TOK - TOKKIE COLLECTIVE / Portfolio

TOK-TOKKIE COLLECTIVE LORIN SOOKOOL (ZA) dance / performance JARRETT ERASMUS (ZA) performance / live electronics ANDREI VAN WYK (ZA) live electronics / voice / composer / performer ELLA ZIEGLER (GER) conceptual art / writer / performance / video

The TOK TOKKIE COLLECTIVE brings together different art forms like dance, performance, sound art, live electronics, field recordings, artistic research, conceptual art, hacking, text and voice. We are four artists specialized in different fields who have collaborated and performed with international artists and in international festivals, exhibitions, projects, workshops and residencies.

Our diverse backgrounds challenge dialogical approach, the semiotics of different art forms and the diverse readings of cross cultural contexts and collaborations.

The name of the collective refers to the game Tok Tokkie which is the Afrikaans translation for the childrens game Ding Dong Ditch or Knock and Run. In the children's game of Tok Tokkie, which is literally threatened with extinction in South Africa because security systems make it impossible to reach the front door of a house, we see a simple but meaningful metaphor for contemporary strategies of global safety and security policy which aims to define, protect and defend territories.

The Tok Tokkie metaphor also includes the motif of secretly entering and leaving an enclosed space, the provocation, the glee and the joy and challenge of the illegal game.

LORIN SOOKOOL DANCE / PERFORMACE SOUTH AFRICA ……………………………………………………………………….

It’s Like a Second Skin The Floating Outfit Project, 2018, South Africa KZNSA Art’s Gallery, 2018, South Africa The Tatham Arts Gallery, 2018, South Africa

The Moon and her Bloom Durban Art Gallery / Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience, 2018, South Africa

Bad Thunya Lerole, 2016, South Africa Sibikwa Arts Centre in Johannesburg, 2016, South Africa Infecting The City platform in Cape Town, 2017, South Africa Jomba!’s / Young Choreographer’s Platform, 2017, South Africa Norval Foundation Gallery opening in Steenburg, Cape Town, 2018, South Africa

Her Ass Meant Dance Umbrella 2016, South Africa Jomba! 2017, South Africa

Sex and Cigarettes Jomba! 2015, South Africa

IT’S LIKE A SECOND SKIN (Solo) It’s like a Second Skin was first commissioned by The Floating Outfit Project (Desire Davids and Boyzie Cekwana). The blurred behavioural ending of one’s private-offline life and the behavioural beginning of one’s public-online life serves as the inspiration for this piece. It contains a series of projected and displayed images curated and captured by Durban based photographic artist Jerome Stoffels as well as original lyrics by the unapologetic, budding Durban female rapper Lex LaFoy. The work is an interdisciplinary, installation performance that employs the use of digital interfaces. It exists simultaneously online (using the Livefeed Instagram tool) and in real life, investigative of the following themes: public/private, surveillance/self-surveillance and magnification/reduction. The work was presented in September at the ICA Live Art Festival in Cape Town. Due to the festival’s focus on performative boundary pushing I decided to remain in Durban and live stream (on Instagram) the performance to the Ritchie Gallery in Cape Town in which I mounted iPads onto the wall and filled the space with a complex pattern of sticky tape stuck sticky-side-up on the wooden floors.

The work continues to be supported by The Floating Outfit Project, assisted by the National Arts’ Council.

Making Of > It’s Like a Second Skin 2018 The images below were taken behind the scenes in the bedroom of my apartment (a private space) in Durban as well as the Cape Town venue (bottom right). A short compilation video can be found on the given YouTube page link. A link to the initial performance of It’s Like a Second Skin can be made available on request.

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THE MOON AND HER BLOOM I was granted an emerging choreographer’s commission to create a dance work specifically for the large circular Durban Art Gallery in central Durban. The title of the created work is The Moon and Her Bloom and simply aimed to connect the spiritual with the physical, sexual union of two bodies, depicted through movement. The work involved popular local artists in the Durban nightlife scene in an attempt to reach a wider audience as well as to bring a certain pop culture flair to the work. I felt that this would counter pop-cultural misuse of the sexual act as a means of selling ideas or brands to the public. Sean Ross, aka MISSU, produced the soundscape to which Ashleigh Robyn de Gee, aka Red Robyn, would add her vocal interpretations and additions, live, and in response to the movement performed by myself and Sandile Mkhize. This process-focused project also allowed for me to act as director of these different artistic mediums in a way that allowed each to find their own journey into the work. I foresee future projects of this collaborative nature and look forward to the development of this work at a new festival next year. Below are a few behind the scene images, publicity material as well as a choreographic introspective I was asked to write for the Jomba! Khuluma digital publification. A short compilation video can be found on the given YouTube page link.

Dear Diary, I have done it again; I have bitten off a chunk that I was not sure I could chew – how exciting!

I have applied for a grant that facilitates the artistic journey I am currently most interested in embarking on; collaboration, and tonight is the night we present our findings.

One can rightly assume that speaking about the intimate sexual act would be challenging and although I prepared for this, it has been remarkably effortless to initiate discussion between four people who have never worked together before. Every step of this process has happened very organically; I suppose we are all like-minded beings that vibrated wholeheartedly towards one another and the creation of The Moon and Her Bloom.

