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)

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, Friedenskirche

From 2019 to 2023, I visited senior citizens with memory disorders in the Ernst-Berendt-Haus of Stephanus GmbH and led them describe their biographical memories to me. I translated these into drawings, which could be seen on the ground floor of the Ernst Berendt House in 2022. In the form of a short film portrait, the audience at the open-air theatre Weißensee over the summer of 2022 were given insights into the world of perception with dementia. In the church on the foundation's premises, the resonance of the fragile memories was translated into a spatial installation and sensually experienced.

In a floating colour installation, I combine the 16 biographical conversations that I had with a dementia patient over a period of 3 years into a colourful spektum. In this way, I materialise the narrated and remembered interpersonal relationships of my conversation partner in the form of coloured strips of paper of different lengths. These hang on horizontally stretched strings and rotate around their own axis, forming a kinetic landscape. Each cord materialises a conversation, each strip of paper a sentence. Each colour stands for a remembered person (relatives, friends, community, etc.).

Von 2019 bis 2023 besuchte ich Senior*innen mit Gedächtnisstörungen im Ernst-Berendt-Haus der Stephanus GmbH und ließ mir biografische Erinnerungen beschreiben. Diese übersetzte ich in Zeichnungen, welche 2022 im Erdgeschoss des Ernst-Berendt-Hauses zu sehen sind. In Form eines Kurzfilm-Portraits bekamen Zuschauer*innen auf der Freilichtbühne Weißensee über den Sommer 2022 hinweg Einblicke in die Wahrnehmungswelt mit Demenz. In der Kirche auf dem Gelände der Stiftung wurde die Resonanz der fragilen Erinnerungen in Form einer räumlichen Installation übersetzt und sinnlich erfahrbar gemacht.

In einer schwebenden Farb-Installation fasse ich die 16 biografischen Gespräche, die ich mit einem Demenzerkrankten über 3 Jahre hinweg führte, zu einem Farbklang zusammen. Damit materialisiere ich die erzählten und erinnerten zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen meines Gesprächspartners in Form von farbigen Papierstreifen unterschiedlicher Länge. Diese hängen an horizontal gespannten Schnüren und drehen sich um ihre eigene Achse und bilden zusammen eine kinetische Landschaft. Jede gespannnte Schnur materialisiert ein Gespräch, jeder Papierstreifen einen Satz. Jede Farbe steht für eine erinnerte Person (Angehörige, Freunde, Gemeinschaft, etc).

The installation is based on diagrams that were created for each conversation and which visualise the interpersonal relationships along the narratives.The composer Catherine Lamb reacts with her sound piece to the score-like conversation diagrams and makes the colour installation vibrate during the opening of the exhibition.

Der Installation liegen Diagramme zugrunde, die zu jedem Gespräch erstellt wurden und welche die zwischenmenschlichen Bezüge entlang der Erzählungen visualisieren. Die Komponistin Catherine Lamb reagiert mit ihrem Klangstück auf die partitur-ähnlichen Gesprächs-Diagramme und bringt die Farbinstallation während der Eröffnung der Ausstellung in Schwingung.

Hellblau für den Vater, rosa für die Mutter des Erzählers, rot für den Erzähler, und so weiter. Jeder Papierstreifen steht für einen Satz. Die Länge der Papierstreifen bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum, über den der Erzähler berichtet, und ist in drei verschiedene Papierlängen unterteilt: lang für das „Aufwachsen“, mittellang für das „mittlere Alter“ und kurz für das „Älterwerden“ in der Gegenwart und in den letzten 20 Jahren. Wenn der Erzähler 2 bis 4 Personen in einem Satz erwähnt hat, werden 2 bis 4 Farben zu einem Papierstreifen gefaltet. Erinnerungen an mehr als 4 Personen zugleich materialisieren die beigen Streifen: das soziale Umfeld, also die Familie, den Chor, mehrere Freunde...

Light blue for the father, pink for the mother of the narrator, red for the narrator, and so on. Each paper strip stands for a sentence. The length of the paper strips refers to the period of time the narrator was telling about, divided into three different paper lengths: long for 'growing up', medium for 'middle age' and short for 'being a senior' in the present and the last 20 years. If the narrator mentioned 2 to 4 people in a sentence, 2 to 4 colours are folded into a strip of paper. If the senior mentioned more than 4 people, the strip is coloured beige for the social environment, which could be the family, the choir, several
friends.

