegungsstrukturen. Auch die Audiosphäre befindet sich in einem tiefgreifenden Wandel, der zum Beispiel mit dem Aussterben des industriellen Kontextes zusammenhängt. In einem interdisziplinären Dialog führen Simone Rueß und Rafał Mazur Analysen von Stadt- und Klanglandschaften in Form eines hybrid mappings zusammen. Bewohner*innen werden zur aktiven Teilnahme eingeladen ihren Stadtteil im Spannungsgefüge lokaler und globaler Umbrüche zu reflektieren. Eine audio-visuelle 5-Kanal-Installation macht die künstlerischen Untersuchungen raumzeitlich erfahrbar.

Common Movement Space, excerpt of the installation 'city/sound/scape' by Simone Rueß and Rafał Mazur

Daily Routes, 2023, performative and participative research action, July 6 - July 11, 2023, table on wheels, 100 x 100 cm, black map, transparent papier, marker, action-camera.

Daily Routes, 2023, performative and participative research action, July 6 - July 11, 2023, Aleja Róz, Nowa Huta.

Hell-mittelgraue Wolke (März 2022)

Fragile Remembering, Ernst-Berendt-Haus

A large part of society is affected by dementia in the elderly; in Germany alone, there are currently around 1.8 million people (2021). Unnoticed by a large part of society, they usually live in a secluded everyday life. With the FRAGILE REMEMBERING project, Simone Rueß gives senior citizens with fragile memory a voice and makes the perception of dementia patients accessible on a visual-practical level.

Mittlerweile ist ein großer Teil der Gesellschaft im Alter mit der Erkrankung an Demenz betroffen, allein in Deutschland sind es derzeit ca. 1,8 Millionen Menschen (2021). Von einem großen Teil der Gesellschaft unbeachtet leben sie meist in einem zurückgezogenen Alltag. Mit dem Projekt FRAGILES ERINNERN gibt Simone Rueß Senior*innen mit fragilem Gedächtnis eine Stimme und macht die Wahrnehmung Demenzerkrankter auf visuell-praktischer Ebene zugänglich.

Verfaulte Pfirsiche, (Gespräch mit K. H. Stauffer, 17.12.2019), Bleistift auf Papier, 14,8 x 21 cm

The drawings presented in the Ernst Berendt House are based on personal descriptions of residents that Simone Rueß visited regularly from 2019 to 2022. In conversations, she gave them the opportunity to talk about their biographies. She gradually visualised their mental images in the form of drawings, which are shown to the interlocutors during further visits. The graphic approaches establish a connection to the experiences and emotions of the patients and bring to light further memories that the patients themselves or those close to them thought had long been forgotten. The artist also observed how the images could act as memory aids when memory became more fragile. She is interested in how the understanding of space is defined by childhood, the present, fellow human beings, objects, the environment or geopolitical events, depending on the ability to remember. The exhibition in the retirement home enabled an exchange with nursing staff, carers and relatives, which had a direct impact on the everyday lives of the patients.

Die im Ernst-Berendt-Haus präsentierten Zeichnungen basieren auf persönlichen Beschreibungen von Bewohner*innen, welche Simone Rueß von 2019 bis 2022 regelmäßig besuchte. In Gesprächen gab sie ihnen die Möglichkeit, aus ihrer Biografie zu erzählen. Die wachgerufenen mentalen Bilder visualisierte sie nach und nach in Form von Zeichnungen, welche in weiteren Besuchen den Gesprächspartner*innen gezeigt wurden. Die grafischen Annäherungen bauten eine Verbindung zur Erlebnis-und Gefühlswelt der Erkrankten auf und brachten weitere Erinnerungen zum Vorschein, welche die Betroffenen selbst oder ihnen Nahestehende längst vergessen geglaubt hatten. Außerdem beobachtete die Künstlerin, wie die Bilder als Gedächtnisstützen bei fragiler werdendem Erinnerungsvermögen fungieren können. Dabei interessiert sie, wie sich das Raumverständnis je nach Erinnerungsvermögen über die Kindheit, die Gegenwart, über Mitmenschen, Gegenstände, die Umgebung oder geopolitische Ereignisse definiert. Die Ausstellung im Haus der Senior*innen ermöglichte einen Austausch mit Pflegepersonal, Betreuer*innen und Angehörigen, der sich direkt auf den Alltag der Erkrankten auswirken konnte.

INhabit 2018/2020

In 2018, I collected mental images of home in my INhabit project with the help of around 60 narrative interviews from Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, the Czech Republic, Germany, Thailand, etc. During the lockdown, for many „home“ became a home office. Professional and private activities all took place in the same place. In 2020, I juxtapose the mental images from 2018 with new conversations with the same interviewees. These are presented on posters at bus stops during the festival in the public space „ADAPTACJE"
in Gorzów Wielkopolskie (2021), curated by Marta Gendera.

2018 sammle ich in meinem Projekt „INhabit“ Vorstellungen von Zuhause mithilfe von ca. 60 narrativen Interviews aus Italien, Holland, Belgien, Israel, Tschechien, Deutschland, Thailand etc. Während des Lockdowns wurde das Zuhause für viele zum home office und die beruflichen und privaten Tätigkeiten fanden alle am selben Ort statt. 2020 stelle ich die mentalen Bilder von 2018 erneuten Gesprächen mit denselben Interviewten gegenüber. Diese werden während des Festivals im öffentlichen Raum „Adaptacje“ in Gorzów Wielkopolskie (2021) auf Plakaten an Bushaltestellen präsentiert.

INhabit

Home is the central place from which our everyday activities start and return. In the INhabit project, I explore what ideas individuals actually have about home. In conversations, I ask people to describe their individual mental images of “home” and then transform them into drawings. The constantly growing collection of images of the most diverse perceptions of “home” includes around 60 interviews with people from Italy, Holland, Belgium, Israel, the Czech Republic, Germany, Thailand etc. The conversations on which the drawings are based took place live in the exhibition 999: A Collection of Questions on Contemporary Living, 201. During the Covid pandemic, I was gradually contacting the interviewees again in 2020 in order to follow the changes in their ideas as a result of the lockdown.

Das Zuhause ist der zentrale Ort, von wo aus unsere alltägliche Aktivitäten starten und zurückführen. Welche Vorstellungen der/die Einzelne von Zuhause tatsächlich hat, beleuchte ich in dem Projekt INhabit. In Gesprächen lasse ich mir individuelle mentale Bilder von „Zuhause“ beschreiben und transformiere diese anschließend in Zeichnungen. Die stetig wachsende Ansammlung an Bildern unterschiedlichster Auffassungen von „Zuhause“ umfasst bisher um die 60 Interviews mit Menschen aus Italien, Holland, Belgien, Israel, Tschechien, Deutschland, Thailand etc. Die den Zeichnungen zugrunde liegenden Gespräche finden live in der Ausstellung 999 Questions on Contemporary Living 2018 statt. Während Corona kontaktiere ich 2020 nach und nach die Gesprächspartner*innen von Neuem, um die Veränderungen der Vorstellungen durch den Lockdown zu verfolgen.

The exhibition 999: A Collection of Questions on Contemporary Living was a "sweeping investigation of the concept of house and home, living and dwelling, on the borderline between the physical and digital worlds." It was concepted as an ever-changing exhibition, which evolved in space and time "through communities, companies, activists, schools, multinational corporations, informal groups, research centres, designers, and artists. The exhibition was conceived and curated by Stefano Mirti and took place at La Triennale di Milano from 12 January to 2 April 2018. As an artist-in-residence at BASE Milano, I was invited to contribute to this show with the participative project INhabit during within 3 weeks.