In our first meeting, we played an association game (key words being ‘Sex’ and ‘Spirit’) that included combining portions of everybody’s contributed words - whether coherently or not. We had fun with it and, the gathered sentences and vocal recordings became the visual and audio impetus for our individual creative processes.

My focus for this project was not the outcome nor was it statement-focused. Instead, the focus was on the process and this complex thing we tend to flippantly describe as ‘collaboration’. How do you collaborate, really? Very recently, I travelled to Bloem to join the OPENLab residency in pursuit of the answer only to find that there is no definite one. To me, collaboration is when artists engage in a series of structured explorations in which the outcome isn’t anything the initiator alone could have designed. The only thing the initiator really has is honest intention and hopefully, active peripheral vision.

Collaboration involves plenty trust in handing over the power of creation to all parties involved – a difficult thing for control freaks! - And so it was important for me to work with confident local individuals that have recognizable artistic visions and were also open to the idea of give and take. Sandile Mkhize (co-choreographer), Missu (music production) and Red Robyn (vocalist) embody this and, needless to say, the outcome differs to what I alone had envisioned. If I look inward, the fact that I notice this with ease alludes to artistic broadening – the sole goal for my 20 somethings J. That The Moon and Her Bloom has become the sum of its parts, I am pleased, and keenly await its development and deepening.

Cheers to the creative journey!

BAD (Solo) I was first commissioned to create a solo entitled Bad. for the Sibikwa Arts Centre in Johannesburg. The piece was then picked to be performed on the Infecting The City platform in Cape Town as well as Jomba!’s newly introduced Young Choreographer’s Platform. It was also performed at the Norval Foundation Gallery opening in Steenburg, Cape Town in May 2018. In Bad my focus turns to pop culture and post feminism. Through the portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, Bad investigates hyper-visibility of the female body and how we become trapped between wanting to be seen while wanting to hide from public attention. Set in this image-obsessed, webempowered generation, Monroe is seen as a precursor to a generation of women whose, at often times, only obvious talent lies in self-promotion. While post feminism allows for the sort of package-focused, narcissistic and often sexualized posts, I ask women to remember their position in the world and the consequences that come with focusing on these aspects of self.

All images by Herman Verway.

View a preview of the last performed version at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoexgQRkDZk&t=10s

HER ASS MEANT I collaborated on a dance film centred on sexual harassment initially for the Dance Umbrella Young Choreographers Programme which was also shown the following year on the Jomba! fringe platform. Her Ass Meant aims to highlight the issues of sexual harassment which have become normalized in our society. We filmed it professionally outside the Durban City Hall in the heart of Durban, a place my colleague and I had to pass through every day to get to work.

Here is the link to the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTuyGvb9f2o

SEX AND CIGARETTES (Solo)

I was invited to present "SEX AND CIGARETTES" on the Jomba! Fringe programme in September. "Sex and Cigarettes" Photo credit: Val Adamson.

Press: "A stand-out performance and one that encapsulated the overall atmosphere of the evening’s programme was a haunting, angst-ridden solo performed by Lorin Sookool. Dissecting her mental state through this personal, multi-faceted and imagistic approach, Sex and Cigarettes allowed for the collision of film and dance, the conscious and the unconscious, the past and the present. Her feet and arms writhing coupled with an impressive ability to isolate movements unearthed a myriad of questions around the pain relating to personal transformation. An answer is that perhaps, it is only ourselves who create interferences that prevent us from reaching our true potential."

Vedarsha Singh for artSMart, 4 September 2015 http://news.artsmart.co.za/2015/09/jomba-2015-fringe.html?m=1

YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULs9u5P-8-4

VITAE LORIN SOOKOOL

Lorin Sookool is a young professional dancer born in Durban. She graduated from the University of Cape Town's School of Dance with a Bmus in 2013. Sookool has performed at the National Arts Festival with Underground Dance Theatre (Cape Town) and First Physical (Rhodes University) and was a resident dancer at The Playhouse Company in Durban for two years.

There she worked with choreographers such as Jay Pather, Lliane Loots and Sean Bovim. She has recently completed a year’s fixed term contract as company member at the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative based in rural Mpumalanga. There, she would spend her days training and teaching in rural communities as well as disability centres.

As an aspiring choreographer and creative interested in collaborative performance for different spaces, Sookool has attended the Crossings III residency, an international workshop in 2012, PJ Sabbagha's Artist In Residency in Mpumalanga in 2016, and OpenLab Residency in Bloemfontein and Richmond this year.

She has created work for Dance Umbrella and Jomba! (2015 and 2016) including a dance film presented at each. Her solo, “Bad.” was presented at Jomba! (2017) and in Johannesburg at the Sibikwa Arts Centre’s Thunya Lerole (2016) as one of seven emerging female choreographic voices, and Cape Town’s public arts festival Infecting The City (2017) and a work entitled “It’s Like a Second Skin”, funded by The Floating Outfit Project, was created and performed at the KZNSA Art Gallery in March 2018. Recently, Sookool served as movement facilitator in E-Skin (Visually Impaired), a South African?Switzerland collaboration that sought to create a theatrical performance for visually impaired students of the Lincol Mason School (Umlazi, Durban) in which they wore mediated digital devices initiated by neuroscientist and artist Jill Scott.

