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Desviarios / Detours / Kursabweichungen

Paseos / Walks / Spaziergänge : Volkspark Humboldthain

14.08.21 , 04.09.21

Con / with / mit: Manuela García Aldana, Julia Mensch, Pilar Millán, Marco Montiel Soto, Marcela Moraga, Ela Spalding
Prólogo / Prologue / Prolog: Paz Ponce


 
>> Mapa / Map / Karte pdf

[DE] For Englisch please scroll down, after our group photo


Programm (Besuch, Termine und Orte)


  • Alle Touren sind kostenlos
  • Anmeldung per E-Mail (collective@neuehaeute.org) oder direkt zu Beginn der Tour. 
  • Sollte die Tour ausgebucht sein, werden wir eine andere Route empfehlen. Mehrere Aktionen finden gleichzeitig statt
  • Der Park verfügt über einige barrierefreie Wege
  • Wir werden Abstand halten und Maske tragen
  • Wir werden die Wanderungen mit Fotos und Videos dokumentieren und anschließend einen Mini-Dokumentarfilm drehen.
  • Wir geben Ihnen eine Karte. Die Karte ist mit QR-Codes gekennzeichnet, und viele Wanderungen können individuell (mit Kopfhörern) genossen werden.
  • Wenn Sie sich verirren, genießen Sie den Park!

* Samstag, 14. August

15:00 - 15:30 DeTour #0 "DESVIARIOS: Einführung" _Audioführung von Paz Ponce [EN] 
Ort: Beginnt in der Wiesenstraße / Grenzstraße (Nähe S-Humboldthain)

52°32'36.8"N 13°22'50.4"E


15:00 - 19:00 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sonnenuntergang)" _ Interaktive Klanginstallation & Performance von Ela Spalding [EN, ES, DE]
Ort: In der Nähe des Kleinen Bunkers (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E


15:30 - 16:30 DeTour #1 "Begegnungen in Symmetrie"
_ Partizipative Aktion von Pilar Millán [EN, ES]
Ort: Beginnt im Rosengarten, unter der Pergola (Volkspark Humbodlthain)

52°32'51.6"N 13°23'11.3"E



16:30 - 17:00 DeTour #3 "Sonic River” _ Klangwanderung von Manuela García Aldana
Ort: Beginnt im Flakturm Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'51.2"N 13°23'05.7"E

17:00 - 18:00 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sonnenuntergang)" _ Performance-Lesung von Ela Spalding [EN, ES]
Ort: In der Nähe des Kleinen Bunkers (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E


* Samstag, 21. August


20:00 "Gardenia Routes with Desviarios" _ Radiosendung moderiert von Manuela García Aldana bei THF Radio [EN]
Ort: online (www.thfradio.de)


*Samstag, 04. September


13:30 - 14:00 DeTour #0 "DESVIARIOS: Einführung" _Audioführung von Paz Ponce [DE]
Ort: Beginnt in der Wiesenstraße / Grenzstraße (Nähe S-Humboldthain)

52°32'36.8"N 13°22'50.4"E


14:00 - 18:00 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sonnenuntergang)" _ Interaktive Klanginstallation & Performance von Ela Spalding [EN, ES, DE]
Ort: In der Nähe des Kleinen Bunkers (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E

14:00 - 15:00 DeTour #4 "Science for a better life. Crónica de viaje desde Wedding hacia el monocultivo argentino" _ Geführter Spaziergang von Julia Mensch [ES]
Ort: Start im Flakturm Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain) 52°32'46.4"N 13°23'14.8"E

15:30 - 16:30 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sonnenuntergang)"
_ Performance-Lesung von Ela Spalding [EN, ES]
 Ort: In der Nähe des Kleinen Bunkers (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E

16:00 - 17:00 DeTour #4 "Science for a better life. Reisechronik von Wedding in die argentinische Monokultur"
_ Geführter Spaziergang von Julia Mensch [DE]
Ort: Start im Flakturm Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'46.4"N 13°23'14.8"E

17:00 - 18:00 DeTour #5 "Historia natural Humboldthain"_ Geführter Klangspaziergang von Marco Montiel Soto [EN]
Ort: Beginnt im Rosengarten (Volkspark Humbodlthain)52°32'50.3"N 13°23'12.7"E