Fragiles Erinnern, 2022, dreiteilige Ausstellung, 17.6.- 20.11.2022, Ernst-Berendt-Haus, Friedenskirche, Freilichtbühne, Weißensee

The strips of paper rotated slightly and echo the fragility of memory. Each string materializes one meeting. This slowly moving landscape, with its various heights, transforms the temporality of remembered interpersonal relationships into a spatial experience. Historical time is unfolded in hight, narrative space unfolded in breadth, the installation seeks to create an imagination of time that is shown to us in the form of a spatial shape (Bergson 1993, 25).

Die Papierstreifen drehten sich leicht und spiegeln die Zerbrechlichkeit der Erinnerung wider. Diese sich langsam bewegende Landschaft mit ihren verschiedenen Höhen verwandelt die Zeitlichkeit der erinnerten zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen in eine räumliche Erfahrung. Die historische Zeit entfaltet sich in der Höhe, der erzählerische Raum in der Breite, die Installation schafft eine Vorstellung von Zeit, die sich uns in Form einer räumlichen Gestalt zeigt (Bergson 1993, 25).

Zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen 2019-2022 Diagramme, Fragiles Erinnern ID01, G05-08, 2022, basierend auf 16 Gesprächen mit einem Bewohner des Ernst-Berendt-Hauses, Inkjet auf Papier, 50 x 60 cm

___________________________
_{^{Bergson, Henri. 1993. Denken und Schöpferisches Werden: Aufsätze und Vorträge, Hamburg: EVA Europäische Verlagsanstalt}}

space/time/resonance: 'How geopolitical caesuras are written down in biographical narratives…'

Simone Rueß conducts space biography conversations with middle-aged participants and people suffering from dementia. Diagrams with a vertical historical timeline and a horizontal narrative timeline summarize their individual statements. In this way, weightings of certain space biographical data become visible in relation to memory capacity. Superpositions and condensations reveal how certain experiences of respondents, influenced by geopolitical caesuras, acquire more frequented resonance.

Light recording [micro-light installation]
On the 18th of January, 2022, for the duration of eight hours, daylight was recorded on a sheet of paper with a small funnel in a darkened room on a micro scale while appearing on a monitor via a webcam. The digital light cone translates the phenomenon of filtering perceptions onto the screen (as a magnified sensor).

Sound piece by Catherine Lamb
Filtered ambient sounds are the basis of the piece inter sum (2019). Taking into account the various transitions of acoustic perception between indoors and outdoors, Lamb applies a resonance band-pass filter to her ambient field with her synthesizer instrument, thus reflecting the constantly fluctuating field of attention.

Space Biographies – 2016–2022 (Variation I), Exhibition view at TRAFOstacja Szceczin, 2022.

Light Recording and Animation, as part of *space/time/resonance: 'How geopolitical caesuras are written down in biographical narratives…'*

About the exhibition at TRAFO Center of Contemporary Art in Szceczin, 2022, curated by Dagmar Schmengler, Michał Markiewicz, Stanisław Ruksza:

You could be heading away from the endless middle and towards the bottom of the top*

*idiomatic sentence used by one of the characters in the TV series Succession

The archive often serves as a certain model representing social mechanisms. It becomes a synonym for memory, power, and an argument in the discussion about the status of history and created images of the past. In practice it is not something that can be read like a novel, from the first page to the last. It appears to us as an infinite resource. It consists barely of pages in the usual sense of the word, but more of various visual forms: tables, photographs, documents, charts, images, disguised narratives. We look at them for a specific purpose or we browse freely, letting our desire to know drift. Having reached the bottom of the list, we find ourselves back at the top in (new) data to explore. In this sense, the archive never has a form that is definitive.

We usually make a use of it that combines two seemingly disparate gestures. We open it at first in order to search for a particular piece of information. Having found it, we browse further. We close the collection it contains only after wandering around like a labyrinth for a while. Waiting for the next time, equally useless or fruitful. By recalling this dual use, an apparently democratic archive can turn out to be a ‘double-edged’ ‘object’, dangerous, and even deceptively inverting the order of political and identity relations.

The subject of the archive, taken up by artists from Poland and Berlin, not only in the sense of a visual form of knowledge or a scientific form of seeing, but also in the ways of communication produced within its framework, comes down to tracing the disturbances found in the community space of our experiences. The juxtaposed artistic strategies show the archive as a living medium and a “moving place”, emphasising both its physical existence and the spatial construction that embodies order, without taking away its phantasmal character. In this way, they reveal the possibilities of subordinating the historically accrued and systematic dimension to current questions and doubts.