Sookool currently works as an independent artist, performing, teaching and creating performance works in the region of Durban

Andrei van Wyk - Artist Statement/Biography Andrei van Wyk is a musician and sound artist with a focus on hypertextuality, experimental composition, muzak and the relations between sound, noise and music within the context of human experience. Through sound-collage, plunderphonics and free improvisation, van Wyk seeks to recreate and amplify significant aspects within basic human interaction and experience such as humour, boredom and loss, while placing them into broader historical narratives.

He also performs in various other musical projects including in the Experimental Jazz band The Wretched alongside drummer Tumi Mogorosi and vocalist Gabisile Motuba and as a solo artist with his industrial-noise project Healer Oran. van Wyk’s sound work has been included in a variety of projects including the Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival, Johannesburg; the FNB Joburg Artfair, Johannesburg and Sound in Art Processes, Keleketla! Library, Johannesburg (all 2015) as well as a performer in Invisible Cities, Johannesburg (2014); Edge of Wrong, Johannesburg, (2015/7); AMAZE festival, Johannesburg (2016) and is a contributing musician to Mute Sounds’ 1 minute autohypnosis Project. He has collaborated with artists Karin Tan and Skye Quadling on We felt a Rumble, you won’t believe what happened next: ‘TO BE DETERMINED, GoetheonMain; (2016) and at Kunstefees, Bloemfontein (2017). In 2017 van Wyk was a resident artist at MAP gallery, Richmond and at the Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg in 2018.

Andrei van Wyk - Artist Statement/Biography

Andrei van Wyk is musician sound artist with a the focus on hypertextuality, experHe has engaged in afilm work asand a composer including multi-award winning Mma imental composition, muzak relations sound, music within Moeketsi

by Reabetswe Moetiand for the which he wasbetween nominated for anoise Lake and International Pan the context human sound-collage, plunderphonics and free African Film of Festival forexperience. best score.Through He is currently collaboration on a documentary with improvisation, van Wyk seeks to recreate and amplify significant aspects within basic artist Simon Gush. human interaction and experience such as humour, boredom and loss, while placing them into broader historical narratives.

He also performs in various other musical projects including in the Experimental Jazz band The Wretched alongside drummer Tumi Mogorosi and vocalist Gabisile Motuba and as a solo artist with his industrial-noise project Healer Oran. van Wyk’s sound work has been included in a variety of projects including the Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival, Johannesburg; the FNB Joburg Artfair, Johannesburg and Sound in Art Processes, Keleketla! Library, Johannesburg (all 2015) as well as a performer in Invisible Cities, Johannesburg (2014); Edge of Wrong, Johannesburg, (2015/7); AMAZE festival, Johannesburg (2016) and is a contributing musician to Mute Sounds’ 1 minute autohypnosis Project. He has collaborated with artists Karin Tan and Skye Quadling on We felt a Rumble, you won’t believe what happened next: ‘TO BE DETERMINED, GoetheonMain; (2016) and at Kunstefees, Bloemfontein (2017). In 2017 van Wyk was a resident artist at MAP gallery, Richmond and at the Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg in 2018.

He has engaged in film work as a composer including the multi-award winning Mma Moeketsi by Reabetswe Moeti for which he was nominated for a Lake International Pan African Film Festival for best score. He is currently collaboration on a documentary with artist Simon Gush.

Andrei van Wyk - Artist CV

Career and work

2014 - Performance at Invisible Cities with Project Elo at Cosmopolitan Hotel by Joao Orrechia 2015 - I care enough to introduce the pigeon- Sound installation at Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival curated by Kalashnikovv Gallery 2015 - I care enough to introduce the pigeon- Sound installation at FNB Joburg Artfair 2015 hosted by Kalashnikovv Gallery 2015 - Performance at Art Party - Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein 2015 - Guest speaker Chips &etc at Troyeville Hotel hosted by Dion Monti 2015 - Performance for Edge of Wrong at Amuse Cafe 2015 - Sound in Art Processes curated by Kadromatt at Keleketla! Library 2016 - Healing with Darling- Performance at GoetheonMain at “We felt a Rumble, you won’t believe what happened next: ‘TO BE DETERMINED’ by Skye Quadling and Karin Tan 2016 - Performance at Hadedah’s Well Spent Sunday at the Generator 2016 - DJ set - Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival by Kalashnikovv Gallery 2016 - Performance at AMAZE festival opening 2016 - Contributing musician to Mute Sounds’ 1 minute autohypnosis Project 2016 - Carvings in the Burnt Tape- Sound installation at If we burn, there is ash curated by Talya Lubinsky 2017 - Performance at the Edge of Wrong Festival in Johannesburg 2017 - Performance at the University of Johannesburg alongside Tumi Mogorosi and Gabisile Motuba 2017 - Residency at MAP gallery in Richmond, Northern Cape with the Bloch Collective 2017 - Radio sound piece for the artists Karin Tan, Skye Quadling and Ella Ziegler at the Kunstefees in Bloemfontein, Free State.

