12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

Monuments AR is an independent nonprofit app developed by Farhan Khalid and Mikala Hyldig Dal. Premiering at the 12th Berlin Biennale as part of the public program with collective artworks reflecting on decolonization and democratic activism in the context of state surveillance and data theft,  Monuments AR focuses on site-specific interventions in digital space.

www.monuments-ar.com

Monuments AR #1 BERLIN CONFERENCE

An augmented reality installation by Mikala Hyldig Dal and the students Avishi Mitruka, Irina Zavalishina, Javier Paredes Moran, Kabedi Moukanda Kasonga Kalala, Leen Alshemaly, Max Bode, Saidakhon Nodiri, Sara Pelyani, and Shira Malka (Macromedia University Berlin); in collaboration with Farhan Khalid and Isabell Drauz

On the former site of the Reichskanzlei or Reich Chancellery, where colonial powers divided the African continent into zones of exploitation during the so-called “Congo Conference” or “Berlin Conference,” augmented reality artworks reflect on the troubled history of the now nondescript space. Today, the space of project Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City is located here, one of the venues of the 12th Berlin Biennale. Kabedi Moukanda Kasonga Kalala’s sculpture focuses on the systematic amputation of the limbs of Congolese workers who did not meet the quota of rubber production; Irina Zavalishina and Avishi Mitruka’s three-dimensional map juxtaposes historical extractivism of raw materials like ivory and gold with today’s mining of noble metals used by big tech; Leen Alshemaly and Saidakhon Nodiri restage the “round table” setting of the conference with historical documents of its devastating consequences; Javier Paredes Moran and Max Bode have translated the concept of “private property” into architectural obstacles; Farhan Khalid draws lines from the historical division of the continent to today’s refugees hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea in rubber boats; Isabell Drauz imagines the “voice of history” as a disembodied, deformed choir bearing the marks of defacing violence; Sara Pelyani and Shira Malka’s moving installation seeks to destabilize eurocentric concepts of North/South, Up/Down, questioning regimes of power and disenfranchisement.

Site-specific work at Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City (Wilhelmstraße 92, 10117 Berlin): scan the QR code to activate augmented reality on-site; move your display to explore your surroundings and activate sound on your phone.

Monuments AR #2 STASI HEADQUARTERS

An augmented reality installation by Mikala Hyldig Dal and the students Avishi Mitruka, Irina Zavalishina, Javier Paredes Moran, Kabedi Moukanda Kasonga Kalala, Leen Alshemaly, Max Bode, Saidakhon Nodiri, Sara Pelyani, and Shira Malka (Macromedia University Berlin); in collaboration with Farhan Khalid and Isabell Drauz

The collective artwork Monuments AR #2 STASI HEADQUARTERS engages with Stasi Headquarters. Campus for Democracy, one of the venues of the 12th Berlin Biennale. In East Germany during the GDR era, the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) in the Lichtenberg district of Berlin was a huge complex made up of nearly fifty buildings and thousands of offices. Today, this former bastion of the secret police is an educational site about dictatorship and resistance and a learning center for democracy. Monuments AR #2 STASI HEADQUARTERS reflects on surveillance as “state security,” peaceful revolution, and also surveillance as a capitalist structure. The virtual sculpture seeks to bridge the nation-based, done-by-people, ideologically motivated surveillance of the (GDR) past with today’s big tech omnipresent surveillance structures aiming for unlimited profit. In this, we suggest that democratic activism has the potential to topple both regimes.

Site-specific work at Stasi Headquarters. Campus for Democracy (Ruschestraße 103, 10365 Berlin): scan the QR code to activate augmented reality on-site; move your display to explore your surroundings and activate sound on your phone.