The Berlin Sessions: Reading David Wojnarowicz

Für „Die Berlin Sessions: Lesungen von David Wojnarowicz“ lud Léon Kruijswijk (kuratorischer Kollege KW) drei Performer und Schriftsteller ein, um die literarischen Werke von Wojnarowicz zu erkunden und zu entfalten. Die Lesung findet im Eisenherz statt - einer Buchhandlung, die seit über 40 Jahren ein beliebter Ort für die Berliner LGBTQI + -Community ist.

Wojnarowicz wurde 1954 in New Jersey in einer katholisch geprägten Familie geboren. Nach seiner Schulzeit besuchte er die High School of Performing Arts in New York City und wurde er in den 1970er- und insbesondere 1980er-Jahren als Künstler in der Kulturszene New York Citys bekannt. Er drehte Super-8-Filme und fotografierte. Als Autor schrieb er mehrere Bücher in jenen Jahren. Anfang der 1980er Jahre lernte Wojnarowicz den Fotografen Peter Hujar kennen, der ihn ermutigte sich vermehrt der visuellen Kunst zu widmen. Seine Kunstwerke stellte Wojnarowicz in bekannten Galerien im East Village in New York City aus.

Mit anderen Künstlern wie Nan Goldin, Luis Frangella, Kiki Smith, Richard Kern, James Romberger, Ben Neill, Bob Ostertag und Phil Zwickler arbeitete Wojnarowicz zusammen. Als Peter Hujar am 26. November 1987 starb, dokumentierte Wojnarowicz den im Totenbett liegenden Hujar in einer Werkreihe. In der Ausstellung von Nan Golden und Susan Wyatt "Witnesses: Against our vanishing" stellte Wojnarowicz unter anderem ein Triptychon "Untitled (Dead Peter Hujar)" aus dem Jahre 1989 mit dem zwei Jahre zuvor entstandenen Motiv des Verstorbenen Hujars aus.

Am 22. Juli 1992 starb Wojnarowicz an den Folgen von AIDS. Sein letztes Buch Memories That Smell Like Gasoline wurde postum 1993 mit dem Lambda Literary Award ausgezeichnet.

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David Wojnarowicz was a writer as much as a visual artist. Not only has he written multiple publications; language and literary influences recur in his paintings, photography and films. Texts recited by him demonstrate a captivating ability to artistically express his passion, engagement as well as his rage with words and his voice.

For ‘The Berlin Sessions: Reading David Wojnarowicz’ Léon Kruijswijk (curatorial fellow KW) invited three performers and writers to explore and unfold Wojnarowicz’s literary works. The reading session takes place at Eisenherz – a bookstore that has been an iconic place for Berlin’s LGBTQI+ community for over 40 years.  

Invited guests:

MYSTI is a writer and performer from South Dakota based in Berlin since 2010. MYSTI presents How Do We Make Art of Human Remains? in meditation on the work and life of David Wojnarowicz. His book Close to the Knives. A Memoir of Disintegration (1991) inspired activist David Robinson to dump the ashes of his lover Warren Krause in front of the White House in 1992, and the remains of Wojnarowicz would be also spread over the same lawn in a separate action four years later, but how might we now reconsider bodies as material for art and protest? Is art perhaps the body we could sacrifice for life?

Alex Alvina Chamberland is a Swedish-US American writer and performance artist based in Berlin. Much of her writing and performance work is based on explosivity, intensity, musicality, vocal experimentation, silence, maximalism and (trans)femininity, dealing with subjects such as failure and passivity as a means of resistance to obligatory capitalist success and productivity, as well as loneliness, yearning and collectivity. She's had two books published in Swedish, before recently switching to writing in English.

Ever present on the alternative scene as a multifaceted artist, constantly questioning the essence of her work and the world we live in, Valerie Renay is a Berlin based, French Caribbean performer, director, electronic pop chanteuse, musician, painter and DJ. She is one of the protagonists in Aids Follies, a contemporary multimedia theater piece documenting the aids epidemic, which combines revue, lecture performance, documentary film and pop culture.