2017 - Musical curator at the Kalashnikovv Gallery 2018 - Artist at the Centre for the Less Good Idea curated by Bhavisha Panchia and Bettina Malcomess

Andrei van Wyk - Work Links

BANDCAMP - https://healeroran.bandcamp.com/ SOUNDCLOUD - https://soundcloud.com/healeroranza

LINK to “Furnished Redundancies for Guitar and things”at the Centre for the Less Good Idea - https://vimeo.com/268586949

JARRETT ERASMUS LIVE ELECTRONICS / PERFORMANCE COLLABORATION WITH BURNING MUSEUM COLLECTIVE

Me X History (2018)

This performance intervention is the second iteration of it. The first was at the OpenLab residency in Richmond, South Africa.

The setup of the performance is me trying to hit the target with a tennis ball wrapped in sellotape. The target is made is filled with the phrase “The Past� written in Khoekhoegowab.

This language is an indigenous Khoi and San language which has been eradicated from our Southern African communities since colonialism. The premise of the performance is me struggling to reconnect with my past through the metaphor of hitting the target.

Pungwe (2018) Collaboration with Memory Biwa and Robert Machiri

This collaboration took place at the Museum Dialogues conference in Namibia. Robert Machiri approached me to collaborate with him and Memory Biwa. Machiri uses his skills and knowledge as a DJ to channel narratives from our past by building up musical archives sources from the continent. Our aim was to layer the sound and transform it by layering percussions on top what was being played. It becomes very much a sound of disruption and sometimes unsettling the audience.

Reporting Back (2018) Performance by Jarrett Erasmus and Justin Davy for Burning Musuem collective

This performance was the last intervention of this work that started in Dresden, Germany. The premise of the work is based on the colonial footprint left from the Missionary Christian movements in South Africa during the early 1700s. Specifically the Moravian church which was the first missionary station in the country which landed in Genadendal, a small town in the western cape of South Africa.

The core of this performance was about Justin Davy and myself putting this issue to rest, a repatriation almost, after going to Germany and getting access to the Moravian Missionary archives there. Bringing some of what was found and staging a superficial funeral procession and the burial of this knowledge here in South Africa.

During our time in Dresden we experienced criticism of not packaging our findings from the archive in a more academic presentation. Burning Museum collective was never and will never be an academic project at its core, we are a collective of artists uncovering our own social histories and reimagining or retelling them in our own way.

COLLABORATION WITH BURNING MUSEUM COLLECTIVE Onthou Djy Nog/ Remember To Forget (2016)

By Burning Museum collective

An intervention staged in a neighborhood in the center of Amsterdam called the Transvaalbuurt as part of the “Reassisting Narratives” exhibition curated by Chandra Frank at the Framer Framed gallery. This area in the city had streets named after former apartheid generals and presidents. Later there was an attempt to change some of the names to that of the freedom fighters like Steve Biko.

With no real investment into contexualising who the names were and what it meant to have opposing forces like Biko and Botha’s names right next to each other, we thought it was worth staging an intervention there to open up a dialogue the local public about our presence there and what we felt was unsettling historically about that space.

The dialogue became quite heated and lasted about 3 hours. The intensity was not about us being there but rather sparked another arc into the conversation of about black and white relations between the local Dutch community. It had become clear that the Netherlands had a lot of unresolved social tensions within its society, many residents of color were expressing sincere sentiments of neglect within their own country.

This moment could never be resolved in one sitting and is an intervention we hope to revisit one day.

Posted on September 29, 2016 Straatpraatjies / Conversation on the Street

Sunday, 26 June – Burning Museum. Straatpraatjies. Reinterpretation of the entangled historical relationship between the city’s Arabic and Afrikaans heritage in a synchronistic visual art and music performance. Bo Kaap

A Seat at the Table (2016) Straatpraatjies

A Seat at the Table is the third installment in a series of art interventions in Cape Town and Amsterdam called Straatpraatjies. In this iteration, we re-envision the room in which the standardized version of Afrikaans was instituted by the Genootskap Vir Regte Afrikaners. The room now serves as a focal point at the Afrikaans Taalmuseum in Paarl. Our version of the room subverts the white­ washed narrative as we insert the lesser-known black roots of the language into the physical space and, consequently, into the received history of the language.

