COVEN BERLIN
By Coven Berlin
COVEN BERLINOct 09, 2021
On Rape and Complexity at C/O Berlin
Exhibition Review read by Ki Niehaus. Read more at www.covenberlin.com.
Holy Rebirth of a Youthful Pilgrim
Read by Inky.
Read the article and more at www.covenberlin.com.
From Lehrte to Berlin: The Need for a Poetics of Puberty
Creeping with Melanie Jame Wolf
Check out our interview with Melanie Jame Wolf about her current exhibition which takes from the Spaghetti Western genre to look critically—and cheekily—at the insidious creeping presence of everyday violence and fascism. It is sexy, witty, full of muscle, and totally eerie.
Mark your calendars for February 3rd for her artist talk with the show’s curator Adriana Tranca and a performance to follow!
Read by Melanie Jame Wolf and Harley Agnes Aussoleil
Read more on covenberlin.com
Site of Desire & Pain threshold
Read by Shin Hui Lee.
Read more on covenberlin.com.
The 5 Ws of Having a Threesome
Read by COVEN BERLIN.
Read more on covenberlin.com.
Commit to the Bit! by Flip Zang.
Read more at: https://www.covenberlin.com/commit-to-the-bit/
Bog conjunct Neptune - Dreams and Jeopardy
read more on covenberlin.com.
QTGRL.Me Girlonline At The End of An Era
read more on covenberlin.com. Recorded by Daphne Knouse for Ada Wickens.
Looking at the moon, twice
read more on covenberlin.com. Recorded by Cathy Walsh for Gabriela Gordillo.
Wart Paintings
by Johanna Hedva. More on covenberlin.com
Unter den Linden
by Halle Frost. Read it and more at covenberlin.com.
Unmeasurable Falling
By Aliaxey Talstou. Text available on covenberlin.com.
Forest that Cares – on Belarus, Partisans, and Thicket We Can Learn A Lot From
Read by Olga Bubich
The Art of (Not) Forgetting - photographing memories as a way to resist censorship
by Olga Bubich - Article available on covenberlin.com
The End is Not an Option: Carrier Bags and the Rhythm of the Bog
by Laura Burns. More at covenberlin.com/the-end-is-not-an-option
High Priests of Mass Data, or Surveillance is Just Astrology for White Men
Read by Joey Cannizzaro (author).
Pluto is the deity of the underworld, the planet of raw power, obsession and control, organized violence, reversals, and foundational transformations. In astrology, the Pluto return is the moment when the planet comes back to the exact position it was in at the moment of birth - a process that takes about 225 years.
Read more on covenberlin.com.
It Glitches at the Sight of Our Nipples
Mai Ishikawa Sutton is an organizer, facilitator, writer, & editor. Their work focuses on the intersection of technology and the solidarity economy. They are co-founder and editor of COMPOST (compost.digital/), an online decentralized magazine and creative lab to cultivate the digital commons.
More on covenberlin.com
An ode to the cybernetic patron saint of work and procrastination, Lofi girl.
Read by İdil Galip (author).
To hear some beats to relax/study to,
I invoke Lofi girl.
In a mythic time of human/cyborg symbiosis,
she and I are one.
By the grace of her beats,
I can achieve my best self.
Read more on covenberlin.com.
Feelings at the Edge: A Chumbox Tour
By Leslie Liu
The scene is all too familiar, the gestures rehearsed. It begins with the innocence of casual browsing, the wide-eyed wonder as you click and scroll, traipsing around some mildly interesting news article. Then it leers at you, inevitable and horrible. Chumbox ads upset the assumed comfort that comes with browsing. Pairing disturbing imagery with sensationalist captions, these advertisements lurk below news articles, disrupting the nimbleness and gracefulness of the online. Unsightly images of celebrities and skin—writhing masses of flesh and tissues—known as chum, dot the internet. Targeting the subconscious, chumboxes are an unfiltered expression of misdirection and clickbait—body horror made visually tactile.
