Uncertain States
Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency 

For the opening of “UNCERTAIN STATES. Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency” the author Norman Manea, member of the Akademie der Künste, is presenting a lecture on the topic of “Exile and Creativity” written especially for this occasion. In his lecture, he addresses the ambivalence of existential experiences – exile as both destruction and liberation. Norman Manea left Romania in 1986 for political reasons, first living in West Berlin and later emigrating to the USA. Today he lives and works in New York.

After a welcome and introduction to the main autumn programme UNCERTAIN STATES by Jeanine Meerapfel, President of the Akademie, the opening evening’s speakers include Johannes Odenthal, Programme Director of the Akademie der Künste, who will speak on behalf of the exhibition’s curatorial team.

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, born in Isfahan (Iran) in 1978, has addressed the experience of migration in his virtuoso percussion playing more than almost any other musician. A German-Iranian tombak player, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi first came to Germany for a solo concert in Munich when he was 22 years old. In the course of his career, he has developed over 30 new impressive techniques for playing the tombak – the classic goblet drum of Persian music – revolutionising the traditional approach to playing. He is primarily based in Berlin, where he lives and works as a musician and composer.

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.