This project consists of two installations and a series of solo demonstrations (performances) taking place in the exhibition space, and that bring together persons who fight for self-freedom. Each intervention aims at exploring the relations of submission and domination that underlie society and morality.

Gongora's latest work engages a Brechtian discourse about radical alienation, while also embracing with the Benjamin’s and Kleinian’s concept of violence, and Elaine Scarry’s ideas on pain that leads to destruction. Volkskunsthalle can be included in a series of recent works that employ incompletion, chaos and confusion as a production strategy. Therefore, the mutability of the representation takes over the aesthetics of the work, thus emphasizing the process rather than the finished product.

Created in relation to Kreuzberg neighborhood during a yearlong residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Volkskunsthalle reacts to the processes of transition and renewal experienced by the city of Berlin and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. With this research project, Gongora aspires to expand on the relation between destruction and reparation: is violence the ultimate way to reject subjugation?

The project was made in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts and the Embassy of Canada (Berlin) in the context of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien’s International Studio Program. I wish to thank the participants.

DEMO BERLIN 2009

September 17 - Opening's performance.
An artist as a squatter.
An artist as a squatter that fights discrimination

September 18 - An institution.
An institution that fights the limitation of its freedom

September 19, 25 - A jobless person.
A jobless person that fights social exclusion

September 20, 26 - An anti-racist.
An anti-racist that fights xenophobia

September 23 - A protester.
A protester that fights oppression

September 24, 30 - An activist.
An activist that fights injustice

September 27, October 01 - A musician.
A musician that fights unemployment

September 30 - A racist.
A racist that fights an "uncritical attitude"

October 02 - An artist.
An artist that fights normality

October 03 - Artist's Talk.
An artist as a squatter.
An artist as a squatter that fights discrimination

October 04 - People's art space.