mem.cont.act

04/28/2023 - 09/09/2023

STUTTGART / ONLINE

Prof. Nikola Lutz - concept, artistic director
Bernhard Eusterschulte - artistic collaboration
Prof. Klaus Dreher - director artistic vigil
Eveline Vervliet, Carlos Hernandez - assistants

Opening 04/28/23
4:30 pm
Kunstbezirk
At Gustav-Siegle-Haus
Leonhardsplatz 28
70182 Stuttgart

with contributions by Karina Geiger (Amnesty International), Marina Mihalchuk, a.o. and music by Remmy Canedo, César Bernal, V.I.A. Belasol a.o.

The installation will be located at Wilhelmsplatz Stuttgart starting from 04/28/23

Opening concert 04/28/23
8:30 pm at the installation on Wilhelmsplatz
or in case of bad weather in Kunstbezirk

with

Chi Him Chik - electronics
César Bernal - double bass
Anton Rudakov - dance
Nikola Lutz - video

The project mem.cont.act represents the fate of the Stuttgart musician and Belarusian opposition politician Maria "Mascha" Kalesnikava with an installative portrait, which is participatively transformed into a communication space through audience contributions. Music and speech contributions as well as regular musical-literary vigils activate Kalesnikava's democratization impulses and keep awareness of her situation alive. An interactive online space enables independent individual forms of access.

mem.cont.act consists of:

opening event with music and speeches

musical-literary vigils

participation through integration of audience contributions into the design process of the communication space

Videos and documentations

individual independent access through interactive nota-space

Up-to-date information on the process will be published here.

sponsored by:

S-K-A-M-e.V.
Kulturamt Stadt Stuttgart
mem.cont.act is part of the festival FemPalais

“Free Mascha – we’re with you” / OPEN CALL

ongoing (starting December 31, 2022)

PARTICIPATORY EVENT

The video series "Free Masha - we're with you", which started on December 31, 2022, was created on the occasion of the poor state of health of Masha Kalesnikava. As we learned from Viktor Babaryko's website, Masha had been locked in an ice-cold cell until she collapsed and suffered a perforation of the stomach. With the help of doctors, but also her unique optimism, she survived. Nevertheless, the impression cannot be denied that they had tried to use the chaos surrounding the Ukrainian war to get rid of her.

Background information (RU)

With the project "Free Mascha - we're with you" we make it publicly clear with personal contributions that many people continue to look at Mascha with watchful and caring eyes. We will not let ourselves be distracted by the problems of the world, nor will we let ourselves be lulled into complacency by the long period of time. We are the witnesses who are resolute in our conviction that nothing should happen to Masha and that she should be free, and we are many. With our existence we guarantee that she will never be forgotten.
Furthermore, everyone who is interested is welcome to participate in the project. We accept well wishes for Masha in the form of text, pictures, audio and video messages. You can send us your contributions at info@freemascha.org. We will first collect your contributions and then put them into a video format and publish them at regular intervals. The publications will take place on YouTube or offline at our events. Please only send material that will not put you or others in danger by publishing it. We reserve the right to select and compile the materials we receive according to artistic criteria. In order to fulfill our responsibility for the content, we only accept contributions in the languages German, English, Belarussian, Russian, Spanish and French. Exceptions are possible, so please contact us if you would like to submit something in another language.

We would like to thank you very much for your contributions!

Belarus – a fairy tale of democracy

December 24, 2021 +
January 6, 2022

"Belarus - Democracy Fairytale" is an artistic-political action by InterAKT Initiative in cooperation with the KUB e.V., politzek.me and many other actors from the city of Stuttgart, which includes:

– An animated short film based on a story by Anna B. The film was released digitally on December 24, 2021 on social media platforms (YouTube, Facebook) and on our website. The aim was to reach as many people as possible (both in Belarus and Germany and beyond) between December 24, 2021 and the Orthodox Christmas on January 6, 2022.

Youtube

– an action with 1000 postcards to the detainees in Belarus:

1. For analogue distribution in Stuttgart and Esslingen, we distributed sets of cards to write and pass on yourself: "You are my good friend. I will give you 15 stamped and ready-to-go postcards, you send one yourself, 14 you pass it on to good friends". So we hoped to quickly send 1,000 postcards to 1,000 inmates..

The following text could be read on all postcards, both digital and analogue:

Dear friend,

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you! Thank you for your courage, your strength and your endless love for this world. Every day you inspire us to become kinder, more empathetic and wiser. This Christmas we are thinking of you more than ever and would like to send you our admiration with this postcard - a little human attention, the least we can do for you. Take care! We will definitely hug in the new year!

The success of this campaign could be seen in the following Instagram post:

Dear friends, Merry (Orthodox) Christmas! We are very pleased to announce that our postcard campaign as part of the "Belarus - Democracy Fairy Tale" project has come to a successful end today. We sent a total of 1,000 postcards to the inmates from Stuttgart as well as from all over Baden-Württemberg. In addition, the digital postcards (as far as known) were sent from Germany, the Netherlands and France. We would like to thank everyone who took part in the campaign and supported us in the project! We are all the more pleased to announce that the postcards are arriving! We have already received some feedback from Belarus with thanks. Thank you for giving joy, love and attention to the Belarusian prisoners on these days!

2. A digital version in cooperation with politzek.me as a supplement to the short film. This worked like this:

To send a digital postcard, please follow the next steps:
• select a folder in the "Christmas Postcards" column.
• find a digital postcard that you like
• print them out
• fold them
• find the prisoner you want to write to (search here: Politzek)
• scroll down immediately - there you will find the current address of the prisoner • write it down
• write a Christmas wish
• put your card in an envelope
• take them to the post office
• buy a stamp (from Germany: 0.95 cents)
• send them off

DIRECTOR: Jasmin Schädler
CAMERA, EDITING, MONTAGE: Chris Bühler
SOUND DIRECTOR & MIXING: Matthias Schneider-Hollek
FIGURE PLAY & FIGURE CONSTRUCTION: Lukas Schneider
COMPOSITION: Daniel Alcheh
TEXT: Anna B
VOICE OVER: Jonathan Springer
VIOLIN: Olga M.
CIMBALOM: Ekaterina Yukhnova
VOICE: Viktoriia Vitrenko
DESIGN POSTCARDS: Julia Schestag
ARTISTIC DIRECTION & PRODUCTION: Viktoriia Vitrenko

In cooperation with KUB e.V., Amnesty International, the AnStifter Foundation, the Esslingen Office for Equal Opportunities, Theater Rampe, Musik der Jahrhunderte e.V. and the Stuttgart Cultural Office.
Funded by the City of Stuttgart and the AnStifter Foundation.

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