As part of Spätschicht x Volksbühne, Arsenal – Institue for Film and Video presents the first part of the film Cheap People Are Other People 1–5 (2020) by the Berlin-based art collective CHEAP in the cinema of Gropius Bau.

Spätschicht – Live Programme at Gropius Bau is a monthly series of free events with an interdisciplinary programme ranging from talks, book discussions and film screenings to concerts and DJ sets. In addition to the screening, on this evening you can also look forward to concerts by Cortisa Star and Dylan Kerr, a DJ set by Bobby Beethoven and the book launch of On Dangerous Grounds by Vaginal Davis.

Since moving to Berlin 20 years ago, artist, author and performer Vaginal Davis has been a member of the art collective CHEAP. In their work, the group explores questions of uniqueness and authenticity. Their five-part film Cheap People Are Other People (2020) attempts to rethink the relationships between model and copy, past and present, one body and the next, through samples and repetitions. Starting in July, one episode of the film will be shown monthly in the cinema of Gropius Bau, in combination with a film from the Arsenal archive which Ms. Davis is very familiar with: from 2007 to 2018, she presented finds of this archive in her series Rising Stars, Falling Stars.

The art collective CHEAP was founded in Berlin in 2001. Their work includes performances, videos, festivals, concerts, installations and radio shows. In any format, their practice combines theory and pleasure, politics and whimsy, aesthetics and sex.

Vaginal Davis is a performer, writer and creator of iconic zines; a visual artist, experimental filmmaker; a self-proclaimed Blacktress and drag terrorist, a gossip columnist, influential socialite, educator and countercultural renegade. Since the late 1970s, her oeuvre has pushed the boundaries of art, music and performance.

During the event, photographs and video recordings may be made in which you may be recognisable. By attending, you consent to these recordings being used to communicate the event or exhibition.