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Breaking the Spell podcast

Breaking the Spell podcast 

Listen to the podcast at RADIO KAPITAŁ

 

Breaking the Spell was a pilot step of the artistic research project that reflected practices of thinking-with and being-with in performing arts and researched spells as political and artistic practice. Stemming for the moment of an overwhelming exhaustion by the dominant modes of producing in the arts field, it attempted to understand how to make art in between the ends of the world. Together with a group of European artworkers, we have been looking for feminist strategies to build transnational allingments and re-enchant (as Silvia Federici has it) the ways we work. For a year and a half between 2022 and 2023, we gathered in four European cities, being hosted by Residenz Schauspiel in Leipzig, Munich Kammerspiele, InSzPer Performing Arts Institute in Warsaw and Viernulvier in Ghent

 

The podcast is the invitation to join some of the Breaking the Spell exchanges. All four episodes, conceived by Zuzanna Berendt, Marta Keil and Anna Majewska, were created in collaboration with artists, artworkers and thinkers participating in the Breaking the Spell and with representatives of the communities in some of the localities where the project took place. 

 

What you are listening to is by no means a result of this journey, as we feel it has only started. We are rather offering a glimpse into our exchanges, questions, struggles and joys, with hope to become many in re-enchanting the ways we do things - in the art and far beyond.

 

concept of the podcast: Zuzanna Berendt, Marta Keil, Anna Majewska

podcast hosts: Zuzanna Berendt, Anna Majewska
conversers: Maria Beburia, Aleksandra Borys, Silvia Bottiroli, Mike Dittrich Frydetzki, Charlotte Eifler, Thomas Frank, Samara Hersch, Marta Jalowska, Caroline Kapp, Yulia Krivich, Marieke De Munck, Grzegorz Reske, Stefanie Wenner

sound contributions: Aleksandra Borys, Alicja Czyczel, Damla Ekin Tokel (BOK), Martina Hefter, Agata Maszkiewicz, Georgia Ohanesian Nardin, Agata Siniarska & ratmilk, Ingrid Vranken

editing: Ola Kuzemko

music: Pavla Bastlová (Tokyo Drift)

Breaking the Spell was curated by Marta Keil in cooperation with Thomas Frank (Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig), Olivia Ebert (Münchner Kammerspiele in Munich), Grzegorz Reske (Performing Arts Institute in Warsaw) and Kopano Maroga and Marieke de Munck (Viernulvier in Ghent).

 

with: BOK (Flore Herman, Joana B. Polge, Damla Ekin Tokel, Sarah Vanhee), Aleksandra Borys, Silvia Bottiroli, Alicja Czyczel, Charlotte Eifler, Begüm Erciyas, Mike Dittrich Frydetzki, Martina Hefter, Samara Hersch, Marta Jalowska, Caroline Kapp, Lina Majdalanie, Agata Maszkiewicz, Giorgia Ohanesian Nardin, Agata Siniarska, Swoosh Lieu, Ingrid Vranken, Stefanie Wenner


archiving practice: Zuzanna Berendt, Anna Majewska


production management: Ulrike Melzwig

Funded by the                                  Funded by the Federal Government

German Federal Cultural Foundation             Commissioner for Culture and the                                                      Media 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Episode 1. 

All the Spells We Need To Cast

(listen here)

 

What spells do we need at times when the conditions we live in form a curse that often seems impossible to break? In this episode of the Breaking the Spell podcast, we look at spells and witchcraft practices as artistic and political ones, unpacking their potential to transform reality - or at least the way we look at it. 

 

In a conversation featuring Alexandra Borys, Mike Dittrich Frydetzki and Stefanie Wenner we reflect relationship between artistic work and spellcasting, attempt to grasp the impact of more-than-human presences on our being in the world, and to see the language as potentially powerful performative tool. 

 

The meeting was recorded during the last gathering of Breaking the Spell, in Viernulvier in Ghent in March 2023. Additionally, three more artists offer sound contributions as their responses to the conversation. Ingrid Vranken introduces her formula for spellcasting. Martina Hefter sends a sound-postcard in which she touches upon the figure of witch and her power. Georgia Ohanesian Nardin share their thoughts on spells and their performative agency. 

 

The podcast was created as a harvesting of the Breaking the Spell project
curator of the project: Marta Keil

concept of the podcast: Zuzanna Berendt, Marta Keil, Anna Majewska

podcast hosts: Zuzanna Berendt, Anna Majewska
moderation of the conversation: Zuzanna Berendt, Marta Keil
conversers: Aleksandra Borys, Mike Dittrich Frydetzki, Stefanie Wenner

sound contributionsMartina Hefter, Georgia Ohanesian Nardin, Ingrid Vranken

editing: Ola Kuzemko

music: Pavla Bastlová (Tokyo Drift)

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Episode 2.

