SUN YITIAN / 孙一钿
Will be published in July 2026 / Esther Schipper Gallery
Catalogue Editorial
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The catalog is being published on the occasion of Sun Yitian's third solo exhibition at Esther Schipper in Berlin in May 2025. In recent years, the artist has gained international attention. She is known for her colorful acrylic paintings of mass-produced objects, mostly depicted from photographs she has staged herself. Painted in bright colors, inflatable toys or doll heads initially appear hyperreal, but on closer inspection dissolve into painterly abstraction. In this way, Sun Yitian addresses the tension between banality and pathos, consumer culture and individual expressiveness. The volume offers a comprehensive insight into her work and, in addition to numerous illustrations, includes a conversation between the artist and Udo Kittelmann as well as an essay by Chus Martínez.
I am currently editing the catalogue in close collaboration with the artist. It will be published in February by Hatje Cantz Verlag.
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Sun Yitian (born 1991, Zhejiang) lives and works in Beijing. She studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and is currently pursuing a doctorate at Tsinghua University. Her works have been exhibited at the Yuz Museum Shanghai, UCCA Edge, and Esther Schipper Berlin, among others.
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Sun Yitian, Cruising Creatures, 2023, acrylic on canvas, courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin
THE RISE AND FALL OF ERIK SCHMIDT
14 September 2025 – 1 February 2026 / KINDL Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst
Catalogue Editorial
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The catalogue The Rise and Fall of Erik Schmidt accompanies the artist’s eponymous exhibition at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art in Berlin. It brings together paintings, photographs, and film works that reflect Schmidt’s exploration of role play, identity, and the performative nature of contemporary life. Through essays, interviews, and extensive visual documentation, the publication traces the artist’s evolving practice and his engagement with social conventions, urban environments, and self-staging as artistic strategy.
I edited the catalogue in close collaboration with the artist and the curator Yara Sonseca Mas. It was published in September 2025 by DISTANZ Verlag.
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In The Rise and Fall of Erik Schmidt, the artist transforms himself into a protagonist navigating various social and political terrains – from financial trading floors to rural landscapes and urban nightlife. His work oscillates between irony and sincerity, observation and participation. The exhibition at KINDL presents an overview of Schmidt’s multifaceted oeuvre, highlighting how performance, painting, and film intersect in his sustained examination of power, aspiration, and self-image in contemporary society.
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Erik Schmidt, I Love My Hair, 1997, Super 8 film (digitized)
THE FUTURE IS AFRICA
3rd Edition: 17 – 21 September 2025 / IL KINO
2nd Edition: 29 June – 4 July 2023 / Sinema Transtopia & IL KINO
1st Edition: 27 October – 4 November 2021 / Babylon Berlin
African Film Festival For Children & Youth
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The first edition of The Future is Africa in 2021 focused on Afrofuturism, exploring how African and diasporic filmmakers envision alternative futures through speculative storytelling, science fiction, and fantasy. The program highlighted films that reimagine Africa beyond colonial narratives, centering Black agency, innovation, and cultural resilience. In collaboration with schools, the festival also engaged young audiences through interactive workshops, encouraging students of different ages to reflect on themes of identity, heritage, and the power of storytelling in shaping the future.
The second edition in 2023 shifted its emphasis to gender equity, particularly for girls in the Global South. Through films by and about women, the festival examined the realities of gender inequality in African societies and the film industry, while also celebrating female filmmakers shaping new narratives. Panel discussions and workshops further addressed the role of education and representation in challenging patriarchal structures and expanding opportunities for young women. As part of its educational outreach, the festival partnered with schools and youth organizations, offering tailored workshops where students could engage directly with filmmakers, learn about storytelling and filmmaking techniques, and critically discuss gender roles and representation in cinema.
Both festival editions were conceived by me. The film programs were curated by June Givanni (founder of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive).
In its third edition, the film festival turned its focus to the political expressiveness of a young generation in transition. Under the title A Generation in Flux, the festival brought together cinematic and discursive perspectives of young people from Africa and the African diaspora, whose voices are gaining increasing visibility worldwide – on the streets, across social media, and on the cinema screen.