Poster paper, wheatpaste glue and items of furniture Variable dimensions

EDUCATION ZHdk Summer School programme, Zurich, Switzerland

2014 Manufractured by Burning Museum, Cape Town, SA Ubuntu Artist Exchange, Studio Museum in Harlem, NY Plakkers, Brundyn Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Do It, Michaelis Gallery, UCT, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Empty Ghosts, Public Art project, Johannesburg Boundary Objects, Kunsthaus Dresden, Germany Objetos Frontera, CA2M, Madrid, Spain Addressing the Headquarters, Framer Framed, Amsterdam Cover Version, Gallery MoMo, Cape Town, South Africa Fortunes Remixed, Bag Factory Artist’s Studios, JHB

2016 - 2017 African Art in Venice Forum, Italy, panelist on the Any Given Sunday presentation Re(as)sisting Narratives, District Six Museum, Cape Town Foundations and Futures, Bag Factory Arts studios, JHB Festival D’Art Urbain, Antanarivo, Madagascar Re(as)sisting Narratives, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Straatpraatjies by Burning Museum, Cape Town, SA

2018 Curatorial Care, Humanising Practices conference, University of Johannesburg, South Africa OpenLab: The Art of Making artists residency, Richmond, South Africa Museum Dialogues conference, Goethe Institut, Windhoek, Namibia Kewpie, The Daughter of District Six, public art event in collaboration with Gay And Lesbian Memory in Action and District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

RECENT EXHIBITIONS and CREATIVE PROJECTS

7 Victoria Road, Judith’s Paarl jarretterasmus@gmail.com Johannesburg +27718680676 South Africa www.instagram.com/@jarretterasmusstudio 2095 https://www.youtube.com/user/kudujay www.burningmuseum.wordpress.com http://asai.co.za/artist/jarrett-erasmus/

Jarrett Erasmus

REFEREES Zen Marie - artist, lecturer znmarie@gmail.com David Andrew –Wits University David.Andrew@wits.ac.za Chandra Frank - curator, chandra@framerframed.nl Mario Pissarra - ASAI mario@asai.co.za

Art B Gallery, Cape Town - Gallery Internship 2008 - 2009

Cyan Development Concepts, Cape Town — Design Facilitator 2010 - 2012 I facilitated various creative development workshops for adult participants, this comprised from drawing classes to digital design within Adobe Creative Suite.

Africa South Art Initiative, Cape Town — Researcher Feb 2013 - Feb 2014 Helped research and create an online resource of defunkt community art projects that were active during apartheid.

Thupelo Artists Workshop, Cape Town - Board member Currently a board member of this artist workshop part of the Triangle Network which has an emphasis on experimental art practices.

N.R.F. internship, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa Assistant coordinator for the Visual Art undergraduate programme

University of the Witwatersrand, JHB, South Africa Sessional Lecturer in the Division of Visual Art

EXPERIENCE

Rhodes University, Grahamstown — Bachelor of the Fine Arts degree January 2007 - Graduated in March 2011

Wits University, Johannesburg — Masters in Fine Art Degree January 2015 – (March 2017) Multidisciplinary project that focused mainly on public art practices and fringe tactics in disseminating the writing of my thesis. Curatorial Studies with Gabi Ncgobo

PERFORMANCES INTERVENTIONS ACTIONS

ELLA ZIEGLER

INDEX Performance & Engagement LEAN ON WALKING THROUGH TWO PEOPLE ENCOUNTER DONKEY Performance & Narration BATTERIES EXPLODE IN FIRE RISK OF DEATH WHEN I WAS VISITING PALERMO Performance & Poetry PERFORMANCE SEE Performance & Interventions in Public Space HOMESICK P.I.E. PLANNING IMPOSSIBLE ERRORS EXTRA ENERGY Performance & Skulpture UNTITLED (LINT) STOLEN NUMBERS UNTITLED (EXERCISE BOOK) Performance & Performing Knowledge WATERBIRDS

LEAN ON BERLIN / 2001

I cycle slowly to some red traffic lights and put my left hand on the right shoulder of a stranger.

I lean on this person as long as the light is red.

WALKING THROUGH TWO PEOPLE AMSTERDAM / NEDERLANDS / 2006

I am walking through two people.

ENCOUNTER DONKEY AARHUS / GELLERUP PARKEN / DENMARK / 2017

A human animal encounter in Gellerup Parken, the poorest neighbourhood in Denmark. While walking the donkey through housing blocks, numerous unexpected, non-verbal, warm and emotional encounters sparked vivid childhood memories and interesting conversations about flight, homesickness and feelings of being uprooted.

A HUMAN ANIMAL ENCOUNTER in Gellerup Parken / Aarhus Now, in 2017, Gellerup Parken is a diverse community with around 7500 habitants from over 80 different nations coming from different continents and cultures, which is represented in a vivid community life. In the 1970s, after the housing blocks of Gellerup Parken were completed, mostly ethnic Danish people lived there, and Turkish guest workers soon arrived. In the Gellerup Archive, you can find photographs from the 1970s documenting gatherings and summer festivals with carousels and pony rides.

During this time, there was even a community petting zoo with rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and other animals, but it was closed after some of the pets were found, having been tortured and killed. Today, residents in Gellerup Parken are not allowed to keep dogs because there have been problems with illegal dog fights in the basements of the block buildings and kidnapped dogs were found in the housing area.

In response to the Gellerup Parken pet policy I decided to invite an animal to Gellerup Parken. Birgit Winther and Peter Mejlby, Danish donkey farmers and asinus-therapists, arrived with their donkey in front of the office of the international residency program Sigrids Stue on 14 October 2017. After the donkey left the trailer, lots of children and adults approached the animal and wondered why there was a donkey in Gellerup.

