Berlin: In(flux)
San Francisco Art Institute
February 23 - April 28, 2017
Berlin: In(flux), a 3-part film and lecture series, sought to address the unabashed rise of racism and xenophobia in the US and Europe. Designed in tandem with the San Francisco Art Institute's faculty-led travel course Das Berlin-Projekt in Spring 2017, Berlin: In(flux) presented the opportunity to engage in a timely and important exchange on asylum-seeking, migration and diaspora using Berlin as a case study.
The program was conceived of and organized by Tamara Loewenstein at the San Francisco Art Institute, co-sponsored by the BA and BFA Departments and endorsed by the Committee on Diversity and Equity.
Aufenthaltsgestattung
Indira Allegra
Artist’s Talk
The Bay Area-based artist Indira Allegra presented on their residency at Takt (Berlin) where they completed the weaving Aufenthaltsgestattung, an artwork that served as their literal application for German asylum from the conditions of oppression that they encounter as a Queer, Black and Native Femme living in the United States.
Indira Allegra was in conversation with historian Nicole Archer. The conversation was presented in collaboration with the exhibition A Living Thing at the Walter and McBean Galleries and Black Futures Month at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Germans & Jews
Tal Recanati + Janina Quint
Film Screening
In this film screening of their 2016 documentary Germans & Jews, the filmmakers point to the fact that today, Europe’s fastest growing Jewish population is in Berlin. Through personal stories the film explores the country’s transformation from silence about the Holocaust to facing it head on.
What began as a private conversation between the two filmmakers and friends, Tal Recanati (Jewish) and Janina Quint (non-Jewish German), grew into a cultural exchange among many.
From Here
Christina Antonakos-Wallace
Preview Film Screening + Director’s Talk
In this preview screening and director’s talk film director Christina Antonakos-Wallace shared with the San Francisco Art Institute community her documentary film featuring four young people from different immigrant backgrounds who challenge what it means to be American or German.
From Here juxtaposes the struggles around national identity in two cities at the epicenter of immigration debates – Berlin and New York. Filmed over seven years, the vérité documentary follows individuals coming of age against a backdrop of intensified immigration debates.
Images from left to right: 1. Germans & Jews film still (courtesy of Tal Recanati + Janina Quint). 2, 3, 4. : Aufenthaltsgesttatung (courtesy of Indira Allegra). 5. From Here film still (courtesy of Christina Antonakos-Wallace).