The film program was curated by Durban based film curator Andrea Voges.
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The Future is Africa is a biennial children’s and youth film festival that brings artistic contributions from the African continent and its diaspora to Berlin. Inspired by the West African children's film festival KIFIFE, founded in Burkina Faso in 2019, it aims to amplify underrepresented voices in African cinema while fostering cross-cultural dialogue. Both editions were curated by London-based curator June Givanni and draw from her extensive June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive, ensuring a rich historical and contemporary perspective. Each festival edition spotlights a thematic focus—whether Afrofuturism, gender equity, or other urgent social issues—offering a platform for emerging filmmakers and engaging young audiences through screenings, discussions, and hands-on workshops.
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XALÉ (Film still) ©Moussa Sène Absa
THE NEW SUBJECT
14 September 2024 – 26 January 2025 / KINDL Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst
Exhibition Booklet & Catalogue Editorial
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The catalogue The New Subject expands on the exhibition of the same title at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, an interdisciplinary project that addresses the political discourse surrounding the body. With contributions by international scholars as well as numerous installation views and images of the four iterations of the project. It includes an introduction by curator Kathrin Becker, the curatorial collective TOK / Anna Bitkina & Maria Veits, and an essay by Micha Frazer-Carroll.
I edited both the exhibition booklet and the comprehensive catalogue for the exhibition. It has been published in January 2025.
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The New Subject. Mutating Rights and Conditions of Living Bodies
is a multi-year interdisciplinary research and exhibition project by the curatorial collective TOK / Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits. It investigates the human body in the context of global biopolitics and technological developments, reflecting on the legal, physical, and cognitive impacts of state control mechanisms. The exhibition at the KINDL – the project’s fourth presentation – brings together 15 artists and collectives tackling this topic through various artistic media. The project draws on the ideas of Achille Mbembe, who argues that today’s control societies 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.”
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Clara Sika Helbo, Uncovering an Iceberg, 2023, Foto: Clara Sika Helbo
JULIUS VON BISMARCK WHEN PLATITUDES BECOME FORM
26 May – 14 August 2023 / Berlinische Galerie. Museum für moderne Kunst
Exhibition Catalogue Editorial
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The catalogue When Platitudes Become Form expands on Bismarck’s exhibition of the same title at Berlinische Galerie, the first show for which he chose a biographical approach, drawing on his own family’s history, with contributions by international scholars as well as numerous installation views and images of his work. It includes an introduction by Thomas Köhler and Anne Bitterwolf, essays by the literary scholar and philosopher Timothy Morton, the landscape architect Violeta Burckhardt, the art historian Paul Farber, and a conversation between curator and HKW director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and the artist.
I edited the catalogue and facilitated as well as authored the conversation between Ndikung and Bismarck, shaping it into an engaging and insightful exchange.
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The practice of Julius von Bismarck (b. Breisach am Rhein, 1983; lives and works in Berlin) probes what is commonly labeled as nature. He insistently deconstructs his chosen objects to inquire into how we as a society shape and value nature and who controls the interpretations involved in this process. Intertwining visual art with concerns in the natural and human sciences, his work takes on richly diverse forms: installations, happenings, sculptures, or land art pieces. Bismarck brings a sense of humor and critical acumen to bear on our frequently oversimplified views of nature and explores how these can influence past and present discourse about politics. Beholding his magical creations—the artist filmed fires, chased hurricanes, painted on the high seas—one is deeply conflicted; they are terrifying and beautiful at once.