Read more on covenberlin.com
A Conversation on Care - tools by Anisha Gupta Müller
‘A Conversation on Care’ was the official name of the talk SchwarzRund and I gave in Summer 2021, as part of COVEN BERLIN’s event “sink in to the bog.” Watching it back though, I realise that another title could have been ‘A long overdue catch up between friends who are always keen to work together, could forever talk to each other, but don’t always have the energy to do so.’ Phew. It was a special evening, being IRL with SchwarzRund, as throughout the pandemic we had only seen each other in the virtual world. We had a few rushed informal catch ups behind the scenes - how are your energy levels doing, are you as nervous as me haha - before we sat ourselves down in the instagrammable golden hour light. Our conversation was a bit boglike: unstructured and free flowing. I quickly departed from the bullet points I had prepared as we discussed zoom calls, the health industrial complex, and community care. We covered a lot!! So, I was thinking, where can these thoughts and experience go from here? Both me and SchwarzRund host workshops and organize for community events, and I thought I would organize them into a user-friendly list that could help you with future projects. These are questions that you can ask yourself, inspired by our conversation.
The Troll: Between the Mythological and the Digital
Read by Mericrisma
Suddenly You're Pointing Everywhere and Everywhere Points Right Back
Read by Maxi Wallenhorst
We started calling ourselves mycelium by Eduardo Makoszay Mayén
Read by Eduardo Makoszay Mayén
Aqualiteracies: Understanding (and Sensing) Water as a Hybrid Data Carrier
Read by Daniela Medina Poch.
Poems by Inky Lee
covenberlin.com - Inky Lee is an interdisciplinary artist and writer living in Berlin.
Turf House Erotica: Soft Darkness and Radiating Body Heat (Honoring Our Icelandic Ancestors)
The future toddlers of my friends clamber over me and affectionately sprinkle grass onto my shoulders
Initiation. By Cleo Wächter.
This is the story of my arrival to Berlin. full text on covenberlin.com
soul death in a digital dating app by aimilia eft
Have you ever walked into a room on a warm evening and noticed an unpleasant odor? So unpleasant and complicated that it is visible to the naked eye?
I haven’t smoked for two months, yet I wake up every day with an acid taste in my mouth. The bitterness that I reflect to others mirrors the bitterness within me. It’s a bitterness so rich with associations, so raw and complicated.
... Read more on covenberlin.com
Gothy (un)pregnancies
Read by Olga Tyszkiewicz.
I try to remember and all I can taste is earth.
Tales by rivers and bodies concerning climate disaster and belonging. By Zinzi Buchanan. Available on covenberlin.com.
The ____ & ____ Oracle an offering from members of Sickness Affinity Group BOOKLET 1
The ____ & ___ Oracle is a collective voice aiming to support sick, disabled, and care-giving artists and cultural workers with navigating acessibility and working conditions. At the heart of this project is the desire to create space for collectively answering questions, doubts, desires, and
calls for advice around topics of accessibility, institutional struggles, and intersectional exclusion. As well as ofering advice, The ____ & ___ Oracle shares resources, personal stories, and tools for enacting change.
This publication was produced by five members of Sickness Affinity Group: Clay AD, Frances Breden, Laura G. Jones, Romily Alice Walden and Inga Zimprich in a closed, project-based sub group.
This project has been funded in part by the UdK Graduate School as part of Romily Alice Walden’s Graduate School Fellowship.
Sickness Afinity Group consists of chronically ill, disabled and care- giving artists / cultural workers,
as well as people working on
topics of accessibility and care. Sickness Afinity Group functions
as a support group that challenges the competitive and ableist mode
of working in the arts. We share experiences and information while prioritizing the well-being and access needs of our group members. Sickness Afinity Group holds open bi-monthly meetings in Berlin
and maintains an open email list - sicknessafinity.org
If you are a curator, cultural worker, or institutional representative reading this document, we hope that you may feel
called to enact some of what you learn here in your work moving forward. If you are a sick / disabled / care-giving or otherwise marginalised person reading this document, we hope it may bring you solace, a feeling of connection and a hope for change.
Das ____ & ____ Orakel - ein Angebot von Mitglieder:innen der Sickness Affinity Group - Heft 1 - Deutsche Übersetzung
Das ____ (erschöpfte) & ___ (mitfühlende) Orakel ist eine kollektive Stimme, die darauf abzielt, kranke, behinderte oder fürsorglich tätigen Künstler:innen und Kulturarbeiter*innen bei der Navigation von Barrieren und Arbeitsbedingungen zu unterstützen. Im Zentrum dieses Projekts steht der Wunsch, einen Raum zu schaffen, in dem Fragen, Zweifel, Wünsche und Rufe nach Unterstützung rund um die Themen Barrierefreiheit, Auseinandersetzungen mit Institutionen und intersektionale Ausgrenzung kollektiv beantwortet werden. Das ____ & ___ Oracle bietet nicht nur Unterstützung,, sondern stellt auch Ressourcen, persönliche Geschichten und Werkzeuge zur Verfügung, um Veränderungen herbeizuführen.
