Nils Alix-Tabeling

In his multimedia performances and installations Nils Alix-Tabeling (*1991 in Paris) moves on the threshold between fiction and reality. His works quote from science fiction, fashion, historical objects and furniture, shamanism and drag – critically reflecting the history of institutional violence against female and queer bodies.
But Who is Ulrike Mandrake? reconsiders the legacy of 1970s terrorism. The title evokes the name of a fictional character and suggests a semantic connection between the journalist and RAF terrorist Ulrike Meinhof (1934-1976) and the poisonous medicinal and ritual plant mandrake, which visually resembles human figures. It also refers to the human longing to penetrate to a supposed root of evil through scientific understanding. With an extensive new group of works as well as a performance, the artist navigates between the times, worlds, ambivalences and wounds that this topic opens up.

Nils Alix-Tabeling (*1991 in Paris, lives and works in Montargis, FR) studied Fine Arts at the Academy La Cambre, Brussels (BA, 2014) and at the Royal College of Art, London (MA, 2016). His work has been included in international exhibitions, most recently including Fleur de peau, terre à vif, Le Parvis, Tarbes, FR (2023); Planet B: Climate Change & the New Sublime, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Palazzo Bollani, Venice, IT (2022); Futur, Ancien, Fugitif, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR (2019); Le Bétyle d'Ail, Art Space, London, UK (2019). As an artist curator, he organised exhibitions at Mécènes du Sud, Montpellier, FR (2021); Galerie Lucas Hirsch, Düsseldorf (2019) and Galerie Nadine Feront, Brussels, BE (2017).

Curated by Rebekka Seubert

PROGRAM

free admission to all events

THU, 22 JUNE, 6 PM
WORK IN PROGRESS
Preview of the exhibition and artist talk with Nils Alix-Tabeling + drinks at the Liquid Currency Bar at the Kunstverein.

SAT, 24 JUNE, 5 PM
OPENING
Welcome: Roland Baege, Board of Directors
Introduction: Rebekka Seubert, Artistic Director
followed by: drinks and snacks at Zoe Williams' Liquid Currency Bar

TUE, 18 JULY, 5 PM
GUIDED TOUR
with curator Rebekka Seubert

SAT, 5 AUGUST, 7 PM
PERFORMANCE EVENING
But who is Ulrike Mandrake?
Nils Alix-Tabeling presents in an operetta-like performance a dialogue between a sleeping demon and a female figure whose biographical and character traits are based on the journalist Ulrike Meinhof, the politician Rosa Luxemburg and the writer Unica Zürn.
Language: German and English
Liquid Currency Bar
Reactivation of the Liquid Currency Bar by Zoe Williams

THUR, 17 AUGUST, 7 PM
SCREENING #23
7 PM: Guided tour of the exhibition at the Kunstverein
8 PM: Film screening in the cinema at Dortmunder U
Une jeunesse allemande / A German Youth, F/CH/DE, 2015 (93')
The film artfully cuts perspectives against each other from over 1000 hours of archival footage and creates a commentary on violence, history and the time of the Red Army Faction in the FRG with the eye of a French filmmaker.
Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot, Language: German

THUR, 7 SEPTEMBER, 7 - 9 PM
IN FOCUS
Radikale Zärtlichkeit und Hass
EXHIBITION TOUR
with curator Rebekka Seubert
LECTURE & TALK
Şeyda Kurt, journalist and bestselling author, in conversation with Rebekka Seubert about the books Radikale Zärtlichkeit – Warum Liebe politisch ist (2021) and Hass: Von der Macht eines widerständigen Gefühls (2023).

Kindly supported by

Part of PERSPEKTIVE Fund for Contemporary Art & Architecture of the Bureau des arts plastiques of the Institut français Germany, supported by the French Ministry of Culture, the Institut français Paris and the Goethe-Institut.

In cooperation with

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