While walking the donkey through housing blocks, numerous unexpected, non-verbal, warm and emotional encounters sparked vivid childhood memories and interesting conversations.

A Palestinian man unsolicitedly tried to get on the donkey because he did so as a child.

A Somali woman spoke of her flight and the cruel images she saw both during the Somalian Civil War and on her way to Europe. A young Somali man remembered the wild silver African donkeys, and he proudly told us that he still owns a donkey in Somalia. Yet another Somalian man asked us to take a picture with his mobile phone. He posed proudly next to the donkey and put his hand on the neck of the animal. He also wondered if a donkey could survive in the Danish weather and climate. Alongside the mainly respectful reactions, however, we also experienced how people made fun of the stubborn pack animal and wanted to give it a kick.

Some children weren’t sure what they saw. “What is this?” they asked. “Is it a horse or is it a goat?” Some were hesitant to touch the donkey and others caressed the soft skin and embraced the donkey’s neck. Others asked if we would sell the donkey and how much it would cost. We experienced countless smiling faces and hands touching the soft and warm skin of the patient animal. The careful and cautious animal had released peace and deep affection.

The donkey, which is still used in the Middle East and Northern Africa as a farm and pack animal turned into a silent mediator, whose immediate presence caused emotions, memories and trust.

After Birgit, Peter and the donkey, Sita, had left, some boys were strolling around and asked us, "Where is the horse?”

This project was realized by the international residency program Sigrids Stue, Gellerup/ Aarhus.

BATTERIES EXPLODE IN FIRE WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY ELLA ZIEGLER BERLIN / 2018

Sophia New and Daniel Belasco Rogers present the safety instructions for the household electrical appliances thrown into the showroom during the reading. The initially factual reading of the safety instructions develops into a reproachful outburst of anger of the speakers.

RISK OF DEATH GENERAL PUBLIC / BERLIN / GERMANY / 2014

During a finissage at the project space General Public I tell the following story. „I was going for a hicking trip on the Spanish island Mallorca. In the Tramontana Mountains my friend an me were walking for hours on a beautiful trail on an old aqueduct which earlier brought the water into the valleys. Many red signs painted on the rocks were leading us through this scenic landscape. Finally the trail ended on the edge of a 50 meters rockface. My friend decided to climb down the steep and unattached rocks. I follewed her without having any kind of experiences in climbing. At some point I ended up hanging on the edge of a steep, around 20 meter deep rock.� Every time when I remember and tell this story, my hands become sweaty.

I touch the listeners hands with my sweaty palms.

WHEN I WAS VISITING PALERMO KW KUNSTWERKE / BERLIN / GERMANY / 2010

During a performance night at Kunstwerke Berlin I was telling the following story to friends and spectators „I was visiting Sicily some years ago with a friend of mine.

First we were staying with a woman called Renate in St. Stefano on the northern coast. Her house was situated on a very beautiful spot next to the beach which we enjoyed very much. Renate recommended us an accommodation in Palermo in a friends house. So we were travelling to Palermo and we stayed in this beautiful flat of Renates friend called Marjolein. In Marjoleins kitchen was a guest book laying around were all the travellers left notes and tips about their holidays in Palermo.

One traveller recommended to take the bus to the Cathedral Monreale but she warned about the pickpockets in the bus. This note made me of course curious. So we were taking the bus to the Cathedral Monreale. On the way to the cathedral we did not see any pickpockets but on the way back we saw how a man pushed against a woman an put his hand in her pocket.“ I was putting my hand in the pocket of the person next to me.

MRS SABOWSKI FEELS THE LIGHTNESS SUPERMARKET / BERLIN / 2000

In a shop I take a bar of soap out of its package and put it in my jacket pocket. Mrs Sabowski, the checkout operator, lifts the soap package with her left hand.

PERFORMANCE BERLIN / 2010

I put on a glass pearl necklace so that I can tear it apart during a conversation at the opening of the exhibition Something might happen at Forgotten Bar, Berlin. After tearing the pearl necklace during a conversation, the pearls roll on the floor and my friend remarks “Next time you do that as a performance.�.

UNTITLED (LINT) BERLIN / 2009

I remove the white lint from a stranger’s clothing, without comment.

STOLEN NUMBERS BERLIN / GERMANY / 2008

I steal six plastic cards in a shopping centre. These cards prevent stealing by showing how many items of clothing the buyer takes to the changing room.

TATTOOS - FAUNA AND FLORA SPREEPARK ZKÖR / Center for Art and Public Space / Berlin / 2018

FAUNA & FLORA im SPREEPARK Ein naturgeschichtlicher Spaziergang durch den Spreepark mit Herr Dr. Tim Peschel (Büro für Ökologie & Umwelt, Berlin) im Rahmen des Kunstprojekts “Fauna & Flora im Spreepark” von Ella Ziegler und Alexander Augustus Dienstag, 4. September 2018, 18 Uhr Spreepark Berlin (siehe Anfahrtskizze) Der Spreepark, mit seiner über 100 Jahre alten Bürger-, Volks- und Vergnügungsparkgeschichte, liegt seit über 16 Jahren brach. Sukzessive erobert sich die Natur diesen Lebensraum zurück und wilde Pflanzen und Tiere siedeln sich zwischen dem Plänterwald und dem Ufer der Spree an. Die lebhafte Geräuschkulisse der Fahrgeschäfte wich dem Zwitschern der Vögel und dem Zirpen der Grillen und Wildwuchs überwuchert die asphaltierte und betonierte Infrastruktur des ehemaligen Kulturparks.

