“A bus carries the audience 100 km away. There the audience is deposited.”

Tomas Schmit, Sanitas – 200 Theater Pieces #79 (#3), 1962

In her complex live works, Alexandra Pirici often combines performance art, contemporary dance and sculpture. On the occasion of the exhibition at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, the artist will reinterpret Tomas Schmit’s Sanitas – 200 Theater Pieces #79 (1962). In what may very well be the most controversial of his action pieces, Schmit asks the audience to get on a bus, be driven 100 km, and then to get off the bus. Inspired by Schmit’s idea of a journey into the indeterminate and the accompanying, deliberate loss of orientation, Pirici proposed three bus tours, exploring the possibilities of movement and boundaries, especially with regard to aspects such as race, gender, and social belonging. Pirici has invited Charm Mone (singer and songwriter), Lerato Shadi (artist), and Övül Ö. Durmusoglu & Joanna Warsza (curators) to serve as guides, each bringing their own perspective to the experimental situation.

Bus tour guided by Övül Ö. Durmusoglu & Joanna Warsza

Kosmobahn: An Escape Exercise after Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop

Övül Ö. Durmusoglu (*1978 in Ankara) lives and works in Berlin. She is a freelance curator and editor and has been a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Universität der Künste in Berlin since 2019. Joanna Warsza (*1976 in Warsaw) lives and works in Berlin. She works as an independent curator and editor, and as program director of CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts in Stockholm. Warsza and Durmusoglu co-curated the exhibition format The Balconies, Berlin (2021; 2020) and are currently working as a curatorial duo on the 3rd Autostrada Biennial in Kosovo (2021) and the 12th Survival Kit in Riga (2021).

Bus tour guided by Charm Mone

Listening Session "the extended play experience – before i let go"

Charm Mone (*1998 in Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo. The experimental pop singer challenges conventional boundaries of poetry, songwriting and production, and gender and sexuality. Her single A Body I Don’t Know was released in 2019, followed by the EP Extended Play in 2020. Performances at international events and festivals include at: Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (2019); Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels (2017); CTM Festival, Berlin (2017); 3hd Festival, Berlin (2016). Charm Mone has also performed at various art institutions including at: Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2018); Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin (2016–2017); Berlin Biennale (2016).

Bus tour guided by Lerato Shadi

Lerato Shadi (*1979 Mahikeng / South Africa) lives and works in Berlin. She graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Johannesburg in 2007 and obtained her master’s degree from Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin in 2018. Her work has been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including at: Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2021); Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris (2021); KINDL Berlin (solo, 2020–2021); Kunstverein Hamburg (solo, 2020); Curitiba Biennale / Brazil (2019); Kunsthal KAdE Amersfoort / Netherlands (2018); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2018); documenta, Kassel (2017).

Alexandra Pirici (*1982 in Bucharest) lives and works in Bucharest. Recent solo exhibitions of her work include: Chicago Architecture Biennale (2019); New Museum, New York (2018); Skulpturprojekte Münster (2017); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2017); 9th Berlin Biennale (2016); Tate Modern, London (2016); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2016); Manifesta 10, St. Petersburg (2014); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2014); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014); 55th Venice Biennale, Romanian Pavilion (2013).