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COLAB Copenhagen – Contested Concepts
COLAB Copenhagen was a series of 4 COLAB Samtalekøkkener in April, May and June 2016 in Overgaden Art hall.
CO-LAB COPENHAGEN invited international artists and Danish officials from different Danish public institutions, to collaborate during a month residence, to create a new performative work. The 8 international artists were selected for their ability to give voice to counter-stories and personal interpretations of official narratives in their own countries. They were paired with representatives of Danish national institutions, archives and media. Two ways of memory-making met and exchange knowledge and inspiration. At four public events, the audience witnessed different research forms and life performances and were invited to take part in their processes.
Artists: Jelili Atiku (Nigeria), Ammar Abo Bakr (Egypt), Christian Etongo (Cameroon), Ato Malinda (Kenya), Odun Orimolade (Nigeria) and Sebastian Lopez Restrepo (Colombia)
Danish officials: Mette Garfield, Jessica Klemann, Peter van der Meijden, Brian Mikkelsen, Torben Sangild, Alette Scavenius,
Performance by: Ali Alfatlawi and Wathic Alameri (Iraq),
CO-LAB COPENHAGEN was curated by Marcio Carvalho and Liveart.dk
Activism, performativity, memory and identity: In their home nations, the artists are creating alternative stories, that challenge or differentiate the official history. Their Danish mentors work for public institutions, that select, store and meditate the history and identity of Denmark; a country that is known for its transparency and trust in the public institutions.
Co-curator Marcio Cavalho about COLAB:
“The program tries to think about performance and memory as forms for transmitting knowledge: How we learn through our individual and collective bodies, how we embody the archive and how we participate as audience, witnesses or participants in particular histories. The program will give special focus to the relations between performance and memory by analyzing various aspects of remembering and forgetting as two sides of a process that shapes our thinking, experience and imagination.”