Instances of Erasure
Video Screening Program 
October 19, 2023 - February 17, 2024

with Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Guido Casaretto, Isaac Chong Wai, Itamar Gov, İz Öztat, Simon Wachsmuth
Program by: Nazlı Yayla & Marjolein van der Meer

Conversation with Isaac Chong Wai and Susanne Weiß

Saturday, 17 February 2024, 19h
Goethestr. 82, Berlin

Isaac Chong Wai
Neue Wache, 2015
HD single channel video; 10’52”

Platform 82 | Zilberman is pleased to invite you to the last conversation in the series of video screening program Instances of Erasure, between Isaac Chong Wai and Susanne Weiß.

Isaac Chong Wai’s artistic practice integrates conceptual, political, and performative elements through an interdisciplinary approach, engaging with the urgency of societal changes and global phenomena. Through performance, video, installation, photography, and drawing, Chong transforms the emotions, tensions, and memories from human interactions into performative materiality and immersive experiences.

In his broad spectrum of works, the artist delves into power relations by exploring both the physical and theoretical boundaries of the body. Navigating the struggles between the individual and the collective, he examines the vulnerability of the body and the inherent violence within social systems and historical traumas. His subtle, poetic, yet critical works infiltrate the systems of meaning, inviting viewers to reexamine their perceptions of power, violence, and fragility.

In Neue Wache the artist explores the temporality of time, history and sites. The memorial site Neue Wache in Berlin was initially built as a guardhouse for the troops of the crown prince of Prussia. Since 1931, the building has been a memorial site for war. Throughout history, it was used to commemorate victims from various political perspectives, from the Kingdom of Prussia to the Weimar Republic, from Nazi Germany (Third Reich), to the GDR, and the Reunification of Germany. 

In the film, the artist uses his body to distance himself from the historical site. The work begins with the artist standing with his back to us, covering the view of the opposite standing building. With his breath, Chong creates a fog over the window surface. Segment by segment, the mist blurs and dissipates the landscape. With this approach, the artist echoes history’s shifting nature - the building and its history act as fading memories. Neue Wache portrays written and rewritten history, as the site earns new meanings and dismantles the old ones.

Isaac Chong Wai (b.1990) works in Berlin and Hong Kong. Chong is invited as participating artist for the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Chong’s works have been featured at the 22nd Biennale of Videobrasil, Sao Paulo; Hamburger Bahnhof - Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; Bundeskunsthalle Bonn; MMCA, Seoul; IFFR, Rotterdam; MOCA Taipei; M+, Hong Kong; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; Museum Schloss Moyland; Bauhaus Museum, Weimar; ifa-Galerie, Berlin; Zilberman, Istanbul, Berlin, and Miami. 

Susanne Weiss works as a curator, art mediator, and writer in Berlin. Since 2021 she is working at the ifa Art Department; since 2023 she is working with its art collection, from 2021-2022 she co-directed the ifa-gallery Berlin with Inka Gressel where they initiated a curatorial-artistic research project that was diving in the histories of the ifa art collection. Last year she developed the inauguration exhibition “Transit” with Lotte Laub at Zilberman’s new venue. Since 2015 she is curating the ifa-touring exhibition “The Event of a Thread - Global Narratives in Textiles“ with Inka Gressel which forms news narratives in conjunction with the local co-curators; upcoming is the Pristina Edition at the National Gallery Kosov with Hana Halilaj. In 2013 she was a resident at the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul. From 2012 - 2016 she was director of the Heidelberger Kunstverein: her curatorial practice gives attention to the overlooked, the social-political realm within an artistic practice – also in mediating its contexts. This enables a multitude of voices, counternarratives, and a critical re-reading of history. She learned and worked in and between London, Oxford, Jerusalem, Vienna, Dresden, Sharjah, Heidelberg, Istanbul, Halle and Berlin. See also mukimaki.de.

Platform 82 powered by Zilberman is a new art space that aims to bring together artists, curators, and institutions from different corners of the world, generating dialogue through conversations, presentations, publications, and exchange programs.

Instances of Erasure

Instances of Erasure brings together 8 video works by 8 artists, accompanied by a series of conversations. Running from October 2023 until February 2024, two videos by two artists are on view roughly every four weeks, with conversations between artists and guests.

With films by Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Guido Casaretto, Isaac Chong Wai, Itamar Gov, İz Öztat and Simon Wachsmuth. Guests include Maria-Thalia Carras, Zippora Elders, Nida Ghouse, Nav Haq, Hajra Haider Karrar, Füsun Türetken, Susanne Weiß, and Marianna van der Zwaag.

Instances of Erasure delves into the theme of erasure. Through their visual narratives, artists invite the viewer to contemplate the delicate threads that connect memory, history, and the shaping of identity. It encompasses urban structures, architectural fragments, and unseen traces that enable one to re-read social and personal histories.