GENIUS LOCI NOTES ON PLACES: Ballet of the Nations: A Present-Day Morality

In the organizer's words:

RUTH BERAHA, MAEVE BRENNAN, ANDREA GEYER, MONILOLA OLAYEMI ILUPEJU, AZIZA KADYRI, GERMAIN MARGUILLARD, OMAR MISMAR, BRITTANY NELSON, ELENA NJOABUZIA ONWOCHEI-GARCIA, ILÊ SARTUZI

In 1914, Vernon Lee wrote Ballet of the Nations: A Present-Day Morality, a satirical allegory on the rise of populism and nationalism in Europe. 110 years after Lee's first publication, her

ballet serves as an overture to this year's Kunstverein Ludwigshafen program: as a poetic and experimental modernist masterpiece, it illustrates the cyclical rhythm of political ideologies. Lee criticizes the rampant patriotism and isolationism of her time - and thus illustrates the danger of the advance of these very ideologies in our present day.

As part of the first exhibition of the annual program GENIUS LOCI. NOTES ON PLACES, the Kunstverein Ludwigshafen is showing critical artistic positions that approach Lee's themes from a contemporary perspective. Intimacy and isolation, social power structures, hierarchies and exclusion are key themes: Elena Njoabuzia Onwochei-Garcia's works are reminiscent of political murals; the artist researches historical sources to highlight the bias and unreliability of our narratives. Like Brittany Nelson, she asks who is part of our history(ies) - who is visible, who is invisible? Nelson focuses in particular on the loneliness, isolation and distance within the queer community and its parallels to space exploration. Ruth Beraha's work forces us to be close: only by giving up our autonomy can we experience the work in a humble posture. Her reference to a kneeling posture plays with religious norms and spiritual rituals. Spirituality and the possibility of finding solace are at the heart of Germain Marguillard's work. Like Beraha, the artist invites visitors to interact with his work and perform a ritual act around his relic-like work. Wishes for change in one's own life or in society can be written down and entrusted to the

entrusted to the interior of the work. The turn towards occultism can also be felt in Ilê Sartuzi's work: decorative sculptures of idyllic domesticity reveal cracks on closer inspection, human matter breaks through the building and pulls the work into the grotesque. His works illustrate the abysses of social division behind the facades of picturesque petty bourgeoisie. The traces of social tensions, uprooting and displacement are omnipresent in Omar Mismar's works: he questions the hierarchies of museum representations. What (and who) do we value, show and preserve?

Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, this year's Zonta Prize winner, addresses questions of identity, belonging and migration: autobiographical reflections combine with universal themes of intergenerational trauma, resilience, familial bonds and cultural transformation. Aziza Kadyri and Maeve Brennan's practice explores the social, historical and political resonances of extractivism and fragmentation. Kadyri's use of cutting-edge technologies such as AI to preserve traditional motifs and expand them in the context of current events is mirrored in Brennan's cinematic reworking of forensic archaeology. How and what do we remember? Andrea Geyer's work expands on these questions: what are the tasks of our institutions in times of civil discord? What can cultural spaces do to promote social cohesion and inclusion?

As part of the exhibition, Andrea Geyer is showing a site-specific extension of her work Manifest . The artist responds to existing street furniture such as flagpoles and display cases in Ludwigshafen's city center and expands her work linguistically to include the most commonly spoken languages in the center of Ludwigshafen: German, English, Arabic, Turkish, Italian and Bulgarian.

- I WILL

The invitation to "want", to demand, arose from Geyer's research into the founding director of the San Francisco Museum of (Modern) Art, Grace McCann Morley, and her conviction that museums are an integral part of civil society and civic life. The presentation of Geyer's work in Ludwigshafen's city centre emphasizes the importance of cultural spaces as places of civic solidarity and inclusion.

The project in public space was made possible by the generous support of TWL.

Art in public space at the intersection of Bismarckstraße & Schulstraße