That, Around Which The Universe Revolves

Rhythm exists wherever space, time and energy intersect, according to the late French sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre in his book Rhythmanalysis. Rhythm is an inherent part of our everyday life, in our movements through space and our interaction with objects. Societies produce such collective knowledge and memory which can be experienced and described using Lefebvre’s concept of rhythm analysis.

Lefebvre’s reflections on the politics, production and representation of spaces serve as the starting point of the research and exhibition project “That, Around Which The Universe Revolves” by SAVVY Contemporary Berlin. In cooperation with the QDance Center in Lagos, the Njelele Art Station in Harare, the FFT in Düsseldorf, the HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Kampnagel Hamburg, the project aims to create links between urban forms of knowledge and narratives in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Germany.

The organisers are planning a series of exhibitions, performances, discussion programmes and five chapters of text in Berlin, Lagos, Harare, Hamburg and Düsseldorf. The five cities will become sites of experimentation, in which international artists, performers, theorists and architects engage in academic and artistic dialogue and probe the spatial dimension of everyday urban life and the interplay between the body, rhythm and urban structures.

Artistic director: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (CM)
Curators: Elena Agudio (IT), Anna Jäger (DE), Saskia Köbschall (DE), Dana Whabira (ZW), Qudus Onikeku (NG)

Dates and venues

Qdance Centre (Lagos): first week of October 2016 – performative interventions

FFT (Düsseldorf): March 2017 – performative interventions & residences

Njelele Art Station (Harare): August 2017 – performative interventions

Kampnagel (Hamburg): October 2017 – performative interventions & discussion programme

HAU (Berlin): 1. - 3. December 2017 – performative interventions

SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin): 30. November 2017 - January 2018 – exhibition, discussion and performance programme