18:00 - 19:00 DeTour #6 "Der Humboldt-Pinguin" _ Performativer Spaziergang von Marcela Moraga [DE]
Ort: Start in der Gustav-Meyer-Allee 4 in der Nähe des Abenteuerspielplatzes Humboldthain52°32'39.0"N 13°23'21.2"E

19:30 - 20:00 "Neither species nor spices. Chronik von Patagonien"
_ Buchvorstellung & Meeressuppen-Aktion [DE] von der Autorin Marcela Moraga und dem Künstler und Herausgeber Martin La Roche (Good Neighbour Amsterdam). In Zusammenarbeit mit Zabriskie Berlin.
Ort: Ana Conda am Ufer (ACaU) c/o Uferstudios. Uferstr.23, 13357 Berlin52.551898497136136, 13.374805222198157

*Montag, 06. September

19h CET “Through Water~ DESVIARIOS”_ Radioprogramm, gehosted bei Manuela García Aldana
Ort: Online. Radio Alhara  www.radioalhara.net


Ausführliche Informationen 


"Desviarios" ist ein kollaboratives Landschaftslabor, das durch die Arbeit von sechs in Berlin lebenden Künstlern aus der lateinamerikanischen Diaspora und mit spanischem Migrationshintergrund zusammengestellt wurde. Sie bieten partizipatorische Explorationen des Humboldthain-Parks durch verschiedene Reiseberichte aus erster Hand an, die sich auf moderne und zeitgenössische wissenschaftliche Expeditionen beziehen, die von europäischen Kolonialmächten auf lateinamerikanischem Territorium gefördert wurden.

Konkret ist der Titel "Desviarios" (ein erfundenes Wort, das mit "Umwege" oder "Kursabweichungen" übersetzt werden könnte) inspiriert von der historischen Begegnung zwischen zwei Wissenschaftlern (José Celestino Mutis, Spanien, und Alexander von Humboldt, Deutschland) in Santa Fé de Bogotá im Jahr 1801, die in Europa das erste Konzept der modernen Ökologie hervorbrachte: alle Ökosysteme des Planeten beeinflussen sich gegenseitig, folgen aufeinander und interagieren in perfekter Harmonie in einer Kreislinie*. Um dieses Treffen zu ermöglichen, wich Humboldt von seiner Route ab und nahm einen Umweg von 2.000 Kilometern in Kauf, um den aufgeklärten spanischen Arzt zu treffen und die exquisiteste Sammlung botanischer Tafeln, die es je gab (mehr als 6.000), mit eigenen Augen zu sehen.
Die Betrachtung dieser sechstausend Tafeln bedeutete, das Bild der Welt (Imago Mundi) als ein "Ganzes" zu betrachten, das begrifflich zugänglich, vorstellbar und darstellbar ist*. Dieses Paradigma offenbart einen breiteren konzeptionellen Sinn als den wissenschaftlichen: die Entdeckung von Naturräumen als Ziele und Studienobjekte.

Historische Überseereisen wie diese haben eine umfangreiche Dokumentation in Form von Bibliotheken mit Gravuren, illustrierten Katalogen, Karten und Erzählungen hervorgebracht, die eher ethnozentrischen Fabeln als wissenschaftlichen Beobachtungen ähneln und zwischen epischen und phantastischen Erzählungen, Sammlungen historischer Fakten, imaginären Projektionen und mythologischen Geschichten oszillieren, unter denen sich die europäische rationalistische Methodik befindet, die versucht, einen objektiven Blick durchzusetzen, der kategorisiert und unersättlich ordnet, was ihm in den Weg kommt, und versucht, die Unterschiede zu verdauen. In mehreren kollektiven Studiensitzungen haben wir dieses monumentale Dokumentationswerk als einen Doppelgänger betrachtet, der auch heute noch einen langen Schatten wirft, der die Luftwege zwischen dem Realen und dem Imaginären, dem Heimischen und dem Unheimlichen blockiert. Manche werden diesen phantasmagorischen Doppelgänger "Geschichte" nennen.

