counter-archive → in progress
city walks, São Paulo; September 2024
Jardim Botânico São Paulo | Museu do Ipiranga | Museu de Zoologia | Itaú Cultural - Brasiliana
Starting point for the counter-archive to the Martius and Spix collection is a search for traces in Munich's urban area. In the course of their journey to Brazil (1817-1820), the two naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp Martius are known to have shipped a considerable collection of animal and plant specimens, ethnological objects and minerals, to Munich, as well as they displaced indigenous children. Today, the collection is spread across various institutions in Munich - Martius' manuscripts are in the State Library, palm trees are growing in the Botanical Garden. There are obvious but also concealed traces in the public space of the city of Munich that still make the journey recognisable today.
In several years of artistic research, with the participation of various people, I have compiled a collection of evidence that takes a subjective and artistic look at the far-reaching traces of the Martius and Spix collection, as well as their scientific work and publications. By means of the method of grouping through linguistic interpretation, a possible sorting of the individual collection has been created that focuses on the principle of scientific classification - a fundamental rule of Western science.
The archive sorted in this way was revised by participants in several walks in São Paulo in September 2024. On four dates at four different locations, questions were asked about missing perspectives and materials, gaps, necessary overwrites and possible reorganisations. The focus was on the question of what a counter-archive can be, as well as the traces and connecting lines that can be found in São Paulo's urban space.
This approach of a counter-archive does not aim to negate the relevance of the notes dating back to the journey to Brazil. Rather, the aim is first and foremost to recognise the dominant narratives in the materials and traces in order to allow other perspectives on the research trip and its after-effects, which are still effective today, to enter the room, to acknowledge them and make them audible.
The counter-archive is understood as a continuous process, not as a finished, archivable result.
Made possible by the invitation and cooperation with Laura Kemmer, DAAD Martius Chair, and Christian Ernst, Universidade de São Paulo.
Thank you to all participants!
die Palmen sich wie folgt gruppieren:
12.07. – 01.10.2023 | Maximilians Forum München
in collaboration with Anna Lena von Helldorff and Juliana R.
We encounter palm trees in the most diverse contexts as a symbol and promise of paradise. In the global North - a rather non-natural habitat of palm trees - palm trees appear as an exoticised and romanticised symbol of non-European territories since colonial expansion and domination. The positive connotation of the plant is thus fragile and ambivalent in the face of a long ecological and economic exploitation.
The tension between scientific, economic and aesthetic interests in palms is particularly evident in the work of the botanist Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius. Martius returned from Brazil to Munich in 1820 after a three-year research trip. Subsequently he devoted a large part of his research interest to palm trees.
The exhibition places excerpts of Martius' work on palm trees in the context of contemporary specimens and evidence. The artistic research on this plant family begins in the herbarium of the Botanical State Collection in Munich. This is also where the herbarium specimens of palms that Martius collected in Brazil between 1817 - 1820 are located. These specimens were determined by him according to common procedures. This means that hitherto unknown species were given a scientific name and, in this process, were enclosed in a western, taxonomic classification system. Seeds brought from Brazil were cultivated in the Munich Botanical Garden, presumably also for the royal winter garden.
While researching Martius' work, a collection of "evidence" emerged that tells of palm trees as a research object and their associated symbolism, exoticisation, profitability, knowledge creation and trade in colonial and neo-colonial lines of connection.
The installation the palm trees grouping themselves as follows: takes the method of grouping through linguistic interpretation as its starting point. This possible sorting of the individual collection of palms continues the principle of classifying in a spatial installation in the MaximiliansForum. The different manifestations of the specimens themselves become the occasion for questions of representation as well as sorting according to an apparently objective and universal order.
[images: Verena Kathrein]
die Palmen sich wie folgt gruppieren:
Bamberg 2023
26 November 2023 – 07 Januar 2024, Kunstverein Bamberg
seventeen specimens of the Vogelsaal, Naturkundemuseum Bamberg
le palme che si aggruppano com segue:
31 October – 26 November 2023, Deutsches Studienzentrum Venedig, D3082
in collaboration with Anna Lena von Helldorff, curated by Petra Schaefer
o rei adorava palmeiras/ the king loved palm trees
An attempt to tell this story.
performance with Juliana R./ images: Luís Knihs
esponja, São Paulo; 2023
Language: German/ Portuguese/ English
We find palm trees in the most diverse contexts as a symbol and promise of paradise. In the global North - an unnatural habitat for palm trees –they appear as an exotic and romanticized symbol of non-European territories since colonial expansion. The positive connotation of the plant is therefore fragile and ambivalent in the face of long ecological and economic exploitation.
The tension between scientific, economic, and aesthetic interest in palm trees is particularly evident in the work of botanist Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius. Martius returned from Brazil to Munich in 1820 after a three-year research trip and subsequently devoted much of his research interest to palm trees.
The performance brings together the context of Martius' work with a visual, sound and historical relationship of artificial palm tree habitats and their symbolic meaning.
The performative walk brings together an acoustic foray through artificial habitats of palm trees in São Paulo with research on historical palm research, botanical classification and cultivation of palm trees in Munich.
