The House of World Cultures.
Towards the canal, an unusual structure is framed in greenery, and hovers over a still lake adorned with Henry Moore’s 8 + tonne split butterfly titled: Large Divided Oval: Butterfly. The undulating forms of architecture, sculpture and nature seem to suggest that the impossible is possible, that fluidity is the base DNA of nature, that perhaps your every action is your own butterfly effect, rippling out in history around you , and after you are gone.
On the canal-side, the building has a more concrete
and square exterior, facing even more concrete structures as the water bends around the canal path.
The talk was entitled: On Sonic Grounds and I presented a digest on Chris Weaver’s and my sound-walk made in Dubai called Tracing the Chora.
The walk used oral history and field recording, to direct walkers for an hour without a map around the undeveloped and partly-developed areas on the edges of an arts industry district in Dubai’s industrial zone. Chora, taken from Plato’s ideas of the unformed, became for us a translation of the walk – an exploration of the interstices in thinking, in social positioning, in experience, and temporality.
The evening featured fellow artist Bnaya Halperin-Kaddari, an Israeli artist recording in the forcably emptied villages in Palestine, accompanied by performer Roni Brenner with her prepared guitar. The panel was hosted by Jan Verwoert, visiting professor and supervisor for fellows of the Graduate School. We held a night of presentations, performance and Q&A on the themes of walking, listening and territories.
Organised by Graduiertenschule or BAS (The Berlin Centre for Advanced Studies in Arts and Sciences) of The Universität der Künste Berlin, the largest art school in Europe, in collaboration with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Supported by the Einstein Foundation Berlin.