The project consists of three substantive components:

An online presentation during which every day from January 21, 2022 to January 30, 2022 invited artists presented their practices and working methods in direct or allegorical relation to the exhibition. The website mozeszuciec.com will be active from January 20, 2022.
Exhibition at TRAFO from Janury 17 until April 3, 2022
Experimental art-event in Berlin, in April 2022

The project is realized within the framework of the Odra Partnership, in partnership with TRAFO Trafostacja Sztuki in Szczecin.

more informations here

walk-in, 4.9.2020 (Warszawa – Berlin)

On the constructed 23-metre-long footbridge in the garden of Gallery Le Guern, visitors actively contribute to a connection across physical distance through their participation on 4 September 2021. Built from material from Warsaw and Berlin, the bridge is the starting point of the happening. The Varsavian artist Krzysztof Franaszek is present on site in the gallery garden, while Berlin artist Simone Rueß is present on the bridge digitally on a screen. Visitors can follow how the two artists meet again virtually, and they can also talk live with the Berlin artist. The installation invites visitors to share their current (border) experiences during the pandemic. The happening makes the transnational relationship tangible and evokes memories of territorially specific border cases. The action relates digital and physical proximity to each other. Differences in distances are experienced, spatial approaches are tested and digital and analogue presence are negotiated with each other.

Spotkanie na granicy ⁄ Treffen an der Grenze

When the pandemic started, the Warsaw–Berlin train could no longer cross the border. The disrupted connection became the theme of the artists’ action Meeting at the Border of 8 June 2020. At the Frankfurt–Słubice border crossing on the bridge across the Oder, Simone Rueß was stopped 50 meters before the checkpoint, where Krzysztof Franaszek stood waiting. Separated by only a few meters of space, the friends could not talk to each other directly. They approached passers-by to carry their drawings and notes across the border. The border guards asked Rueß after 30 minutes to leave the border area. Franaszek was requested to step back, as well. For another two hours, the artists exchanged notes across the bridge with the assistance of random mail carriers. Thanks to their experience, the artists understood the difficult situation of the inhabitants of Słubice and Frankfurt (Oder) when the possibility of cooperation and communication was interrupted.

Als die Pandemie begann, konnte der Zug zwischen Warschau und Berlin die Grenze nicht mehr überqueren. Die unterbrochene Verbindung wurde zum Thema der künstlerischen Aktion „Meeting at the Border” am 8. Juni 2020. Am Grenzübergang Frankfurt–Słubice auf der Oderbrücke wurde Simone Rueß 50 Meter vor dem Kontrollpunkt angehalten, wo Krzysztof Franaszek auf sie wartete. Nur wenige Meter voneinander entfernt, konnten die beiden Freund*innen nicht direkt miteinander sprechen. Sie baten Passant*innen, ihre Zeichnungen und Notizen über die Grenze zu tragen und zu überreichen. Nach 30 Minuten forderten die Grenzbeamt*innen Rueß auf, den Grenzbereich zu verlassen. Auch Franaszek wurde gebeten, zurückzutreten. Weitere zwei Stunden lang tauschten die Künstler*innen sich mit Hilfe zufälliger "Postboten" Notizen und Skizzen über die Brücke hinweg aus. Dank dieser Aktion, konnten die Künstler*innen die schwierige Situation der pandemischen Grenzsituation, der die Bewohner*innen von Słubice und Frankfurt (Oder) ausgesetzt waren, für einen Moment lang teilen und nachvollziehen.

Meeting on the Warsaw–Berlin Express Train

The action Meeting on the Warsaw– Berlin Express Train of 14 December 2019 speaks about both the personal relationship between Simone Rueß and Krzysztof Franaszek and, more broadly, the relationship between Poland and Germany. The artists boarded trains departing respectively from Warsaw and Berlin at 5:36 in the morning and travelled towards each other. Their joint journey started in Poznań. The train car turned into a place of encounter along the line joining two points, always moving towards one of them. Whenever the artists became disorientated, they would record their experience in the two languages.

Zwischenraum (eng. Intermediate Space), 2011/12

Passers-by between the main railway station and Patelnia in Warsaw, Poland.

Na fali (Warsaw)

Na fali [1] is the result of a formal analysis of the topographical form of the Princely Garden in Warsaw. The characteristic element of the Warsaw landscape - the layout of the Warsaw Escarpment Skarpa Warszawska and the Poniatowski Bridge - has been transformed into a series of abstract forms, operating with strong colors. Situated in a clearing, the sculpture spreads out in front of the pavilion's terrace, creating not only a recognisable spatial accent, but also a usable piece of plein air furniture for enjoying the summer. Created specifically for the summer pavilion Stacja Mercedes, the realization is a consequence and development of the artist's earlier work. She understands the city as a giant sculpture defined by the movement of its inhabitants. Szymon Żydek, 2013, Curator of the Bęc Zmiana Foundation, Warsaw.

