In What Century Will the Earth’s North and South Poles Change Polarities? Exhibition – On, Of, For, With Benjamin Patterson

MaerzMusik

Amidst the uncertainties, clamancies and nebulosity of our times, we must still find space to intro- and retrospect. Or is it to intro-audite and retro-audite? Indeed, we must find space and time to listen in and listen back. This project is a deliberation on and celebration of the seminal work of African-American artist Benjamin Patterson (1934 – 2016). It is an attempt to unsilence, re-enact and re-interpret the extensive body of work of one of the founding members of the Fluxus movement. It is a possibility to listen at ear level.
Six years after he transitioned to the greater beyond, it is time to take stock and time to commemorate Benjamin Patterson with a first comprehensive solo exhibition in Berlin. This exhibition will bring together original scores, texts, artworks, objects, videos, compositions and other archival material. The public programme will take the form of an invocation by contemporary artists of performances, concerts, lectures and film screenings On, Of, For, With Ben Patterson.
SAVVY Contemporary, together with the Patterson Estate and MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues, invites artists, curators, scholars and co-travellers to reflect and revive Patterson’s work of five decades. While being based on a multi-disciplinary curatorial approach that stems from Patterson’s worlds, this project wants to move beyond Fluxus, historically and artistically – a play on and with time, an archive in action.
Curated by: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Kamila Metwaly and Berno Odo Polzer.
In collaboration with Barbro Patterson (Estate of Benjamin Patterson) and Elke Gruhn (Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden)
Opening Hours after MaerzMusik:
31.3.–27.4., Thursday–Sunday, 14:00–19:00