Gleichzeitig haben wir diese visuellen Produktionen als künstlerische Ausdrucksformen selbst betrachtet und eine Fortsetzung in der zeitgenössischen künstlerischen Praxis von heute gefunden, aktualisiert durch die Linse aktivistischer kontextueller und gemeinschaftlicher Praktiken, die für Menschenrechte und ökologische Perspektiven eintreten.
Auf einer kritischen Ebene schlagen die Künstler*innen Pilar Millán (Spanien), Ela Spalding (Panama), Manuela García Aldana (Kolumbien), Julia Mensch (Argentinien), Marco Montiel Soto (Venezuela/Kolumbien), Marcela Moraga (Chile) und ich (Paz Ponce, Spanien) eine alternative affektive Kartografie vor, die einige Lücken in den vorherrschenden Erzählungen füllt und dabei die Stimmen, das Wissen und die Kosmogonien enthüllt, die durch die Präsenz der europäischen Wissenschaft auf kolonialem Boden verschüttet wurden.

Wir laden Sie ein, an mehreren Reisen durch mögliche Geschichten des Humboldthain-Parks teilzunehmen, die eine irrtümliche Perspektive einnehmen und die Geopoetik des Umwegs oder der Ablenkung als (un)produktive Wissenskategorie wiederfinden: eine wandernde (irrende) Collage, die durch das Durchqueren historischer Fakten, imaginärer Projektionen, Anekdoten, Punksongs, Graffiti und persönlicher Geschichten in verschiedenen nicht-linearen, zeitübergreifenden und kontextuellen Abschnitten konstruiert wird, in dem Bewusstsein, dass das Gehen eine Form der urbanen Intervention ist, die den ganzen Körper - individuell und sozial - in Bewegung setzt, der gleichzeitig die inneren Grenzen einer Stadt liest, schreibt und manifestiert.

Dieses Projekt wird im Rahmen der Veranstaltungen zum Jahr der deutschen Wissenschaft unter dem Thema "Bioökonomie" vorgeschlagen, daher der Titel des Projekts: "Desviarios", Umwege, Kursabweichungen, der nicht nur alternative Routen und fruchtbare Umwege vorschlägt, sondern auch auf den ökonomischen Kontext, das Narrativ von Entwicklung und Nachhaltigkeit aus dekolonialer und antiextraktivistischer Perspektive verweist.

DESVIARIOS Dramaturgie und künstlerische Leitung:

Paz Ponce Pérez-Bustamante (ES)

Produktion:

neue häute e.V.
Künstler-Kurator*innen Kollektiv

Partner venue:

Ana Conda am Ufer /ACaU
 Kollektiver Forschungsraum
Café-Resto-Bar

Fördermittel:

Gefördert durch den Bezirkskulturfonds und in Kooperation mit dem Fachbereich Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte des Bezirksamts Mitte von Berlin





kollaboratives Landschaftslabor im Ana Conda am Ufer (ACaU) Juli - August 2021
    Bibliography and references:

Berríos, María (2010): “Desvíos de la deriva. Experiencias, travesías y morfologías” (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 5.5.-23.08.2010)
https://www.museoreinasofia.es/multimedia/desvios-deriva-conversacion-entre-lissette-lagnado-maria-berrios

Burckhardt, Lucius (2006): Why Is Landscape Beautiful? The Science of Strollogoly. Ed. Markus Ritter and Martin Schmitz, Basel: Birkhäuser, 2015

Careri, Francesco (2002): Walkscapes. Walking as an aesthetic practice. Ed.Gustavo Gili, Land&Scape series.

Celestino Mutis, José: José Celestino Mutis, una expedición botánica. Ed. La Fabrica. 2019

Cardiff, Janet (2015): The walk book. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, A21

Ndikung, Bonaventure (2018): “Those Who Are Dead Are Not Ever Gone (On the Maintenance of Supremacy, the Ethnological Museum and the Intricacies of the Humboldt Forum)”. In South as a State of Mind. Summer/fall 2018, X issue

Vidal Claramonte, Mª Carmen África, Traducción y asimetría. Peter Lang. Internationaler Verlag des Wissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main 2010.

Rojas Mix, Miguel (1992): América imaginaria. Co-ed. Erdosain Ediciones

Vázquez, Rolando (2020): VISTAS OF MODERNITY decolonial aesthesis and the end of the contemporary. Publication by the Mondriaan Fund.

Walser, Robert (1917): Der Spaziergang-The walk. New Direction Books.

[EN] 

Program (visit, dates and places)


  • All tours are free
  • Registration by e-mail (collective@neuehaeute.org) or directly at the beginning of the tour. 
  • If the tour is fully booked, we will recommend another route. Several actions will take place at the same time
  • The park has some accessible trails
  • We will keep our distance and wear a mask
  • We will document the walks with photos and videos and then make a mini-documentary.
  • We will give you a map. The map is marked with QR codes, and many hikes can be enjoyed individually (with headphones).
  • If you get lost, enjoy the park!


