The Archive Show

The E-WERK Luckenwalde has decided to shift from coal to art and will become a power plant of contemporary art in Brandenburg with superregional appeal in 2021. With the “Archive Show”, the former brown-coal power plant will present an interdisciplinary programme consisting of live performances, interventions, live-music samplings, video screenings, participatory rituals and immersive installations by contemporary female artists.

The main theme of the event series is the structural element of the musical score which allows for new composition and interpretation of existing music. Six multidisciplinary contemporary artists have been invited to study the power plant’s extensive collection of archive material and present it in terms of its materiality and performability. Recurring performances with international guests will allow audiences to vividly experience the artistic works. These include an experiment with local microorganisms in cooperation with the Finnish artist Jenna Sutela and the initiative Arts at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and a digital score based on the architectural designs of the plant, developed by the British artists collective Keiken together with the Aspex Gallery of Portsmouth.

“The Archive Show” strives to engage audiences in a lively dialogue with the industrial history of the site and offer important impulses for the sociocultural structural transformation of Brandenburg by presenting references to contemporary art. Following the exhibition, the works will be archived in consultation with the artists and become a permanent feature of the E-WERK, established by the artist Pablo Wendel in 2019.

Artistic director: Helen Turner
Curator: Adriana Tranca
Artists: Jenna Sutela, Henrike Naumann, Lauryn Youden, Lamin Fofana, Keiken, L. Zylberberg