Wir Weben!
by Hussein Mitha
Exhibition Opening
Where: AGIT, Nansenstrasse 2
When: 7th April, 19h
Wir Weben! is a site-specific mural created by Hussein Mitha during AGIT’s first residency. The mural celebrates the multiple, contradictory and varied labour and social movement histories of Berlin and takes its name from Heine’s poem about the Silesian Weavers Revolt of 1844. Using vinyl cutting and decal techniques, Mitha combines vibrant colours and abstract forms, with reproductions of texts and images from archival sources. A single ‘red thread’ at the centre of the piece weaves together historical movements, from the German Revolution to the solidarity campaigns of the DDR, to squatting and political print production in 1970s West Berlin to contemporary housing movements. Through these methods, Wir Weben! pays homage to the possibility of solidarity, but also playfully acknowledges the fractures and junctions between left movements particularly when it comes to building historical movements around anti-imperialism.
Central to Wir Weben! is the role that archival work has in uncovering and revealing political histories. Alongside the mural there will be a small exhibition of all the different historical material that is referenced in the mural.