Language: German/ Portuguese
Widerstand – Aneignung, Übersetzung und Transfer. Ein Realitätstheater,
2019–2023
Installation view Beyond Spectacle, Platform München; 2023
Printed Book, Video, Poster, Script
Spaziergang durch die Sammlung Spix und Martius
in context of im Grünen; zentral, offen, alt together with Leonie Chima Emeka
2021
06.08.2021: Reading in the Handkerchief Tree and Teppichgespräch with ethnologist Wolfgang Kapfhammer and Leonie Chima Emeka
04.09.2021: Walks through the Alter Botanischer Garten with the Kunstpavilion Team Lena Bröcker, Anna Lena von Helldorff, Katharina Weishäupl and interested people; city map on infrastructure and setting with Munich pavement slabs; reading of the contribution to the Botanische Staatssammlung with Katharina Weishäupl
Locations of the walk [texts in progress]: Allitera Verlag, Alter Botanischer Garten, Botanischer Garten, Botanische Staatssammlung, Gedenktafel für Martius, Luitpold Café, Martiusstraße, Mineralogische Staatssammlung, Museum Fünf Kontinente, Palmenhaus; Schloß Nymphenburg, Residenz, Staatsbibliothek München, Stadtmuseum, Südlicher Friedhof, Zoologische Staatssammlung
Photos: Anna Lena von Helldorff and Stefan Freund
The collection of the naturalists Spix and Martius, which they brought with them from Brazil in the 19th century, is today distributed among various institutions in Munich. Carl Philipp Friedrich von Martius was the director of the Botanical Garden, which was back then located on what is now the site of the Alter Botanischer Garten. Together with the zoologist Johann Baptist von Spix, the botanist led an expedition to Brazil (1817-1820) at the behest of King Maximilian I Joseph. I invited the art historian Leonie Chima Emeka, with her focus on provenance research, to follow together the traces of this research trip in Munich's public space. In the course of their trip to Brazil, the two naturalists imported a considerable collection of animals, plants, cultural objects and minerals.The walk is leading along several museums and streets, cafés and various parks. Focusing on the whereabouts of the collection, the walk invites visitors to take a special look at Munich's history and ask questions about colonialism, ownership and foreignness, exoticisation and palm trees to find out how a journey to Brazil has shaped the city to this day and how this heritage is dealt with.
Widerstand – Aneignung, Übersetzung und Transfer. Ein Realitätstheater.
Performance 80' / Discussion / 2020
KV Leipzig / as part of the exhibition Please divide in groups of two or three
with Diana Felber, Nora Wehofsits, Louis Hay, Anna Lena von Helldorff, Anna Jehle, Juliane Schickedanz, Frauke Zabel
outfit: KV–Vereinskollektion by Katrin Mayer
photos: Caspar Sänger
The printed book "Realität–Theater–Körper–Aneignung–Übersetzung–Transfer. Möglichkeiten und Unmöglichkeiten des Widerstands", published by adocs publishing in 2019, was repeatedly revised by Frauke Zabel in collaboration with Anna Lena von Helldorff after its publication. The long-term project takes its starting point in a discussion between five cultural workers – Cláudio Bueno, Bárbara Esmenia, Peter Pál Pelbart, Sylvia Prado and Márcia Silva – in São Paulo about resistance against neo-fascism, right-wing populism and censorship in Brazil. Already in this conversation, the role of Frauke Zabel, as a white, German artist in Brazil who invited to this discussion and sits at the table, comes into focus.
The reworking and reflection on this role has been transferred as an ongoing process into a video work. In the video, the performative reading of the text becomes visible alongside the editing and reworking of the printed book, as a continuous examination and process of learning.
Widerstand – Aneignung, Übersetzung und Transfer. Ein Realitätstheater.
Performance 80' / Discussion / 2019
Neues Rathaus München
with Anne Kulbatzki, Jules* Elting, Mehmet Sözer, Isabelle Cohn, Vivi Balby and Diana Marie Müller
photos: Constanza Meléndez
The Joker System
Video 20’ / Installation / 2018
Text source: Augusto Boal, “A sistema coringa”, 1967
Voice: Diogo da Cruz
The video The Joker System is based on the 1967 by Augusto Boal made slide film A sistema coringa (The Joker System). In this slide film, which consists of 50 slides, Boal describes the development of the Joker system, which marks a big step towards the Theater of the Oppressed. Each slide is accompanied by a short paragraph of text explaining the context of each picture.
The projection of the slides one after another on a wall was filmed. So the slide film has become a movie, accompanied by a reading of the slightly altered original text of Boal.
Towards Healing
Performance 25' / 2018
Sound: Juliana R.
Performer: Luis Argauer, Charlotte Coosemans, Leonie Emeka, Mira Mann, Lukas Rath
Photos: Beowulf Tomek
The Performance Towards Healing consists of movements and interactions between four Performers. The spatial and sculptural form of the space refers to the architecture of the Teatro de Arena in São Paulo. By using this technique of Statue Theater the performers are restaging various documentary images of different theater plays at the Teatro de Arena from 1964 to 1971. The reenactment develops a new narration which consists of the combination of historical images from different theater plays. The movement and touches are addressing contexts from care to violent, manipulative shaping of another person. Different group constellations are created in the course of the performance without any verbal communication.
