Tues. 13.06.2023 | 18:00 - 21:00
with: Cassie Thornton (and performers of the White Noise Choir, Publication by Cutt Press, Sound Design by John Broback)
curated by: Magdalena Jadwiga Härtelova
Exhibition, Performance
Mehringplatz 20
Mehringplatz 20, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
White Hole: Mythical Celestial Body is the summer exhibition by Cassie Thornton at Mehringplatz 20. The event marking its opening will include a White Noise choir performance, otherwise known as a panel discussion. Everyday smart people will consider the vast and significant economic, environmental and temporal changes coming soon to our part of the universe when all caregivers are well cared for.
Artists' description:
"What if white noise is leaking out of a theoretical white hole somewhere nearby our home, e-town (Earth). A white hole is like the theoretical anus of a black hole: it is infinitely small, infinitely flat and flattening, and it projects itself very far. As opposed to black holes, a white hole separates and segregates. What if white holes are not ‘real’, but more like something we made up (like money, war or linear time) because we love to have a white a-hole in all our stories? Where, then, do white holes get their power? It might be from the constant noise they produce. The nature of whiteness is that it impacts and gets inside everything. We have all been listening to white noise for a few hundred years and it keeps getting louder."
About the artist:
Cassie Thornton of The Feminist Economics Department (The FED) has worked with and written about art against capitalist financialization extensively. She has hypnotized hedge fund managers to have them "see" the debt they owe us and she created an alternative credit reporting system to support people to get housing and jobs in spite of massive techno gentrification. She's given cursed paintings to bankers who profit off of destroying public schools and she's taught liberation feminist economics in corporate yoga studios. Three years ago, she also launched a collective mutual aid protocol called The Hologram and wrote a book about it that was published by Pluto Press.
In this exhibition, Cassie will play the cursed prophet Cassandra, a native of the Flat White Dimension (FWD). She uses the exhibition to describe what it feels like living in a place where you suspect the things you like the most (like coffee or party drugs, for instance) are made from the distilled pain of somebody else. White noise fills the place to cover up the sound of powerlessness as we watch our demons come out of the sidewalk.
Mehringplatz 20 is a gallery space located in a bedroom. The space is curated by Magdalena J. Härtelova who also serves as its cleaner, host, and theoretician. Mehringplatz 20 presents solo exhibitions by artists engaged in, as the gallery's Code of Practice states, "thinking and creating postcapitalist worlds". Among presented projects have been: Amy Balkin's (et al.) People's Archive of Sinking and Melting, a documentation of the future of climate change, Bea Xu's Plastic Lattice, a long-distance communication device using period blood and mycelium network, and Alice Yuan Zhang's research on non-Western mutual aid Becoming Infrastructure presented in the form of an exhibition. The gallery also hosts a books, zines, tools, and connections library. When an exhibition is on view, the space is open for walk-ins on Tuesdays from 3pm to 5pm, and by appointment.
Seating: Various seating options available, from chairs to a bed to stairs
Age groups: Suitable for all ages
Languages: Introduction as well as printed and audio materials in English, the organizer of the event also speaks Czech and German
If people don’t speak the language, they can contact the curator in advance (mjhartelova@gmail.com) to inquire about setting up a volunteer with shared language
Wheelchair users | Buggies: Not accessible.
The flat is on the first floor, only accessible through stairs. Untrained assistance with the stairs is possible, ideally requested in advance via email (mjhartelova@gmail.com). Once inside, the exhibition is on the ground floor of the flat, as is the bathroom.
Hearing impaired | Deaf people: The organizers will be happy to communicate via phone notes or similar technology if the ambient sound of the full room prevents verbal communication. The audio guide will be also available as a printed text in English. More details about the performance can be requested closer to the event via the above mentioned email.
Neurodiversity: We create such structures for visitors that welcome different ways of moving within/around/outside of it. Visitors will go through the exhibition at their own pace. There will be an (undivided) upstairs room available as a lower stimuli place. Organizers are available for support.
Blind people: Can visit, descriptive walkthrough with the curator is possible.
But the exhibition is not accessible, as it mainly contains visual materials. The audio guide serves more as an accompaniment to some pieces.
Further notes: Home environment, lower scent, a household with a cat living inside, the exhibition will involve a (non-obligatory) instance on the balcony which will involve a performer smoking cigarettes.
The event is for free. No ID check at the door. Support animals are welcomed. Two non gender assigned bathrooms. Water, tea, and snacks at the event. Visitors are welcomed and encouraged to bring their own food and drinks. Collective cleaning at the end of the event.