Saturday 14th August


15:00 - 15:30 DeTour #0 "DESVIARIOS: Introduction" _ Audio tour by Paz Ponce [EN]
Location: Starts in the Wiesenstraße / Grenzstraße (Nähe S-Humboldthain)

52°32'36.8"N 13°22'50.4"E



15:00 - 19:00 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sundown)" _ Interactive Sound installation & Performance by Ela Spalding [EN, ES, DE]
Location: Close to the Kleiner Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E

15:30 - 16:30 DeTour #1 "Begegnungen in Symmetrie"
_ Participatory action by Pilar Millán [EN, ES]
Location: Starts in the  Rosengarten, under the Pergola (Volkspark Humbodlthain)

52°32'51.6"N 13°23'11.3"E 


16:30 - 17:00 DeTour #3 "Sonic River” _ Soundwalk tour by Manuela García Aldana
Location: Starts in the Flakturm Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'51.2"N 13°23'05.7"E

17:00 - 18:00 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sonnenuntergang)" _ Performative reading by Ela Spalding [EN, ES]
Location: Close. to the Kleiner Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E


* Saturday, 21. August

20:00 "Gardenia Routes with Desviarios" _ Radioprogram hosted by Manuela García Aldana at THF Radio [EN]
Location: online (www.thfradio.de)* Click on the image and listen to the full program!


*Saturday, 04. September


13:30 - 14:00 DeTour #0 "DESVIARIOS: Introduction" _Tour by Paz Ponce [DE]
Location: Starts in the Wiesenstraße / Grenzstraße (Nähe S-Humboldthain)

52°32'36.8"N 13°22'50.4"E


14:00 - 18:00 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sundown)" _ Interactive sound installation & performance by Ela Spalding [EN, ES, DE]
Location: Close to the Kleiner Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E

14:00 - 15:00 DeTour #4 "Science for a better life. Crónica de viaje desde Wedding hacia el monocultivo argentino”
_ Guided walk by Julia Mensch [ES]
Location: Starts in the Flakturm Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'46.4"N 13°23'14.8"E

15:30 - 16:30 DeTour #2 "Ocaso (Sundown)"
_ Performative reading by Ela Spalding [EN, ES]
Location: Close to the Kleiner Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'39.8"N 13°23'13.4"E

16:00 - 17:00 DeTour #4 "Science for a better life. Reisechronik von Wedding in die argentinische Monokultur"
_ Guided walk by Julia Mensch [DE]
Location: Starts in the Flakturm Bunker (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'46.4"N 13°23'14.8"E

17:00 - 18:00 DeTour #5 "Historia natural Humboldthain"
_ Guided Soundwalk by Marco Montiel Soto [EN]
Location: Starts in the Rosengarten (Volkspark Humbodlthain)
52°32'50.3"N 13°23'12.7"E

18:00 - 19:00 DeTour #6 "Der Humboldt-Pinguin" _ Performative walk by Marcela Moraga [DE]
Location: Starts in Gustav-Meyer-Allee 4 close to the Abenteuerspielplatzes Humboldthain52°32'39.0"N 13°23'21.2"E

19:30 - 20:00 "Neither species nor spices. Chronicle of Patagonien"
_ Book launch & Sea soup action [EN] by author Marcela Moraga and artist and editor Martin La Roche (Good Neighbour Amsterdam). In cooperation with Zabriskie Berlin.


Location: Ana Conda am Ufer (ACaU) c/o Uferstudios. Uferstr.23, 13357 Berlin52.551898497136136, 13.374805222198157

*Monday, 06. September

19h CET “Through Water~ DESVIARIOS”_ Radio program edited by Manuela García Aldana
Location: Online. Radio Alhara  www.radioalhara.net


Detailed Informationen


"Desviarios" is a collaborative landscape laboratory assembled through the work of 6 artists from the Latin American diaspora and migrant Spanish origin based in Berlin, who offer participatory explorations of Humboldthain Park through different first person travel chronicles in relation/reaction to modern and contemporary scientific expeditions sponsored by European colonial powers in Latin American territory.

