Architectures of Noise is curated by Evelina Rajca and made possible in collaboration with:

Clara Palli
Pierfrancesco Gava
Arefeh Riahi and Sher Doruff
Ellington Mingus
Susanna Schoenberg
Thomas Hawranke
Lillian Rosa, Gudrun Schoppe in collaboration with Samer Makarem
Evelina Rajca in correspondence with Felipe González and Konrad Bohley
and guests­

The embedded language of prevailing belief systems, as well as their categorization processes profoundly shape the sense of self and the experience of belonging. Language is an artifact of culture; If it is constantly in flux and changing, it enables reimaginations of said culture.

Through specific technical systems, crucial aspects of language are narrowed down and fixed into place, pushing towards a consistency to be able to classify and control the production of so-called “pure” – and therefore assumed true – systems of knowledge. While attempting to produce “A world that counts”, valuable knowledge is often defined as the ability to predict future performance – i.e., to detect mental states and potential preferences for future behaviors (i.e., movement, (dis)obedience, and consumption).

Enhancing well-being and care is so often expressed as the motivation behind every new ‘progressive’ revolution and existential turning point. However, no being – nor their feelings or behaviors – translate purely into numbers; there are no universal signals in human emotion and appearance. 

Continuing (narrow) categorizations and simply pre-tending that specific patterns and categories exist within the ocean of datafication, nevertheless enables the (un)canny transformation of the environment and the in- and exclusion of identities. Repetition facilitates transforming (false) information into (collective) memory, becoming part of (un)sound realities and (mis)engaged in (dis)honest associations.

But interpretational sovereignties hold accountability – here, ethics of communication and ambiguity, but also the available energy budget to (de)code play a crucial role. The processes of sensing, feeling, and knowing are ever more deeply entangled when (new) technologies – media and instruments – become tools of automatization, consumption, surveillance, biopolitics and the pursuit of (in)justice.

Noise can be understood as a potential for more diverse communication cultures – but is also a strong warning signal for the epistemic collateral injustice caused by human ignorance on an unprecedented scale.

Over the past and in the upcoming months, the participants of ‘Architectures of Noise’ are working individually and collectively in art-based research processes. Here, they involve reading sessions, walks, talks, accompanied by architectural and sculptural interventions, performances, workshops, and experiments, especially in the sense of experiri (experience), reason, and resonance in the public and private domains. 

During the summer session at W139, artifacts of diverse but interconnected aspects of these genealogies of experience and epistemic architectures are shared with the public. Surveying how these specialized and sometimes also ambiguous instruments (i.e., language, laws) materialities and political concepts crystallized from the past influence future progress.

Architectures of Noise – Oscillations between knowledge and realities
Phase one: Codex of ambiguity 

28 July – 15 August
open daily 12 – 18h

POLAR ROOM | “WhatDoYouFightFor?”

Lillian Rosa, Gudrun Schoppe in collaboration with Samer Makarem

“What empowers people to be the heartbeat of a civil society that drives the change we need in the world?”

This is the key theme of the long term interdisciplinary art work “WhatDoYouFightFor?” by Lillian Rosa and Gudrun Schoppe. Following up the short documentary (R)EVOLUTION and a series of events in Berlin, they use their collective (digital) Artist in Residency in Amsterdam as the starting point for developing a series of film portraits with citizens from around the world who engage in action around democracy, sustainability and civil rights.

In cooperation with Lebanese activist Samer Makarem and his network engaged in leading a civil alliance for reconstructing and building a civil state without corruption but with civil rights and democracy they are sharing artifacts of the ongoing collective research approach at W139’s Polar Room in the context of their joint (digital) residency.

PALINDROME | PERFORMANCE  29 JULY / 16H

Sher Doruff and Arefeh Riahi 

In a collaboration with artist and researcher Sher Doruff, Arefeh Riahi researched the uncertainty of language, as well as its potential for resisting archival modes of communication. What do ‘limitation’ and ‘consolidation’ mean in relation to language? In what ways are borders manifested within language? In every form of language, an inclusion and exclusion process are at work. Is there such thing as a lever that exists solely to resist this process of othering, inside the structure itself?

This research manifests itself as a constellation of coalescent components – a site-specific performance that leaves behind a residual installation, accompanied by a sound composition and a video production. While each component can be understood as its own independent work, they also act as annotations and a recollection of the collaborative process. In this regard, the works too, exist within a self-referential dialogue with one another. The performance on 29 July takes place at a glass border between interior and exterior, located at the entrance of the W139. The audience of the work is thereby extended to the transient public who can observe it from the street through the windows of W139.

(image: Pierfrancesco Gava, PURE GESTURE)

Image credit: Naji Al-Ali – Handala

Solidarity Statement with Palestine 

W139 condemns what Human Rights Watch has identified as crimes against humanity committed by the State of Israel and violent extremists against Palestinians. We find it urgent to stand in solidarity against the violence and killings committed in Palestine. 

We want to raise our voice for the Palestinian people and protestors who are resisting decades of Israeli settler-colonial occupation. As an artist-run space that has been sensitive to the issues of autonomy and the right for self-determination, we feel the necessity for being engaged in the issues that we deal with within our individual and collective art practices. We call on artists and art institutions in the Netherlands to use their sensibilities and imagination to render for themselves and others the necessity of solidarity with the people of Palestine. 

We endorse the statement first published and disseminated by the Graduate Gender Programme & Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies Utrecht University, The Netherlands. We strongly encourage the art community and cultural platforms to join this solidarity campaign. Organisations and associations willing to endorse the statement could send an email to: palestinesolidarity_genderstudiesuu@protonmail.com

بيان تضامنيّ مع فلسطين وشعبها

تُدين مؤسسة ال W139 في امستردام ما صدَّقََتْهُ هيومن رايتس ووتش (مراقبة حقوق الإنسان) مناهضةً بالجرائم ضد الإنسانيّة التي ترتكبها إسرائيل والمتطرفون العنيفون ضد الفلسطينيين. نحن نرى ضرورةً ملحةً للتكاتف والتضامن ضد أعمال العنف والقتل المُرتَكَبَةِ في فلسطين.

نرفع أصواتنا تضامناً مع الشعب الفلسطينيّ والمتظاهرين مقاومةً لعقودٍ من الاحتلال الاستعماريّ الإسرائيليّ. كمساحة ثقافيّة ومجتمع فنيّ، نحن نتعامل بحساسيّة مع قضايا تعني الاستقلاليّة والحريّة والحق في تقرير المصير، لذا نشعر بضرورة الانخراط الفعليّ في هذه القضايا التي نتعامل معها ضمن ممارساتِنا الفنيّة الفرديّة والجماعيّة. وبموجب هذا، ندعو الفنانات والفنانين والمؤسسات الثقافيّة والفنيّة في هولندا إلى استخدام أحاسيسهم وخيالهم لدعم وتعزيز ضرورة التضامن مع شعب فلسطين في محيط مجالاتهم  وفي الأوساطِ الاخرى.

إننا نؤيد تمامًا البيان الصادر عن برنامج العلوم الجندريّة ومركز الأبحاث الهولنديّة لدراسات العلوم الجندريّة لجامعة أوتريخت في هولندا. كما ونُشَجِعُ بقوةٍ كافةَ المجتمع الفنيّ والمنصات الثقافيّة للانضمامِ إلى هذه الحملةِ التضامنيّة.

بإمكانِ المنظمات والجمعيات الراغبة في المصادقة على البيان إرسال رسالة إلى البريد إلكترونيّ: palestinesolidarity_genderstudiesuu@protonmail.com