Reza Abdoh
9 February – 5 May 19

 

Opening: 8 February 19, 7 pm

 

<p><em>The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice</em>, 1990. Written and directed by Reza Abdoh, performance at Sigma Festival, Bordeaux, 1992, photo: Patrick Veyssière</p>

The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice, 1990. Written and directed by Reza Abdoh, performance at Sigma Festival, Bordeaux, 1992, photo: Patrick Veyssière

 

In collaboration with MoMA PS1 New York, KW presents a solo exhibition around the work of the late Iranian theater director Reza Abdoh (1963–1995). Over a career that spanned twelve years, Abdoh pushed his actors—and audiences—to their limits. His aesthetic language was relentlessly, recklessly inventive, borrowing from fairy tales, BDSM, talk shows, raves, video art, and the history of avant-garde theater. The hallucinatory dreamscapes he produced spoke forcefully and eloquently to the ugly political realities of his time—from government-sanctioned racism to the Reagan administration’s refusal to acknowledge the AIDS crisis to warmongering at home and abroad.

 

Reza Abdoh was already one of the most compelling figures in American avant-garde theater when he died of AIDS in 1995 at the age of thirty-two. Near the end of his life, Abdoh insisted that he didn’t want his plays to be restaged. Traces of his work were to be found on videotapes passed around experimental theater circles, many of which serve as the basis of the exhibition at hand. The exhibition at KW around Abdoh’s work is co-produced with MoMA PS1, where it was on display from June 3 to September 3, 2018.

 

Curators: Bidoun (Negar Azimi, Tiffany Malakooti, Babak Radboy), Krist Gruijthuijsen

 

 

Public Program

 

Revisiting Reza Abdoh
Theater workshop
10 February 19, 1 pm
Venue: Volksbühne Grüner Salon, Linienstraße 227, 10178 Berlin
Admission: 5 € / 3 € reduced
Please register at besucherservice@volksbuehne-berlin.de.
In English

 

Revisiting Reza Abdoh
Selected play readings and discussion
11 February 19, 9 pm
Venue: Volksbühne Grüner Salon, Linienstraße 227, 10178 Berlin
Admission: 5 € / 3 € reduced
Ticketsvia Volksbühne website
In English

 

Revisiting Reza Abdoh

Screening and Q&A with Adam Soch and Cathrin Mayer
Reza Abdoh: Theatre Visionary (2015), documentary by Adam Soch 

The Blind Owl (1992) by Reza Abdoh
4 April 19, 7 pm
Venue: Volksbühne Grüner Salon, Linienstraße 227, 10178 Berlin
Admission: 5 € / 3 € reduced
Tickets via Volksbühne website
In English

 

The Berlin Sessions:


Reza Abdoh, Here and Now
10 April 19, 7 pm
Venue: Café Bravo

In English

 

 

Exhibition Folder (PDF)

 

 

 

<p>The exhibition by Reza Abdoh is part of the project <em>David Wojnarowicz, Reza Abdoh, Frank Wagner</em> and funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The exhibition is co-produced with MoMA PS1 and generously supported by the Marina Kellen French Foundation, Coleção Moraes-Barbosa, and Casper.</p>
<p> </p>

 

The exhibition by Reza Abdoh is part of the project David Wojnarowicz, Reza Abdoh, Frank Wagner and funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin.

 

The exhibition is co-produced with MoMA PS1 and generously supported by the Marina Kellen French Foundation, Coleção Moraes-Barbosa, and Casper.

 

 

<p>Media partner: SIEGESSÄULE</p>

 

Media partner: SIEGESSÄULE

 

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Reza Abdoh, <i>Bogeyman</i>, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Bogeyman, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, <i>Bogeyman</i>, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Bogeyman, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, <i>Peep Show 1–6</i>, 1988, video stills, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Peep Show 1–6, 1988, video stills, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, <i>Bogeyman</i>, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, Photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Bogeyman, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, Photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, <i>Bogeyman</i>, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, Photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Bogeyman, 1991, video still, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, Photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, <i>Quotations From a Ruied City</i>, 1993, video still, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Quotations From a Ruied City, 1993, video still, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, <i>Reza Room</i>, 2018, video still, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Reza Room, 2018, video still, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, <i>Law of Remains</i>, 1992, video still, installation view of the exhibition <i>Reza Abdoh</i>, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, Photo: Frank Sperling
Reza Abdoh, Law of Remains, 1992, video still, installation view of the exhibition Reza Abdoh, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, Courtesy Adam Soch and the Estate of Reza Abdoh, Photo: Frank Sperling