Concretely, the title “Desviarios” (an invented word which could be translated as Detours or Diversions; Kursabweichungen in German) is inspired by the historic meeting between two scientists (José Celestino Mutis, Spain; and Alexander von Humboldt, Germany) in Santa Fé de Bogotá in 1801, which gave rise in Europe to the first concept of modern ecology: all the ecosystems of the planet influence each other, follow one after the other and interact in perfect harmony in a circular line*. In order for this meeting to take place, Humboldt deviated his course, taking a 2,000 kilometre detour to meet the Spanish enlightened physician and to see, at first hand, the most exquisite collection of botanical plates ever known (more than 6,000).

Looking at these six thousand plates meant looking at the image of the world (Imago Mundi) as a "whole", conceptually accessible, imaginable and representable*. This paradigm reveals a broader conceptual sense than the scientific one: the discovery of natural spaces as destinations and objects of study.

Historic overseas journeys like this one, generated a vast trail of documentation, in the form of libraries of engravings, illustrated catalogues, maps, and storytelling accounts closer to ethnocentric fabulations than scientific observations, oscillating between epic and fantastic narratives, collection of historical facts, imaginary projections and mythological tales, among which is the European rationalist methodology that seeks to impose an objective gaze, which categorizes and voraciously orders what it finds in its path, trying to digest the differences. In several collective study sessions, we have been looking at this monumental body of documentation as a Doppelgänger, that even today continues to cast a long shadow choking the airways between the real and the imaginary, the familiar and the stranger. Some will call this phantasmagoric double “History”.

At the same time we have been looking at these visual productions as artistic expressions themselves, finding a continuation in contemporary artistic practices today, updated through the lens of activistic contextual and community practices that advocate for human rights and ecological perspectives. On a critical level, what the artists Pilar Millán (Spain), Ela Spalding (Panama), Manuela García Aldana (Colombia), Julia Mensch (Argentina), Marco Montiel Soto (Venezuela/Colombia), Marcela Moraga (Chile) and myself (Paz Ponce, Spain) are proposing is an alternative affective cartography filling some gaps in dominant narratives, that unveil, along the way, the voices, knowledge and cosmogonies buried by the presence of European science on colonial soil. 

We invite you to join several journeys through possible histories of Humboldthain's park, embracing an errorist perspective, recovering the geopoetics of the detour or diversion as an (in)productive category of knowledge: a wandering (errant) collage constructed by traversing historical facts, imaginary projection, anecdotes, punk songs, graffiti and personal stories, in various non-linear, cross-temporal and contextual sections, with the awareness that walking is a form of urban intervention, setting in motion the whole body - individual, social - that simultaneously reads, writes and manifests the inner boundaries of a city.

This project is proposed in the framework of the events for the year of German science under the theme "Bioeconomy", hence the title of the project: “Desviarios”, Detours, Kursabweichungen, which proposes not only alternative routes and fruitful detours but also refers to the economic context, the narrative of development and sustainability from decolonial and anti-extractivist perspectives.

DESVIARIOS Dramaturgy and artistic direction:  

Paz Ponce Pérez-Bustamante (ES)

Dramaturgical assistance:  

Manuela García Aldana (CO)

Production:

neue häute e.V.
Künstler-Kurator*innen Kollektiv

Funding instrument: 

Supported by the Bezirkskulturfonds and in cooperation with the Department of Art, Culture and History of the District Office Mitte of Berlin

Partner venue:

Ana Conda am Ufer /ACaU
Kollektiver Forschungsraum
Café-Resto-Bar

Documentation:

Andressa Cantergiani 

Graphic Design: 

Paz Ponce (Poster), Marco Montiel Soto (Map)


The tours, the stories


DeTour #1 “Encounters in Symmetry” by Pilar Millán (Spain)



In this “Desviario” I would like to share the consequences of a trip: the desire to strengthen a sense of community. In 2019 I travelled to Ecuador and Colombia, where besides Alexander von Humboldt, the Spanish botanist José Celestino Mutis is also well known. Researching my two famous fellow citizens (Cádiz/Berlin), I realized that Humboldt had once taken a 2000 Km detour of his expedition only to meet Mutis in Bogotá, to work with his famous library and extraordinary collection of botanical drawings.

I realized that this encounter was symmetrical, in terms of exchange of knowledge. But, in my view, Cartesian thinking after the scientific expeditions lacked something essential for a full understanding of life in America, like an incomplete translation. As R.Barthes warns us, the encratic language is one or repetition.

