Property influences both power relations and our capacity for action, permeating how we view ourselves and the world. The modern concept of property emerged in bourgeois Europe as it began its colonial expansion. Since then, it violently differentiates between two modes: the capacity to dispose over land, things, and other people, and the obligation to make one’s own body and its labor available. Property continues to carry forward the scars of this violence.

knotting unruly ties addresses property’s affective power as it is countered by collective forms of resistance. Through an exhibition, a web series, and workshops, the project draws attention to spaces, bodies, and relationships that are intractable to dominant forms of control. The labor conditions of the art field are questioned, while an artist interrogates her own (in)capacity for action in light of her contractual obligations to the state. Past and present moments of enclosure are recorded as they echo in the land and our relationships. Through reconstructing a neighborhood square, migrant experience is rewritten into space. A photocopier is appropriated in order to redistribute knowledge. Invasive weeds from industrialized and colonized landscapes form alliances with electronic entities. A manifesto hints at how to be in the world by singing with it.

The exhibition seeks (aesthetic) forms that describe unruly, interdependent forms of relating to one another and with the world. These might be based on solidarity, resistance, mutual care, and the refusal of self-ownership: knotting unruly ties.

Contributors: AG Art Worker Solidarity, Mel Baggs, Casa Kuà, Nino Bulling, Vika Kirchenbauer, Bär Kittelmann, knowbotiq, İz Öztat, Amanda Priebe, Anikẹ Joyce Sadiq, Sickness Affinity Group, Steckenpferde Webserie AG

nGbK work group: Jyl Franzbecker, Tyan Fritschy, Sonja Hornung, Mizu Sugai, Ülkü Süngün

Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

Information in Easy Language and DGS

Covid Protocol

Since we would like to make this exhibition and program accessible to as many as possible, we would like to introduce a Covid protocol that is available on demand:

Visitors who are immunocompromised and/or wish to minimise health risks can contact us to arrange a special appointment. Upon your request, we can arrange a time slot during which we will ask the staff and other visitors to either wear a mask or take a COVID test. Rapid tests and masks are available at the reception desk in exchange for a donation at all times.

If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms and/or have recently been exposed to the COVID-19 virus, please come back when you are feeling well. While this does not guarantee that we can create a safer space for the more vulnerable among us, we would like to offer the option of minimising the risk.

If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to arrange a timeslot, please feel free to contact us at +49 30 616 513-19 / anmeldung@ngbk.de