Die Publikation wurde von fünf Mitglieder:innen der Sickness Affinity Group in einer geschlossenen, projektbezogenen Arbeitsgruppe erstellt: Clay AD, Frances Breden, Laura G. Jones, Romily Alice Walden und Inga Zimprich
Dieses Projekt wurde zum Teil von der UdK Graduiertenschule im Rahmen des Graduiertenschulstipendiums von Romily Alice Walden gefördert.
Die Sickness Affinity Group besteht aus chronisch kranken, behinderten und fürsorglich tätigen Künstler:innen /Kulturschaffenden sowie Menschen, die sich mit den Themen Barrierefreiheit und Fürsorge beschäftigen. Die Sickness Affinity Group ist eine Support Gruppe, die den kompetitiven und ableistischen Modus der Arbeit in der Kunst herausfordert. Wir tauschen Erfahrungen und Informationen aus, während wir das Wohlbefinden und die Bedürfnisse unserer Gruppenmitglieder in den Vordergrund stellen. Die Sickness Affinity Group hält alle zwei Monate offene Treffen in Berlin ab und unterhält eine offene E-Mail-Liste - sicknessaffinity.org
Wenn du eine Kurator:in, Kulturarbeiter:in oder Vertreter:in einer Institution bist, die dieses Dokument liest, hoffen wir, dass du dich aufgerufen fühlst, etwas von dem,
was du hier lernst in deiner zukünftigen Arbeit umzusetzen. Wenn du ein ekranke / behinderte / pflegende oder anderweitig marginalisierte Person bist, die dieses Dokument liest, hoffen wir, es möge dich trösten, dir ein Gefühl der Verbundenheit und eine Hoffnung auf Veränderung geben.
Inhalt:
Im Sinne der Arbeit im Rahmen unserer Kapazitäten und gegen die Auslöschung der Fürsorge durch den Kapitalismus präsentieren wir hier eine unvollständige, unvollkommene und amorphe Sammlung von Schriften in Form von zwei Broschüren und einem Satz von 8 Postern.
Heft 1:
Einführung
Inhalt
Fragen und Antworten mit dem Orakel
Heft 2:
Schreibanregungen
Eine Reihe von Fragen für Institutionen, die sich mit kranken, behinderten oder fürsorglich tätigen Künstler:innen/Kulturschaffenden beschäftigen
Eine unvollständige Ressourcenliste
Credits und Danksagungen
Diese Broschüren werden von einer Reihe von Plakaten begleitet, die in ganz Berlin verteilt werden sollen. Wir laden euch ein, eure Plakate im öffentlichen Raum aufzuhängen oder sie digital mit eurer Community zu teilen; auf der Rückseite jedes Plakats findet ihr ein Rezept für Weizenkleister.
Wir laden euch dazu ein, eure eigenen Orakel zu werden, eure kranken und behinderten Gemeinschaften zu finden und zu schätzen und euch umeinander zu kümmern.
Things Change When They Are Wet
Kundalini Yoga Demystified - Xenia Taniko
Read by Xenia Taniko.
Touch As In - Anonymous
Read by Anonymous.
Commodifying Oppression: The Co-option Of Resistance Aesthetic - Regan de Loggans
Read by Regan de Loggans.
I am the pre-burned, the burned, the burn, the cool - Simon(e) van Saarloos
Read by Simon(e) van Saarloos.
Diaries of a Bitch in Heat - Louise Trueheart
Read by Louise Trueheart.
Hot Or Not 2 - Bard
Read by Bard.
How To Boil An Egg - Laura Lulika
Read by Harley and Mine.
Gestating Vampires-FourPoems - Alice dos Reis
Read by Alice dos Reis.
French Cinema and Me: A Tale of Two Summers - Eluned Zoe Aiano
Read by Eluned Zoe Aiano.
Implies, Presupposes, Begets - Delali Ayivor
Read by Delali Ayivor.
Hot Or Not - Daddypuss Rex
Read by Daddypuss Rex.
Fiery Swallowed Rage - Mohini Hewa
Read by Mohini Hewa.
Normality - Inky Lee
Read by Inky Lee.
For Three Voices - marc norbert hörler
Read by marc norbert hörler.
Beginning, Middle (Age), End_ script notes and revisions - Melanie Jame Wolf
Read by Melanie Jame Wolf.