Ella Ziegler und Alexander Augustus widmen ihr künstlerisches Projekt der Fauna und Flora des Spreeparks, indem sie die Dynamik der natürlichen Production of tattoos in folder with illustrations

by Alexander Augustus and an ethno Nahrungskette anhand der Biotop und Faunistischen Kartierung nachvollbotanic walk through the former fair parc Spree Park/Berlin with Dr. Ing. Tim Peschel ziehen und eine Auswahl der im Spreepark lebenden wilden Tiere als tem(Office forTattoos Ecologyanbieten. & Environment, Berlin) as part of the art project “Fauna & Flora poräre

in the Spree Park” by Ella Ziegler/Alexander Augustus.

Wir laden Sie herzlich ein, bei dem Spaziergang gemeinsam mit Herr Dr. Tim Peschel (Büro für Ökologie & Umwelt, Berlin), verantwortlich für die Biotopkartierung des Parks, und mit der Künstlerin Ella Ziegler die Spuren der Natur- und Kulturgeschichte des Parks zu entdecken und zu “lesen”.

Tattoos of wild urben animals living in the former fair parc in Berlin are included in a card which shows food chain of animals illustrated by Alexander Augustus.

WATER BIRDS COLLABORATION WITH THE BITE BACK MOVEMENT (UK, KOR) MÖHNESEE / GERMANY / 2017

Tattoos of a selection of the most common water birds that live at Möhnesee (Germany) were designed and distributed to the visitors and passersby during the international Art Project ODYSSEE which was curated by Vlado Velko from Kunstverein Arnsberg at the so - called ‘Westphalian Sea’.

The project ODYSSEE took place on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Kunstverein Arnsberg. Special thanks to the ornithologist and biologist Prof. Dr. Stichmann from Möhnesee and to Alexander Augustus (UK) and Seung Youn Lee (Korea) from THE BITE BACK MOVEMENT.

Ella Ziegler geb. 15.10.1970 ez@ella-ziegler.de GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2018 2017

2016

2014

2013

2012 2010

Sleeping Pills & Peppermint, Edmund Felson Galerie, Berlin, Germany Erreger- | EIGEN frequenz, Volkspark Halle, Halle / Saale, Germany Room for Improved Futures (Artist Talk), rum46, Aarhus, Denmark P.I.E. Planning Impossible Errors @ Vryfees Kunstfestival (Kollaboration with Skye Quadling and Karen Tan) Bloemfontein, South Africa ODYSSEE, Art Festival @ Möhnesee, Germany Pissing in the River, Intervention @ BAR BABETTE, Berlin, Germany Feigned Unconsciousness (Radiobeitrag) @ SAVVY.doc / documenta14, Berlin, Germany 2016 1884 - 1915 An Artistic Position, National Art Gallery Windhoek, Namibia Public Library, Ortsspezifische Interventionen in der Amerika Gedenkbibliothek, Berlin, Germany Cut & Go, Künstlerhaus Dortmund,, Germany A Political Idiom, nationalmuseum (project space), Berlin, Germany 2015 Reanimation @ Art Science Slam, curated and initiated by Picture Berlin and Salon Satellite at Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistitk ZKU, Berlin, Germany PRADICAL PRAXES - A POLITICAL IDIOM, nationalmuseum (projectspace), Berlin, Germany PUBLIC LIBRARY, Amerika Gedenkbibliothek, Berlin, Germany CUT & GO Vom Trennen, Teilen & Zerschneiden, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany 1884 - 1915 An Artistic Position, National Art Gallery Windhoek, Namibia {reality is a very strong move} Errant Bodies & General Public in Exile #7, KW Kunstwerke Berlin, Germany “Ich habe mir das Paradies immer als eine Art Bibliothek vorgestellt”, Amerika Gedenkbiblio- thek, Berlin, Germany Festival of Minimal Actions - 30 actions by 30 artists, Brussels, Belgien Lucy Powell / Ella Ziegler, LoBe Gallery, Berlin, Germany Blindfolded Line, Dancing Through Time, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Alles in Ordnung A-Z, (Book Launch) Performance Lecture Gernot Wieland und Lena Ziese, Kunst & Kultur am Rosa Luxemburg Platz e.V., Berlin, Germany Lebensgefahr (Performance), General Public, Berlin, Germany Die Kunst der Intervention II, Galerie im Ratskeller, Berlin Lichtenberg, Germany The Worldly House / documenta 13, kuratiert von Tue Greenfort, Kassel, Germany Angst hat große Augen, Werkleitz Festival 2010, Germany