1: pol. fala: wave – poln. byc na fali: to ride the wave / to be "in"

Na fali [1] ist das Ergebnis einer Formanalyse der topografischen Gestalt des Fürstengartens in Warschau. Ein charakteristisches Element der Warschauer Landschaft - die Anlage der Warschauer Weichselböschung Skarpa Warszawska und der Poniatowski-Brücke - wurden mit Hilfe kräftiger Farben in eine Reihe abstrakter Formen verwandelt. In einer Lichtung platziert, breitet sich die Skulptur vor der Terasse des Pavillons aus und bildet nicht nur einen wiedererkennbaren räumlichen Akzent, sondern auch ein benutzbares Pleinair-Möbel zur sommerlichen Erholung. Hergestellt im Hinblick auf den Sommerpavillon Stacja Mercedes steht die Realisierung für die konsequente Weiterentwicklung vorangegangener Arbeiten der Künstlerin. Sie fasst damit die Stadt als riesige Skulptur auf, die sich über die Fortbewegung der Bewohner*innen definiert. Szymon Żydek, 2013, Kurator der Bęc Zmiana Stiftung, Warschau. 1: poln. fala: Welle – poln. byc na fali: auf der Welle reiten / "in" seinThis is a block of text. Double-click this text to edit it.

Na fali to wynik analizy form topograficznego ukształtowania Parku na Książęcem. Charakterystyczny element warszawskiego krajobrazu – układ Skarpy warszawskiej oraz Mostu Poniatowskiego – został przetworzony w ciąg abstrakcyjnych form, operujących mocnymi kolorami. Fala umieszczona na polanie rozpościerającej się przed tarasem pawilonu stanowi nie tylko rozpoznawalny akcent przestrzenny, ale również użyteczny mebel plenerowy umożliwiający letni odpoczynek w słońcu. Stworzona specjalnie z myślą o pawilonie Stacji Mercedes realizacja stanowi konsekwencję i rozwinięcie wcześniejszych działań artystki traktującej miasto jako ogromną rzeźbę zdefiniowaną przez ruch jego mieszkańców. Szymon Żydek, 2013, Kurator Fundacji Bęc Zmiana, Warszawa

Na Fali (Warsaw), 2013, steel, paint (9 modules), each up to 70 x 130 x 170 cm

remembered site of the Vistula bank, with the Poniatowski bridge (Warsaw), 2015, pencil and coloured pencil/pens on paper, 15 x 30 cm

The site of the Summer Pavilion is located directly on the important link - the Poniatowski Bridge - between western Warsaw and Praga to the east of the Vistula. The bridge not only crosses the Vistula, but also directs traffic over a long stretch of the Powiśle district in the river valley. Here, the city has been organically adapted to the topography, with an almost uninterrupted bushy slope down to the river. The woody slope towards the river valley has been preserved almost in its entirety, creating a green strip from south to north, which can be walked along. On this green slope, directly under the Poniatowski Bridge, is a romantic garden, the so-called Park na Książcem (Prince's Garden). Slightly overgrown, winding and playful, it cascades down the slope towards the Vistula River, separating the centre of Warsaw above from Powiśle on the waterfront below. With the sound of traffic almost always filtering through, high arches of the bridge provide a link to the city centre in this garden. Both this topographical interface and the eastern bank of the Vistula, which has remained quite naturally green, are important oases for lingering and meeting friends. These green strips–strips because they stretch along the length of the Vistula–give the urban structure air to breathe. The Poniatowski Bridge, the crucial link between east and west, overrides the topographical shape and creates a pulsation between the two sides of the city and the riverbank. The seating sculpture picks up on this oscillation between the neighbourhoods, the ever-increasing convergence, as well as the slope towards the river, here as a place to sit and rest. The interplay of colours expresses the feeling of dynamism and energy that immediately prevails in the city. Colours that confront each other, bringing together different poles. The initial form of a ‘bridge’ of nine modules can be put together in a wide variety of combinations, inviting you to change the form, to design it yourself, to create something new from the given. The colours and shapes thus also relate directly to Katarzyna Kobro, whose works deal with the interpenetration of space and sculpture.