2024

13.12.2024
“Nomadic Commune”A Performative Lecture by Keti Chukhrov

19:00 – 22:00

Penka Rare Books and Archives  invites you to a performative lecture by Keti Chukhrov, which will survey her dramaturgical practice and touch on the obscenities of forced displacement,  the rejection of benevolent empathy, and the aristocracy of the deprived. The evening will feature video excerpts from her play “Global Congress of Post-prostitution Theory” (Steirischer Herbst, 2019), the unmade films “Afghan-Kuzminki” (2010) and “Elpida” (2006-22), and the film-plays “Communion” (2016), “Love-machines” (2013), and “Undead” (2022). NOTE: Video excerpts include sensitive content that may not be suitable for children.

Keti Chukhrov is a philosopher, art-theorist, and playwright. Currently a guest professor at the University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe, she has authored numerous texts on art theory, culture, politics, and philosophy. Her full-length books include: „Practicing the Good. Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism“ (University of Minnesota Press, e-flux, 2020), „To Be—To Perform. ‘Theatre’ in Philosophic Critique of Art“ (European University, 2011), „Pound &£“ (Logos, 1999), and a volume of dramatic writing: «Merely Humans» (Translit, 2010). In 2017-2019 she was a Marie Sklodowska fellow in the UK.

22-24.11.2024
Film Festival with Female Directors
from Georgia

This program is curated by Pieter Jan Smit and Tante Nino 
and takes place in the framework of CrossKultur.
All films have English subtitles and the screenings are free of charge.

Fridayy, 22 November
19:00
Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross   
Waiting for Mum;
In Bloom
1h50

Saturday, 23 November
17:00   
Anna Dziapshipa
Hair;
Being Dziapshipa;
Self-Portrait Along the Borderline
1h04

19:00
Salomé Jashi
Their Helicopter;
Taming the Garden
1h54

Sunday, 24 November
17:00
Mari Gulbiani   
Before Father Gets Back
1h15
19:00
Elene Naveriani
Blackbird, Blackbird, Blackberry
1h50

What strikes about  these female filmmakers from Georgia is, that they have an urgency which you can feel not only in their subject matter but in the approach and the way they question Georgian sociery and its values. These films are a barometer, this is what is going on in a country where young people dream of Europe and corrupt gouvernement is following the footsteps of Putins Russia.

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Georgia was already in turmoil. Now tensions are rising. The country is strongly divided into a largely European-oriented youth on the one hand and a more traditional and religious part of the population on the other. Access to the EU is no longer self-evident. Georgian government cannot and does not want to protect visitors when the cinema is attacked by religious zealots and thugs. The Georgian minister of Culture banns films that challenge ‚traditional values‘. Imagine being a filmmaker in that country.

Elene Naveriani

Blackbird, Blackbird, Blackberry (2023), 1h50: Etero, 48, single in a Georgian village, unexpectedly falls for a man and is caught between a relationship or independence. She navigates her emotions while grappling with societal norms, searching for happiness.

Anna Dziapshipa          

Hair (2015) 5′: Quiet contemplation of combing one’s hair, a visual statement. On Being Dziapshipa (2018) 9′: Who am I? My name matters. 
Self-Portrait Along the Borderline (2023) 50′: Autobiographical, multiple perspectives, re- and deconstructing memories of long-lost paradise and courageously adressing urgent and painful subjet matter.

Salomé Jashi                            

Their Helicopter (2006) 22′: Documentary at its best, family life in a remote mountain area.  
Taming the garden (2022) 1h32′: The uprooting of a country as illustrated by the absurd rich man’s collecting of centuries old trees. 

Mari Gulbiani   

Before Father Gets Back (2018): Chaplin’s Tramp catches the imagination of a young girl in Pankisi Gorge. When fathers come back from fighting a faraway war their world crumbles. An unknown world is revealed, an uncertain future is near.

Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross         

Waiting for Mum (2015) 8′: Hilarious short film in Tbilisi courtyard
In Bloom (2013) 1h42′: Two precious young girls growing up in violent 1992 Tbilisi.

9–10.11.2024
Halfsister Displays #10
In the framework of Schöneberger Art

Saturday 14.00 – 20.00
Sunday 12.00 – 18.00

Open Studios by Sophia Tabatadze and Claudia J. Ford

Sophia showed her drawings that she started making daily from
January 2024, Claudia showed her drawings and collages.

A bit about Claudia J. Ford who is working in temporary studio at Halfsister:
Claudia is frequently using the paper, pictures, and writing of others. Those snippets feed into her own words, homemade paper, and pictures to create something new. In her art, everything is randomly inspired and yet also purposeful. And the viewer is encouraged to develop their own meanings and interpretations for what they experience.

The freshly formed Polish-Lithuanian collective Trilobite debuts with 
Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers. Working with the motif of „lost and found,“ Trilobite unearths the personal and collective stories embedded
in Eastern European mythology and folklore, and reflects on the concept
of loss—not only as it pertains to physical objects, but as it relates to the
more abstract and intimate territories of stolen dreams, displaced hopes,
and fragmented loves. At once deeply personal and mythological, the works interrogate what it means to claim ownership over one’s own past
and future while confronting the inherited stories of a region marked by shifting borders and identities.

12.10.2024
Compositions of Flow
Pop-up exhibition and presentation
by Tonka Malekovic and Sophia Freidhoff

Join us for an engaging evening for a pop-up exhibition and presentation of Compositions of Flow by Tonka Malekovic and Sophia Freidhoff.

This transdisciplinary duo, currently in residence at Centrala Berlin e.V., explores the topic of human movement and borders by combining artistic methods and socio-anthropological research. In doing so they seek to create a multi-layered form of communication that captures the complexity of migration while building bridges of empathy among different groups affected by the phenomena.

Having started their collaboration in Regensburg in 2022, Tonka and Sophia are now in Berlin, supported by the Culture Moves Europe mobility grant, to develop new methodologies and deepen their research. At Halfsister, they will present their ongoing work and invite the audience to an open discussion over a drink.

Supported by Culture Moves Europe. #culturemoveseurope  #CultureMovesEurope #PushBoundaries #CreativeEurope

05.07.2024
Wine-tasting

17-22 Hours

THIS EVENT WAS CANCELLED

Join us for tasting of five exclusive natural wines from Georgia, exhibition and film-screening at @Halfsisterberlin.

This wine tasing will take place in the art space and will be surrounded by the works of Georgian artists. Later we will screen the film „Giorgobis Tve“ by Otar Ioseliani.

5 PM Exhibition viewing
6:30 Wine-tasting
8 PM Film screening

At this event you can expect some amber, orange and red wines. There will be qvevri (amphora) made wines, some classics like Rkatsiteli and Saperavi grapes, and some rare Georgian grape varieties! The natural wine selector Otar Bedoshvili (Kintonatural) will tell the stories about these wines, of Georgian wine heritage and the general wine making situation in today’s Georgia.

Accompanying wine there will be some Georgian snacks and non-Georgian cheese at the event, so don’t come too full.

Some Georgian (and not only) arstist who have worked with the thematics of food and drinks will present their works during this event:

Center for Peripheries @centerforperipheries
Erekle Tortladze @ryerekle
Elisabed Zautashvili @elisabed_zautashvili
Kim Narosh @snicshe_
Maia Wenkebach @wenke_photography
Sophia Tabatadze @sophia.tabatadze

At 8 PM we will screen Georgian Film Fallin Leaves (original title: Giorgobis Tve) by Otar Ioselieni, This film shows the winemaking process in the Soviet Georgian factory that reveals the absurdity of Soviet Georgia, which was a large exporter of wine within the Soviet Union.

23.06 2024
Nadimi Georgia meets Halfsister Berlin

6-10 PM

(dinner will be served between 6-8 PM)

Nadimi is a pop-up project by Georgian Chef Dimitri Sharashidze
Halfsisiter is an art-studio and event space run by Ana and Sophia Tabatadze

Join us for delicious 3 course dinner prepared by star chef from Georgia, Dimitri Sharashidze aka Ditrikha.

Ditrikha is a wonderful cook who happens to be the winner of the Masterchef Georgia in 2021.

On this event you can expect some starters to share and three course menu in an artistic setting curated by Ana and Sophia Tabatadze.

Some Georgian (and not only) artists have worked with the thematics of food and drinks will present their works during this event:

Center for Peripheries @centerforperipheries
Erekle Tortladze @ryerekle
Elisabed Zautashvili @elisabed_zautashvili
Kim Narosh @snicshe_
Maia Wenkebach @wenke_photography
Sophia Tabatadze @sophia.tabatadze

Selection of wines will be provided by Otar Bedoshvili from Kintonatural

The price for the dinner will be €35 excluding the wine.

Please reserve by sending the email to halfsister@gmail.con with the subject Dinner, and you will receive our bank details.

21.06.2024
Mando Beatbox

16-18 Hours

THIS EVENT WAS CANCELLED

We are super thrilled to invite you to the workshop led by Daniel Mandolini also known with his artist’s name Mando Beatbox.

In this Beatbox workshop you will learn how to imitate easy rhythm and daily noises with your voice!

The workshop will take place on June 21st between 16-18 Hours at Halfsister, artist’s studio and event space in Berlin Schöneberg, Torgauer Straße 1, 20829 Berlin (close to Südkreuz).

The workshop will cost €35 pro person, kids of 6 years and older as well as adults are welcome to participate. 

As the 21st of June is the day of Fête de la Musique, you are encouraged to bring your instruments with you, and after the workshop you can improvise/ perform in front of the Halfsister.

Please write to us with the subject: „workshop“ on halfsisterberlin@gmail.com, we will reserve the place for you and send you our bank details.

You can follow us and our updates Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/halfsisterberlin/
https://www.instagram.com/mandobeatbox/

or on:

www.halfsisterberlin.com
https://mando-beatbox.com/

26.05.2024
Power Is In Unity! Day of Georgia exhibition-concert-food-solidarity

15:00 – 21:00

Organised by Giorgi Rodionov and Untitled Gallery

Photos by George Nebieridze
Photos by David Apakidze
Poetry by Elza Javakhishvili
Videos by Khinkali Juice (Sophia Tabatadze and Nadia Tsulukidze)

Join us in solidarity with Georgia on its Independence Day! For the past month, Georgians have been bravely protesting to uphold not only their path towards Europe, but the fundamental human rights that Europe stands on. The heart of Europe beats in Tbilisi, where every protester embodies the values of love, peace, and dignity.

There will also be delicious Georgian food and wine.

18.05.2024
#4 [Translit] “Printed Matter in Exile”

18:00 – 21:00

Organised by Penka Rare Books

Presentation of the upcoming issue #4 of literature and culture journal [Translit], titled “Printed Matter in Exile”, with editor Pavel Arsenev and authors Keti Chukhrov and Isabel Jacobs. 

20.04.2024
Halfsister Displays #9

2-10 PM

With the works by:

Sophia Tabatadze – Curtain, drawings, handmade papers
Ana Tabatadze – Talismans and necklaces
Fernanda Rios – Jewellery
Valentin Hesch & Oscar Kargruber – Drawings and objects
2 PM onwards Raphaela Gilla – individual coffee cup reading
7 PM Margarita Jimeno – Participatory performance about cacao and how it was drunk by the aztecs

29-30.03.2024
Petrichor

Works by
Valentin Hesch & Oscar Kargruber
Readings by
Bryony Dawson & Pauline Kargruber

15-26.03.2024
Fugitives from Culture

Exhibition about Polish unofficial art of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the launch of our accompanying publication organised by Penka Rare Books.

“Fugitives from Culture” is a comprehensive documentation of unofficial art in Poland in the 1970s and 1980s, based on difficult-to-access, mostly handmade artists‘ books, magazines, multiples, posters and other ephemera, as well as photographs, drawings, and autographs. Art-historical interest in the still largely unexplored underground art behind the Iron Curtain is growing. These groups saw themselves less as „avant-gardes“ and more as „fugitives from culture“ who worked outside the established cultural institutions in East and West. Various groups developed new practices for producing, showing, critiquing, and archiving art.

Friday, March 15
19:00

Artist Zofia Łuczko, a member and unofficial archivist of the Łódź Kaliska group, gave a talk about the independent arts scene in Łódź, including the so-called “Pitch-In Culture” of the mid-1980s.

Saturday, March 23
19:00

Ewa Partum as a Cultural Producer: Galeria Adres (1972-1977)

A pop-up exhibition of Ewa Partum’s Adres Gallery,
presented by Berenika Partum

The conceptual artist Ewa Partum, who has lived in Germany since 1982, ran the Adres Gallery in Łódź, Poland, between 1972 and 1977. It was one of the most important unofficial art institutions in the country and the only one whose program was headed by a woman. In its time Galeria Adres fostered international artistic exchange and promoted conceptual art and mail art. As its director, Ewa Partum helped establish an international network of artists from neighboring countries, including Jochen Gerz, Wolf Vostell, Dieter Roth, Stano Filko, Jiří Valoch and other conceptual and fluxus artists. Works from the gallery’s archive have been included in many exhibitions, both in connection with Ewa Partum’s retrospectives as well as individually as a place of autonomous artistic activity in the 1970s in Poland.

18.02.2024
Celebrating 90th birthday of Audre Lorde

7 PM
Screening of the film Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992
Q and A with Dagmar Schultz the director of the film.

Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 explores a little-known chapter of the writer’s prolific life, a period in which she helped ignite the Afro-German Movement and made lasting contributions to the German political and cultural scene before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

17.02.2024
Patrycja Rozwora
365 Days

2-9 PM
6 PM Patrycja and Sophia (from Halfsister) spoke to each other about the experience of drawing everyday for the entire year.

Patrycja is an artist, writer, and podcaster born in Warsaw, currently living and working in Berlin. Patrycja has dedicated herself to make one drawing every day in the year 2023 and exhibited all the 365 drawings at Halfsister.

Patrycja’s drawings can be seen here:
www.instagram.com/patiisdrawing

27.01.2024
Can You hold the thread for me?: In Search For Remedies and Solace

Vorspiel 2024
A citywide program by spaces and initiatives around
Transmediale and CTM festivals.

By Petja Ivanova and Tamara Margvelashvili

6PM Talk between Petja Ivanova, Tamara Margvelashvili and Sophia Tabatadze (from Halfsister)

Grafting the wound becomes an intimate acknowledgment of the ache we often shy away from. The shown video work, installation and sculptures embody a fragile reciprocity between healing and hurting, with sensations akin to a pinch of salt—both stinging and curative. It invites us to break our emotional armor, embracing connections and understanding our hidden vulnerabilities. In this transformative journey, shields emerge from threads, weaving narratives that, rather than merely restoring, serve as a resilient and enduring act of self-discovery.

Petja Ivanova creates wearable sculptures working with the metaphor of the wound; the wound that has the stigma of opening and spoiling the body, the wound where we meet our vulnerability either compassionately or where we part from ourselves.

Tamara Margvelashvili explores the narratives and memories as remedies for mending the wounds. Interlacing songs, trauma, and ancestral wisdom, she creates multimedia installations to offer a space for healing and transformation.

Tamara Margvelashvili and Petja Ivanova

20.01.2024
Weather Forecast

Vorspiel 2024
A citywide program by spaces and initiatives around
Transmediale and CTM festivals.

20.01.2023 at 5PM
By Levan Amashukeli in collaboration with culinary chef Dimitri (Ditrikha) Sharashidze.

Levan Amashukeli’s Weather Forecast is an exploration of personal transition against the backdrop of his move with his family from Tbilisi to Berlin. This exhibition captures the essence of his emotional journey through a series of expressive artworks and will be accompanied with the food especially crafted by acclaimed chef  Ditrikha for this installation. Ditrikha will create a visual and sensual food reflecting the message of the Weather Forecast.

In Weather Forecast, Levan invites viewers into a world where emotional barriers and the great potential of new beginnings coexist. The exhibition not only reflects his journey, but is also a powerful narrative of change and adaptation seen through the lens of an artist forging a new path in a foreign land.

At the center of the exhibition is a video installation. Complementing the video, hand-painted ceramic tiles continue the theme of contrasts and adaptation.These vividly illustrated tiles depict the struggle of being emotionally trapped and physically unbound at the same time.

The work shows the duality of freedom and restriction and reflects the complexity of his mental landscape amidst the bustling energy of Berlin.

Levan Amashukeli

13.01.2024
Halfsister Displays #8

Chess

With the works by Ana Tabatadze, Sophia Tabatadze,
Nanna van Heest,  Tatia Skhirtladze, Patrycja Rozwora, Nini Palavandishvili

18:00 film screenning
Glory to the Queen
by Tatia Skhirtladze
Against the backdrop of Cold War, Glory to the Queen reveals
stories of four legendary female chess players from Georgia

Chessboards will be available, so join us and play.

Textile works by Nanna van Heest
Textile works are part of a continuous research on colour, Nanna playfully uses colour as a building block to explore the interaction of colour and colour quantity.

Glory to the Queen, by Tatia Skhirtladze

Leading us to Tbilisi, Georgia, Glory to the Queen reveals the interwoven biographies of the world chess heroes Nona Gaprindashvili, Nana Alexandria, Maia Chiburdanidze and Nana Ioseliani. It offers rare insight into their present lives while at the same time exploring their lasting legacy. Today they are aging women, ordinary and extreme, pedantic and free. The city, indeed the whole country, are still marked by them – even if these marks are slowly fading.