From these thoughts a new project was born: The symmetry of Encounters*, where I  try to penetrate this scientific language, to make a change. My Detour proposes to form a new symmetry through a common encounter, as an act of symbolic resistance versus the globally spreading radicalism of individualism. A large-scale floor installation made of tiles*, with patterns taken from the botanical plates of Mutis opens the possibility to collectively form a new floor at the highest tower of the old bunker. It is in the encounter between people that “the complete drawing” works, and where the civilizations “heal”. I am interested in the newly emerged symmetries that we can create together, and in the way we can reappropriate this monumental concrete ruin which had been remodeled by the hands of thousands into a hill to form this beautiful park today.

Pilar Millán (La Coruña, 1962) resides in Berlin, graduated in Arts, Seville University 2003. Her multi-disciplinary projects tend towards the social and cultural borders and their consequences.
http://pilarmillan.com

* Upcoming Pilar Millan´s solo exhibition at Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid Sept-Oct 2021.

** hydraulic cement, used in colonial times in European cities.


DeTour #2 “Ocaso (Sundown)” by Ela Spalding (Panama)



Ocaso (Sundown)
Iteration no. 2 Berlin - Humboldthain Park:

To soothe the mind, relax the cells, pause for a moment… observe the space-time we live in.

Recreating the bedtime routine of a child, with lullabies for humanity and stories about the past, present and future of nature in the place where the work is installed, Ocaso (Sundown) is a space for reflection and rest for living beings of all ages.

To enter this installation:
  1. Lie down or sit in one of the hammocks or on the grass nearby. Make yourself comfortable.
  2. You will find three stories in the QR code below (English, Español, Deutsch). Read them aloud to the person(s) you are with. If you are alone, read them to yourself.
  3. Feel free to close your eyes and doze off for a bit.


Two of the stories for this iteration of Ocaso (Sundown), were authored by two generous contributors:
Ian Werner (graphic designer and writer, based in Berlin; founder of Slab Mag, which gathers his and others writings on the urban imaginary. Recently he instigated the Meltwater Walks, a walking practice and body of research centred around traces of the last ice-age to be found in Berlin). And Florian Ruland (ecologist who wrote his doctoral thesis about behavioural changes in novel species communities. Teaching at FU Berlin, he explores artistic rituals of grief for biodiversity loss in order to overcome shock and inertia. He is the co-founder of a startup working on an app to support gender equality in the distribution of care work).

Ela Spalding (Panama, 1982) is an artist~facilitator living and working in Berlin. Her work explores the spaces of visual art, sound, somatic practices and wellbeing as conduits to practice and convey expanded notions of ecology. She is an advocate for multidisciplinary collaboration and interconnectedness. https://elaspalding.com/


DeTour #3 “Río Sónico” (The Sonic River) by Manuela García Aldana (Colombia)



Every place on the planet has its own History, but because of the colonial enterprise in some parts of the planet we, ourselves, have been obliged to see and to listen from the perspective of the colonizer. It is a daily practice and effort to decolonize our perspective towards ourselves and towards the places we come from.

The Sonic River is an invitation to listen to the Magdalena river (Colombia) from a diasporic perspective that seeks for a decentralized and positional way of listening. The Magdalena river flows into the Caribbean Sea and is born in the department of Huila. Manuela comes back to this river in her life as an immigrant in Berlin, tracing the beginnings of Cumbia music with the help of the research of Mirjam Wirz and her book Sobre el Río (Passage).

Manuela García Aldana (Bogotá, 1990) is a Colombian interdisciplinary artist. She graduated in the Universidad de los Andes (Master of Arts) and holds an MA in spatial strategies (Raumstrategien, Berlin Kunsthochschule Weissensee). In her process-based practice (soundscapes, Dj sets, listening collective practices, radio shows and drawings), listening is the principle and arises as a context-driven response in search for spaces of encounter, addressing diaspora and identity questions with the will to unlearn and remember other ways of inhabiting our collective life experience. She hosts sonic shows in independent radio stations THF Radio (Berlin) and Radio Alhara (Palestine). Latest works and compositions have been featured at Agora Collective (insurgencias.net), nGbK (museo de la democracia), Errant Sound (The Listening Academy) and Savvy Contemporary.
https://manuelagarcialdana.com/