SOLO EXHIBITIONS / PERFORMANCES / LECTURES 2018

2017 2016

2015

2014

Movement of Emotions, Performance & Screening, Meinblau (Project Space), Berlin, Germany Tattoos FAUNA & FLORA des Spreeparks, Tattoos and guided tour with Dr. Tim Peschel (Biologist) at Spreepark Berlin, Collaboration with Alexander Augustus (GB), Zentrum für Kunst und öffentlichen Raum / Grün Berlin, Berlin, Germany The Sound of the Wind, Public Intervention, Aarhus/ Gellerup, Denmark Encounter Donkey, Human Animal Encounter in Public Space, Aarhus/Gellerup, Denmark Feigned Unconsciousness / Simulierte Ohnmacht (Perfomance in collaboration with Morten J Olsen (vibraphone), Sophie New / Daniel Belasco Rogers (voice), Projectspace tête – Berlin, Germany SIGN I – IV, MAP South Africa, Karoo Desert, South Africa LINE/ FEAR/ANXIETY/INVISIBLE, (Public Art Project / Richmond), MAP Modern Art Pro- jects South Africa, South Africa SEE IV (Lecture Performance), Universitiy of Pretoria, South Africa Stolen Car Stored in Bedroom, Kunstverein Arnsberg e.V., Germany Stolen Car Stored in Bedroom (Lercture Performace), Kunsthochschule Weissensee, Berlin, Germany

2012

GESCHICHTE, Kunstverein Kassel, Kassel, Germany Alles in Ordnung A-Z, (Lecture), HBK Braunschweig, Germany

GRANTS / RESIDENCIES 2019 2018 2017 2016 2011 2010 2009 2006 2005 2004 2003

Publication Grant / Katalogförderung, Stiftung Kunstfonds Project Grant / Präsentationsförderung, Berlin Senate / Berliner Senat SIGRIDS STUE, Residency, research and interventions in public space, Aarhus, Denmark Travel Grant to South Africa, Berliner Senat, Berlin Travel Grant to South Africa, ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) Publication Grant / Katalogförderung (Monografie) Berlin Senate / Berliner Senat Studio Grant / Arbeitsstipendium, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn Studio Grant / Arbeitsstipendium, Berlin Senate, Berlin Moskaureise supported by Korridor (Projectspace), Berlin Studio Grant / Arbeitsstipendium, Berlin Senate, Berlin Artist in Residence, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria Residency Elbschloß Bleckede, Lüneburg, Germany Travel Grant and Residency, Canada, Goethe Institut Toronto, Canada Goldrausch Art IT, Künstlerinnenstipendium, Berlin

TEACHING 2018

2016 seit 2014 2011– 2017 2008 – 2011 2005 – 2006

OPENLab18 / Facilitator as part of the PIKO/PIAD program, Freestate Art Festival, Bloemfontein, South Africa OBJECTS ON THE MOVE (workshop), HEAD Haute école d’art et de design – Genève, Switzerland RAGE & ANGER, Workshop on RAGE & ANGER with WAALD GmbH, Germany & Austria OPENLab16 / Facilitator as part of the PIKO/PIAD program, Bloemfontein, South Africa SALON UNIVERSITAS -Art Science Conversations / Art Academy Kassel / University Kasselund, Deutschland, Founder and Curator with Lucy Powell Professorship in the Department of Fine Arts and Art Pedagogics, Kunsthochschule Kassel / Art Academy Kassel / University Kassel, Germany University Teaching Assignment at University Kassel, Artistic Practice at the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning, Landscape Planning (Prof. Klussmann) University Teaching Assignment / Fellowship - ECAV Ècole Cantonale d`Art du Valais, Switzerland

BIBLIOGRAFY 2016

2014

2013 2012

2011

PUBLIC LIBRARY, Hrsg. Katharina Hohmann / Christiane ten Hoevel, Revolver Verlag LATITUDES / FIERCE, Interview mit Angela Conner, fierceatitudes.com/ella-ziegler FEIGNED UNCONSCIOUSNESS (Broschüre) PUBLIC ABSTRACTION, Hrsg, Kunstverein Arnsberg, Verlag Walther König Mehr als nur parken. Parkhäuser weiterdenken, Hrsg. Akademie der Architekten- / Stadtplanerkammer Hessen, Deutsches Architekturmuseum u.a., Jovis Verlag Ich habe mir das Paradies immer wie eine Art Bibliothek vorgestellt, Hrg. Katharina Hoffmann, Christiane ten Hoevel, Verlag Revolver Publishing Die Besten Kunstbücher 2013, zitty Stadtmagazin, 12/2013 Das Figurativ Vagabondage - Kulturanalysen mobiler Lebensweisen, Hrsg. Johanna Rolshoven, Maria Maierhofer, transcript Verlag BEZIRK LICHTENBERG, Hrsg. Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin OBLIQUE, Abrie Fourie, Labor Berlin, Hrsg. Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin Ella Ziegler, Alles in Ordnung A-Z, Revolver Publishing, Berlin Gold für die Geldstadt, Journal Frankfurt 9 / 11, Frankfurt / Main BILD Frankfurt, 1. April 2010, Frankfurt / Main Ella Ziegler, Hrsg. Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin