The New Subject. Mutating Rights and Conditions of Living Bodies at
KINDL - Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin explores the challenges of the body in connection to global biopolitics and technological developments, focusing on the legal, somatic and cognitive dimensions. This is the fourth exhibition under the umbrella of
The New Subject project initiated and curated by TOK.
The exhibition at KINDL - the largest of all four - brings together 15 artists and collectives, who through various artistic mediums explore the ways in which power structures and state apparatuses impact the body, employing legislation and social norms as a tool for oppression of ‘unwanted’ or ‘unconventional’ bodyminds. Drawing on the ideas of Achille Mbembe, who argues that today’s societies of control rely on the "manufacture of a new subject that is at once a physiological assemblage, a synthetic and electronic assemblage, and a neuro-biological assemblage," the exhibition aims to decode and expose the repressive and manipulative mechanisms incorporated into various constituents of the contemporary state, from technologies to education. By examining the body as a contested site for ideological and political power games, the participating artists explore potential modes of existence that defy the coercive machinations of state engineering and discuss strategies of resistance.
The exhibition comprises four thematic dimensions that overlap and complete each other. The first direction
Human Resources: Bodies in State Machinery responds to the notion of a sovereign body treated as capital that can be disposed of, spent, and exchanged by power structures in their interests. The artists look closely at how bodies are used as state resources in the context of wars and technological/military/ experiments, exposing the unequal valuing of lives based on their race, gender, and social standing, while also addressing the theme of state-initiated sacrifice and mortality. Another group of works looks at the
Body as Sociobiological Infrastructure affected by contemporary technologies that are aimed at expanding bodily possibilities while contributing to their enhanced control and socioeconomic division. Development of reproductive and artificial organ production technologies can help overcome gender and age limitations and revolutionize the system of healthcare but also make it even more hierarchical. Tech platforms expanding the boundaries of bodies and minds, simultaneously serve as systems of censorship, data commodification, and punishment for those deemed ideologically dangerous by the state operating in neo-paternalistic mode.
The theme of relationship between the state and an individual in juridical perspective is presented in a constellation of works
Legal Violence and Embodied Resistance. This chapter of the exhibition focuses on corporeal struggles embodied resistance, where the body also becomes a testimony or an archive of colonial, oppressive and systemic violent processes, while also being a living record of reclaiming justice and acknowledgement. These are the bodies that have undergone legislative and ideological shifts instigated by the state, which enforce social norms while neglecting vulnerabilities defined by their racial, ethnic, and gender identities. Some of the works propose utopian futures with endless possibilities for the bodies that had to hide or suppress aspects of their lives that were deemed illegal or prohibited.
Another dimension of the exhibition narratives
Perceptions of Presence and Practices of Recognition explores the theme of normativity, conventionality and transgression of bodily and mental standards. They draw connections between various emotional, sensual, and erotic states and the body hierarchy constructed by the capitalization of desire and biases imposed by mass visual culture. The artists offer alternative ways of studying the body from a cosmological perspective, viewing it as a sacred entity removed from sociopolitical relations. This approach reimagines the body beyond conventional power dynamics imposed by capitalism and standards of modernity , highlighting its potential for profound personal and collective transformation. By considering the body as a manifestation of deep emotional and spiritual significance, these works challenge traditional narratives and propose new frameworks for understanding the interconnectedness of physical, emotional, and spiritual experiences that shape our understanding of the body and its possibilities to navigate the world and the self more consciously.
In the recent decades biopolitics, health, housing and gender policies have gone through many transitions stimulated by emancipatory movements and actions while also being fueled by contradictions between different political forces at power. To track these advancements, the exhibition showcases a comprehensive
historical timeline of significant legislative and biopolitical changes, spotlighting local measures aimed at both empowering and regulating the body.