Becoming with others. Feminist practices of thinking-with in performing arts

(listen here)

 

With whom do feminist artists think? How can artistic practices associate different voices and perspectives? In this episode of the Breaking the Spell podcast, we discuss feminist strategies of thinking-with in performing arts - practices of sharing knowledge, transcending the individualistic paradigm of creative work and relating to humans and more-than-humans in art projects.

 

In the conversation with Silvia Bottiroli, Charlotte Eifler, Caroline Kapp and Samara Hersch we share our practices thinking-with and explain how those practices are situated in time and space. In the end, we dwell on the notion of discomfort in a collective knowledge creation.

 

Sound intervention for the episode was created by Agata Siniarska and rat milk band.

 

The podcast was created as a harvesting of the Breaking the Spell project
curator of the project: Marta Keil

podcast hosts: Zuzanna Berendt, Anna Majewska

concept of the podcast: Zuzanna Berendt, Marta Keil, Anna Majewska
moderation of the conversation: Zuzanna Berendt, Anna Majewska
conversers: Silvia Bottiroli, Charlotte Eifler, Caroline Kapp, Samara Hersch

sound contributions: Agata Siniarska & rat milk

editing: Ola Kuzemko

music: Pavla Bastlová (Tokyo Drift)

 

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Episode 3.

How to build alliances from peripheral positions? Ukrainians and Poles in the international art world

(listen here)

 

What is the position of artists and curators from Ukraine and Poland in professional relations with Western partners? How can we build alliances and solidarity? How to break the spell of colonial and auto-colonial practices? What can the Western art world learn from Eastern European artists about decolonization?

 

In this episode we continue the discussion that has started during Breaking the Spell gathering in Warsaw between the participants of the project and members of the “Sunflower” Solidary Community Center. Together with Maria Beburia, Marta Jalowska and Yulia Krivich, we share our experiences of working internationally in the art world and discuss the notion of Eastern European peripherality. In the end, we speculate about decolonial, international alignments that would enable us to solidarize and share resources.

 

The conversation is accompanied by two sound commentaries created by Alicja Czyczel and Agata Maszkiewicz.

 

The podcast was created as a harvesting of the Breaking the Spell project
curator of the project: Marta Keil

podcast hosts: Zuzanna Berendt, Anna Majewska

concept of the podcast: Zuzanna Berendt, Marta Keil, Anna Majewska
moderation of the conversation: Anna Majewska
conversers: Maria Beburia, Marta Jalowska, Yulia Krivich

sound contributions: Alicja Czyczel, Agata Maszkiewicz

editing: Ola Kuzemko

music: Pavla Bastlová (Tokyo Drift)

 

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Episode 4.

Creating space for what remains out of sight. In search for institutional alignments

(listen here)

What type of institutional alignments do artistic practices of thinking-with need? What traces do they leave in institutions when the project is over - if any? How to translate an exception into a condition?

Feminist artistic practices of thinking-with seek a systemic change in the working conditions in the arts field. This process needs to involve not only individual artists and their communities, but also art institutions which accumulate economic and symbolic capital that can potentially alter the artistic and social imaginaries.

 

The conversation is joined by Marieke De Munck (Viernulvier in Ghent), Thomas Frank (Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig), Grzegorz Reske (InSzPer) - three representatives of performing arts institutions or organisations who hosted and co-produced Breaking the Spell. We tackle main challenges and takeaways that emerged within the project and try to understand how the format that does not necessarily fit the typical institutional framework can become disruptive and generative at the same time. 

 

Additionally, two artists participating in Breaking the Spell proposed sound contributions as their responses to the conversation. Damla Ekin Tokel created sound postcards in which she explains the complex relationships of Bodies of Knowledge collective's with art institutions. And Aleksandra Borys reads a card spread as an invitation to speculate about the future of an art institution.

 

The podcast was created as a harvesting of the Breaking the Spell project
curator of the project: Marta Keil

concept of the podcast: Zuzanna Berendt, Marta Keil, Anna Majewska

podcast hosts: Zuzanna Berendt, Anna Majewska
moderation of the conversation: Marta Keil
conversers: Thomas Frank, Marieke De Munck, Grzegorz Reske

sound contributions: Aleksandra Borys, Damla Ekin Tokel (Bodies of Knowledge)

editing: Ola Kuzemko

music: Pavla Bastlová (Tokyo Drift)

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