So 16.2.25

Echoing Futures: aftermovie screening + Q&A

ACUD GALERIE 16h30 → Screening & Talk

Echoing Futures: aftermovie screening + Q&A
SO 16.2, 16.30H ACUD Galerie

The exhibition series Echoing Futures – On Practices of Radical Imagination at ACUD Galerie took place from March 22, 2024, to January 12, 2025. The series included six exhibitions and a programme exploring radical imagination as a way to envision sustainable, equitable futures amidst crises like climate change, pandemics, and war. It aimed to foster dialogue about collective futures, focusing on hope, transformation, and solidarity. Through diverse visual, virtual, and performative works, the series invited visitors to engage with new perspectives, challenge dominant narratives, and explore alternative worlds through immersive experiences and world-building games.

Did you miss the programme? No problem!
On Sunday, February 16 at 4:30pm, we will show the aftermovie of "Echoing Futures" by Julia Grüßing, a documentary about all six exhibition chapters and its accompanying programme. The afternoon will be accompanied by drinks, a Q&A session with the curators, and the introduction of our new gallery Co-director Colette Patterson. Let’s gather once more to celebrate, imagine and shape radical futures, and to get a glimpse into the future programme at ACUD Galerie.

Before we get started, here is a brief summary of what happened last year:
The first chapter There has to be smth in the room (March 22 to April 28, 2024), curated by Alžběta Čermáková explored the intersection of posthumanist ideas and the boundaries between human, non-human, natural, and artificial worlds. The exhibition invited visitors to consider their bodies as symbiotic "tentacles" that explore and experience the world through touch, feeling, and interaction, drawing inspiration from the darkness of the universe and the concept of symbiosis.
Through interactive, sensory experiences, the exhibition created a space where visitors could imagine and explore potential posthuman worlds, embracing darkness and the unknown as gateways to new possibilities, featuring works by František Hanousek & Jakub Hájek, Jung Min Lee, Natália Sýkorová, Stanislav Zábrodský, ONEIRIC SPACE.

Algorithmic Monuments (May 10 - June 9, 2024), curated by Linnéa Meiners, imagined new ways of engaging with history and knowledge through technology, featuring works by Samantha Bohatsch, Sondi, Lia Perjovschi, Tianzhuo Chen, and Sophia Bulgakova. The artists addressed topics like identity, memory, and diasporic experiences, using animation, virtual reality, and interactive installations to create speculative narratives that envision a future liberated from historical constraints. Their works invited a rethinking of monuments, memory, and time through a digital and participatory lens.

The third exhibition chapter, featuring the Könyl Sïr Collective, rethought the relationships between cultures across borders, focusing on the Arctic and the colonial history of Siberia. Олоҕум хараҥа суолугар уһуктар мин эрэлим сарсыҥҥы күҥҥэ (On My Life’s Dark Path My Hope for Tomorrow Appears) (21 June – 21 July 2024), curated by Gabriela Matuszewska, invited viewers to question the meaning of space and time through the lens of Sakha Rap– a form of music and knowledge born from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Through a lecture performance and digital archives, the exhibition uncovered the postcolonial realities of the Indigenous peoples of Yakutia and reflected on the marginalized narratives of their struggles, with the aim of offering alternative, decolonized knowledge.

Nnenna Onuoha’s solo exhibition The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for Mabel Dove (6 September – 6 October 2024) reimagined the journey of three Black girls across different centuries in their search for answers. Drawing from George Bernard Shaw’s The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God and Mabel Dove’s response The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for Mr. Shaw, the exhibition explored Black feminism, archival research, and speculative futures. Through a combination of archival prints, an illustrated book, and a film installation, Onuoha created a narrative that questions identity, history, and the erasure of Black voices. This forth chapter was curated by Linnéa Meiners.

With works by Marina Hendrychová, Lauryn Youden, and SOMA ARCHIVES, Sicktopia (18 October – 17 November 2024) created an immersive space to question the definitions of illness, health, and disability. The exhibition, curated by Alžběta Čermáková, explored sickness as a form of resistance and collective world-building, inviting a non-ableist perspective on how sickness and care intersect with identity. Through archival works, visual storytelling, and participatory elements, the fifth exhibition chapter tried to develop a space where fragility and mutual support transform into strength and resilience.

Aurora Vessels (29 November 2024 – 12 January 2025), curated by Gabriela Matuszewska, investigated queer mythology and its evolution across the twentieth century. Divided into two "time capsules," it reinterpreted ancient myths to explore the fluidity of queer experiences, highlighting the resilience of marginalized sexualities. The exhibition drew attention to the power of myth as both a political and cultural tool, offering frameworks for queer self-definition. Through film, painting, performance, sculpture and sound work by Maja Chiara Faber, Dimitris Gketsis, Paula Gogola and Kuba Stępień, Aurora Vessels invited visitors to reimagine queer identities and narratives, disrupting conventional binaries and celebrating the transformative potential of myth.

We thank all the artists and the team behind the scenes, who made this exhibition series possible.

Mediation Programme/ World Building Games: Magdalena Emmerig
Descriptive Tour and Audio Guide (Chapter 5): Franciska JC Schmitt

Artistic direction: Linnéa Meiners
Curation: Alžběta Čermáková, Gabriela Matuszewska, Linnéa Meiners
Co-Curation: Svetlana Romanova (Chapter 3) & SOMA Archives (Chapter 5)
Curatorial Advice (Chapter 5 & 6): Colette Patterson

Press: Franciska JC Schmitt
Social Media: Gabriela Matuszewska
Graphic Design: Hypereikon lab

Photo Documentation: Julia Grüßing | Lea Hopp | Eunice Maurice | Joanna Wilk
Video Documentation: Julia Grüßing

Translation: Paulina Durinova | Sabine Weier
German Sign Language Translation: Lebendige Gebärden

General Manager: Johannes Braun
Accounting: Karen Jansa
Intern: Anna Timotheou

Supported by the multi-sector funding programme of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion