Berlin-based sculptor Jenny Brockmann made her New York debut with the multidisciplinary and discursive exhibition Dialogues on a Future Communication. A product of several years of collaborative exchange with Curator Niama Safia Sandy and research in topics as varied as resilience, critical race theory, social evolution biology, and urban planning, Dialogues on A Future Communication explored diverse knowledge bases and how seemingly unrelated data may be critically interwoven. 

For Dialogues on a Future Communication, Brockmann crafted Seat #16 , constructed of an aluminum alloy. Seat #16 is the physical embodiment of Brockmann’s investigations of human behavioral patterns. It consists of 16 individual seats connected by eight intersecting beams that each support two seats which must be at equilibrium. If one side of the connected seat is unoccupied, the other will be completely imbalanced creating a need for communication between the sitters.

During four events, Entanglement #1-4, the audience was invited to occupy Seat #16 together with participating cultural practitioners and scientists from the US and Germany who shared their knowledge in order to engender an emotional, intellectual, and possibly existential temporary connection with each other. Each Entanglement invoked the idea of the ‘living laboratory’ expanded through a strongly performative character. But unlike the typical controlled environments in scientific experiments, these Entanglements were unrepeatable, one-time events consisting of flexible variables.

Curator: Niama Safia Sandy

Participants: Mario Gooden, RRC, Daniel Kronauer, Dina Shvetsov, Sheen Levine, Jes Fan,
Stephanie Dinkins, Shelley Niro, Beldan Sezen, Birgit Möckel, Elizabeth Povinelli, Tasha Douge,
Alexander Manevitz, Luciana Solano and Danielle Wu

Program:

Entanglement #1: CARE: September 24, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Tour 1-4 (in preparation for Entanglement #3) : September 25, 3:30 p.m. / 4:30 p.m.
Entanglement #2: RESILIENCE: September 26, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Entanglement #3: VIOLENCE: October 1, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Entanglement #4: REFUSAL AND EMANCIPATION: October 3, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Jenny Brockmann: Dialogues on a Future Communication was curated by Niama Safia Sandy, commissioned by 1014 Inc. and funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and by Willms Neuhaus Foundation, Berlin. Entanglement#2 has been developed as a collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School. The exhibition catalog was published by Konnotation Press.

Photos: Sarah Blesener