Magdalena Kallenberger

How to document the spiritual transformation of the space during the period of the service?

RAUMTAUSCH – pinhole camera photos

RAUMTAUSCH – video installation

[Zeige als Diashow]

[View with PicLens]

How does a secular space immerse into a religious space? Which transformation can be experienced during the process of appropriation? Which means and methods are used to stage the religious? Which interventions can be observed? Which elements and objects are used?

RAUMTAUSCH – video installation
Part 1) Berlinprojekt @ Kino Babylon – 2 Stunden 45 Minuten bis 11 Uhr // HD 12’00 minutes.
Part 2) Every Nation Kirche @ Rock Berlin – 3 Stunden 30 Minuten bis 17 Uhr // HD 12’20 minutes.
Part 3) ICF Campus Friedrichshain @ Club Lovelite – 3 Stunden 30 Minuten bis 17 Uhr // HD 14’00 minutes.
Part 4) Taizé Gebetskreis @ Stadtkloster Segen – 40 Minuten bis 19 Uhr 30 // HD 9’00 minutes.

RAUMTAUSCH

an artistic research project by Magdalena Kallenberger and Dorothea Nold

The artistic-research project RAUMTAUSCH focuses on religious movements and communities from different christian backgrounds that founded dependancies in Berlin within the last years. These groups are celebrating their service either in secular spaces (café, cinema, nightclub etc.) or as temporary guests in spaces that belong to other communities and churches. All of them are involved in national and global networks and interacting locally with Berlin based social projects.

Mapping the community
How become these new religious practices manifest in urban space? How are these communities implemented in the social space? How do they interact with other networks and communities?

Exploring the sacred
On video we are documenting how a secular space immerse into a religious space. Which transformation can be experienced during the process of appropriation? Which means and methods are used to stage the religious? Which interventions can be observed? Which elements and objects are used?

RAUMTAUSCH
The hypothetical initiation of the performance Raumtausch serves as starting point to get in touch with the communities. In interviews and personal conversations with our contact persons we investigate how the experience of the Holy can be constructed. We want to know where the encountering of God takes place and which role does architecture, music, rituals, and the concept of community play for the believers.

Documenting the undocumentable
We collect and we observe. We document our observations and reflections with video and sound. Questioning the role of the artist as a researcher, we are leaving the path of scientific measurability and category-analysis by transforming our research material into a mixed-media installation.

Project Partners: Every Nation Church, Berlinprojekt, ICF Berlin, Taizé Gebetskreis, Jesus Freaks Berlin

RAUMTAUSCH is part of the Berlin Case Study in collaboration with Global Prayers – Redemption and Liberation in the City is a transdisciplinary, transregionally comparative research and cultural project.

The project Global Prayers was initiated by metroZones – Center for Urban Affairs e. V. and is executed jointly by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Europa-Universität Viadrina in collaboration with metroZones – Center for Urban Affairs e. V.

Curfew

Curfew, Videopainting, 2011, DV, 01’27, Loop, no sound, DVD Limited Edition

Kairo, Ägypten 2011
Wenn die Welt aus den Fugen gerät: Kairo im Ausnahmezustand. Die ersten Tage der nächtlichen Ausgangssperre. Gerüchte von Plünderungen und freigelassenen bzw. entflohenen Gefängnisinsassen machen die Runde. Die Polizei hat sich aus der Stadt zurückgezogen. Wir versammeln uns im Appartement eines Kollegen. Wir, eine Gruppe von ÄusländernInnen, die in Kairo arbeiten. Fremde in diesem Land. Niemand will allein sein. Wir essen, wir trinken, wir schauen Filme bei abgedunkelten Fenstern. Vor dem Haus, die Vigilantes, Menschen aus der Nachbarschaft, die versuchen gemeinsam Haus und Eigentum zu schützen. Sie halten Wache und patroullieren in Gruppen durch die abgeriegelten Strassen. Eine niegehörte Stille liegt über der Stadt, gelegentlich unterbrochen von Schusswechseln und Maschinengewehrsalven. Furcht, Unsicherheit, Angst und das Warten auf … Blicke vom Balkon.

Hartmut Buchholz in der Badischen Zeitung vom 07.07.2011
“Kein dokumentierendes Abbild, sondern einen Moment irritierender Verfremdung hat die Videokünstlerin Magdalena Kallenberger von der German University in Kairo der ägyptischen Revolution abgetrotzt. Ihr Experimentalfilm “Curfew” ist ein subversiver Akt der Bildlöschung; Bewegung wird stillgestellt, Zeit ist allenfalls als Belichtung oder Verdunkelung ahnbar, die protestierenden Massen werden als Akteure des Bildes verwiesen. So wie im Auge des Taifuns Windstille herrscht, so ist das Zentrum der Revolution hier – eine Leerstelle, ein blinder Fleck. Auch eine Sichtweise auf den arabischen Frühling.”

Freiburger Film Forum 31. Mai – 5. Juni 2011

“Tage des Zorns. Mediale Reflexion des Arabischen Frühlings”
Panelgespräch moderiert von Irit Neidhardt
mit Olfa Chakroun, Fitouri Belhiba, Sara Elias und Daniel Fetzner

„Slippy Floor – When things start to slip“
Gruppenausstellung
08.04. – 28.05.2011
Pavlov‘s Dog
Raum für Fotografie
Berlin

http://www.pavlovsdog.org/artists

In-Between / Half here – half there (in production 2009/2010)

A videoessay about the HERE and THERE, a life in-between Orient and Occident, and individual experiences of ongoing political and social changes in Tehran/Iran.

Documentary „in-between“, current work in process, focuses on the status and space of a life in-between the Orient and Occident. Using my role as a documentary filmmaker I am following a group of young Iranians, global nomads and second generation re-immigrants, who call themselves „Cosmopolitain Tehran“. In a weekly rhythm they meet each other to exchange experiences, celebrate parties, visit concerts cultivating a western style of living within the Tehran possibilities. How got these individual lifes affected by political and social changes within the backdrop of the Iranian Presidental Elections of 2009 and its aftermath?

Azadeh, Amir, Amirali, Bijan, Joseph, Golnar, Kianoosh, Kamran, Maryam, Narges, Reza, Siavash … unknown faces and their stories. Sometimes fictionalized because truth can cause danger. How did they experience the aftermath of the Iranian Presidential Election in 2009? How did daily life in Tehran got affected? Tracing different protagonists „In-Between“ collects voices and individual experiences of a historical turning point. Inside-out. Lively scenes of daily life in Tehran. Calm, accurately composed long takes of the private spaces. Days of protest and the days in-between. Documenting hope and fear, adrenalin and depression, enthousiasm and anger, “In-Between” allows a glance at the current state of the Iranian society.

The project is (financially) supported by the Berliner Senat Program „künstlerischen Nachwuchsförderung“ (NaFöG) and the DAAD German Academic Council.

in Production: 2009/2010