Join us for an evening of arts and fun sports at the embassy!

„Machs mit, Machs nach, Machs besser“

Former Austalian Embassy to the GDR in Berlin Pankow

Grabbeallee, 34, Berlin

August 3 — 5, 2018

333 episodes of the run and fun show „Mach mit, machs nach, machs besser“ had been on television between 1964 and 1991. Screened in GDR and USSR it featured sports and intellectual competition between teams of school kids from East German cities and villages. Mixing the practices of sport and the idea of wellness with the explicit function of propagandizing grand-scale political superiority the competitions were designed as an alternation of exercises, quizzes and relay races.

From a contemporary perspective the title of the TV show sounds like a self-motivation motto, heard in a fitness center or start-up company. The title combines the German „machs“ (= make it / do it) with three different adverbs that can be translated as „Be part of it, copy it, improve it“. The slogan, leaning on a traditional maxime of learning and teaching, encourages an individual to excel in a common effort. 

In art as in sports, what is this common effort about when taking an ironic stance on its apparently competitive nature? Is there a life beyond competition? The exhibition explores this question through the mode of play crucial in game making of all sorts. The spatial encounter of two world historical geographical corridors – imagined as Eurasia and Ameropa – crystallizes the experimental character of playing games as an opened up and open-end social event.

Marianna Mordvinova proposed it as a title for the show. She and Marina Bobyleva, both from Moscow have curated it, invited by Work Life Balance Lab (Ulrike Bucks studio) in the building of the former Australian Embassy at the GDR.

The show kicks off on Friday evening with a garden BBQ and nightly tennis with no rules but a surprise uniform. The game is set to make perceptible the artifacts, practices and people involved as they assume a shape of commitment that might contribute its share to mutual understanding.

ARTISTS:
Ivan Brazhkin
Ulrike Buck
Sara Culman
Zina Isupova 
Vlad Kruchinsky
Alexander Obrazumov
Uliana Podkorytova
Marco Schmitt
Benoit Watteyne 
Marianne Zamecznik
& YOU

Opening and Tennis on Friday from 19.00-night
Show is open on Saturday 16-20 and Sunday 11-14

Important: Don´t forget to bring Tennis shoes or other sport shoes with a flat profile, skater shoes will do.

Ulrike Buck.
Romantic seal on the tennis court (I'm not competitive– i just want to play)
glazed fired clay 2017

Benoit Watteyne & Marianne Zamecznik: Capitalism Rules, T-shirts and bumber stickers
The slogan "Captitalism Rules" started out like any other t-shit idea; during a crazy road trip from Copenhagen
and was first produced in 2016 as a collection of black t-shirts with white print and ditto stickers. The message is both a celebratory and conformatory
statement to western society's most inescapable modes of operation. The ambiguity of t-shirt slogans
are revealing the readers political affinities, and in this case has a more polarizing effect than others.

Alexander Obrazumov, flag (lemons)
Alexander Obrazumov works with total installations, explores and visualizes modern-day rituals, unconscious
processes and the consumer mindset. The artist analyzes reality through a bureaucratic lens
and the conception of the modern office life as the world behind the looking-glass. The work presented
refers to the famous motivation quote and a lemonade stand business as a starting point of a successful
career.

Vlad Kruchinsky
African studies scholar by training, Vlad Kruchinsky works with postcolonial whiteness and urban informality
in post-apartheid South Africa. He uses medium of cartoons to look at the commonalities between
Russian and African experiences. His narratives explore bizarre spaces populated with all kinds of contemporary
hybrids.

Zina Isupova, paper collages

Uliana Podkoytova
Series of graphic woks rethinking old soviet park monuments. The sketches were
made for the video "The Distant Thunder" which is screeened at the garden.
Zina Isupova was born in Kiev in 1996. She works with painting, sculpture and installations. One of the
main themes of the artist's reflection is the transformation of the concept of humanity in critical situations
and the impact of media optics on this process.

viewing the video by Ivan Brazhkin
Ivan Brazhkin is an artist and political activist. He started as an experimental poet and musician. He
has been participating in exhibition projects in Russia and abroad since 2002. In the period 2002 – 2004
he participated in various actions of the Radek сommunity (Moscow). He cooperates with various leftist
political organizations. Brazikin works with different media, from video and installation to graphics and
sculpture.

Sara Culman, Video
Sara Culmann was born in Kirovsk, Russia. Sara Сulmann deals with the transformation of cultural imprints
under the influence of economy and speculative concepts of progress and technology. She works
with the idea of the aesthetic stereotype as an important element of modern iconography. Mainly works
with video and animation.

Alexander Obrazumov, flag (lemons)

animated film by Uliana Podkorytova

Marco Schmitt.
The video "Body Builders" shot in front of the Colosseum in Rome in 2010.
The artist paid gladiator impersonators to weightlift travertine stones in fake Luis Vuitton bags.