DeTour #4 “Science For A Better Life. Crónica de viaje desde Wedding hacia el monocultivo argentino” [ES] / Reisechronik von Wedding in die argentinische Monokultur” [DE] by Julia Mensch (Argentina)



This walk in Humboldthain begins by looking at landscapes near and far, both urban and rural, traversed by the neo-extractivist model of transgenic agriculture. First we will project our gaze towards Wedding, then to the Argentinean soy landscape, and finally at resistances and alternatives that collectively construct other ways to relate with Nature. Divided into two chapters, this travelogue begins in 1996, when the first genetically modified crop was approved for commercialisation: Monsanto's (today Bayer-Monsanto) 40-3-3 Roundup Ready Soy. But just as the negative effects on the environment and the health of human and non-human beings are increasing, so are the alternatives. They demonstrate that there are real and concrete tools to get out of the current disaster, regenerate the soil and biodiversity, produce healthy, safe and sovereign food, and finally move towards the construction of Buen Vivir (Good Living: a new-old paradigm, based on the indigenous concept of Sumac Kawsay, which means in Quechua, "harmonious life").

Meanwhile, neo-extractivism advances and neo-colonialism, in the guise of scientific progress, continues to operate, in Wedding Bayer-Monsanto announces with impunity: "Science for a better life". The question is, what kind of science, for whom, and for what?


Julia Mensch AR/CH (Buenos Aires, 1980). Lives in Buenos Aires and Berlin. Studied at the UNA in Buenos Aires and in Hito Steyerl's class at the UdK in Berlin. Her work investigates the history of socialism and communism, as well as socio-political and environmental conflicts. www.julia-mensch.blogspot.com


DeTour #5 “Historia natural Humboldthain” by Marco Montiel Soto (Venezuela/Colombia)



The Volkspark Humboldthain was designed as a landscape with a strong emphasis on Nature, but the park has undergone a total transformation since its construction began on September 14, 1869. The exact day of Alexander von Humboldt’s 100th birthday. At the beginning the park was a botanical garden with a greenhouse, geological walls and an open air vivarium for reptiles and amphibians; later used to build bunkers as mountains radar and underground tunnels; after the park was totally destroyed and it was rebuilt again by its neighbors. The size of the park has been reduced, still a lot of grove or “hain” around, but about Humboldt there is almost nothing left. During this sound walk we will listen a sound composition that will guide us to a route through the jungle, mountains and rivers to contemplate nature, recognize trees and observe history, also a beaver that’s look like a chigüire, bat nests, butterflies, birds, crows, snails, bees, squirrels, stones, bamboo, seeds, leaves, roots and ant kingdoms. A Botanical Expedition to listen the park and listen in the park.

Marco Montiel-Soto (Maracaibo, 1976). Lives and work in Berlin. He studied the Master Sound Studies, Akustische Kommunikation. Universität der Künste, Berlin. Traveller and immigrant, his work explores the intersections between political and poetic territories, traditions, archaeology, myths, death, cosmos and chaos.https://marcomontielsoto.com


DeTour #6  “Der Humboldt-Pinguin” by Marcela Moraga (Chile)



Most humans believe that penguins live only in Antarctica. But the Humboldt penguin originally inhabits the Pacific coasts of Peru and Chile, where the cold waters begin to warm. Many penguins of this species also live in many zoos around the world. This versatility in adapting to different landscapes allows this bird to have a diverse knowledge of climate change and human behaviour. On a walk along the border of the Humboldthain Park, where there is a transparent, shiny wall separating the city from the park, the penguin will tell us about its knowledge of botany, the planets, America, Antarctica and zoos; and how they all arrive at the same place. The border offers different visual perspectives of the park: the surrounding fence, the clutter of branches, the buildings on the other side of the street, the birds coming in and out. This is a unique opportunity to have a conversation between species in an exchange that humans often avoid. During this walk the Humboldt penguin will introduce the book “Neither spices nor species. Chronicle of Patagonia” which will be presented later at Ana Conda am Ufer (Uferstr.23, c/o Uferstudios. 13357 Berlin)


Marcela Moraga (San Fernando, Chile, 1975). Lives and works in Berlin. She studied visual arts at the University of Chile, the HFBK in Hamburg and the UDK in Berlin. In her video-performances, textiles, drawings and installations, Marcela Moraga explores the tensions of the nature/culture binary order. http://www.marcelamoraga.org/