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Julius von Bismarck, When Platitudes Become Form, Berlinische Galerie, ©VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, Foto: Roman März
THE SKY LOOKS AMAZING FROM HERE
12 June – 17 July 2022 / Kunsthaus L6, Freiburg
Exhibition with CUCO – curatorial concepts berlin for the
5th Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse (FR)
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Under the festival theme “Celestial Bodies”, the exhibition curated by CUCO berlin presented works by contemporary photographers Sharon Harper (US), the artist duo Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs (CH), and Felix Schöppner (DE). The photographic presentation was expanded by the installation works of multimedia artist Angela Bulloch (CAN/UK). The selected artists shared an interest in the phenomena of the heavens: from scientific-looking observations of celestial bodies, such as the large-scale lunar studies by Sharon Harper or the pseudo experimental arrangements by Felix Schöppner, to the dystopian-tinged visions of the future in the photographic series by Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, to the multimedia constellations of stars by Angela Bulloch.
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CUCO berlin was invited to conceive and curate the exhibition at Kunsthaus L6. The exhibition was part of the 5th edition of the Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse. Every two years, the photo festival attracts an international audience of photography enthusiasts to the region. In addition to the Kunsthaus L6, the Centre Culturel Français in Freiburg, the Le musée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse, the Mulhouse Art Contemporain, show exhibitions of contemporary photography.
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CUCO berlin, The Sky Looks Amazing From Here (Detail: Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs), Kunsthaus L6, ©Danilo Sierra
LONG DISTANCE CALL
3 July – 17 July 2022 / Kunstpalais, Erlangen
Exhibition with Amelie Deiss & Operndorf Afrika
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In the context of the exhibition project Long Distance Call - the Opera Village Africa at the Kunstpalais, the Opera Village presented four artists, who who first met at the artist-in-residence program in Burkina Faso in 2020. The project was conceived and curated by Annika Turkowski together with the director of the Kunstpalais Amelie Deiss and included a two-week exhibition and a diverse program of events. Diana Ejaita (NG/IT), Rahima Gambo (NG), Taiwo Jacob Ojudun (NG) and Anja Saleh (DE) brought the core idea of the Opera Village Africa - intercultural exchange - with the intensity of a small festival to Erlangen and activated the public space through performances, discussions, workshops, film screenings and musical presentations. Questions of intercontinental solidarity, collective cultural memory and postcolonialism (also from an African perspective) were discussed together with the Erlangen audience.
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Since 2015, the Artist-in-Residence program has been established at the Opera Village in Burkina Faso, which once a year invites African and non-African artists from various disciplines and media to use the location as a living and working space. Since 2020 the program is curated by the Nigerian photographer and curator Akinbode Akinbiyi. The program is accompanied by exhibitions and events in Europe in the following year, conceived and organized by Annika Turkowski in close collaboration with the artists.
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Long Distance Call. The Opera Village in Erlangen (Detail: Taiwo Jacob Ojudun), Kunstpalais Erlangen ©the artist
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEFS’ OPERNDORF AFRIKA
October 2020 / Spector Books
Catalogue for Operndorf Afrika
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In February 2010, Christoph Schlingensief laid the foundation stone for Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso. To mark the project's tenth anniversary, an extensive illustrated book was published in 2020, featuring over 300 images that offer an in-depth look at its history. Drawing from a decade’s worth of archival material, the book presents a carefully curated artistic perspective on the evolution of Operndorf Afrika.
Starting with Schlingensief’s original sketches, the publication traces the project’s development through photographs of its construction phases and daily life in the village today. It also explores the background of the initiative and its long-standing cultural program. Alongside a previously unpublished text by Schlingensief on his vision for the opera village, the book includes contributions by Aino Laberenz, Francis Kéré, Elfriede Jelinek, and Sonja Lau, reflecting on the intersection between utopian ideals and their realization in practice.
I edited the catalogue and wrote the conversation between Aino Laberenz and Francis Kéré.
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The Opera Village (Operndorf Afrika) is a visionary cultural and social project founded by Christoph Schlingensief in Burkina Faso in 2010. Conceived as a space where art, education, and community life intersect, it has grown beyond its initial concept of a "village" into a thriving artistic and social hub. Designed in collaboration with Pritzker architect Francis Kéré, the village includes a school, medical center, and artist residencies, fostering intercultural exchange and supporting local creative practices. Rooted in Schlingensief’s belief in art as a catalyst for social change, Operndorf Afrika continues to evolve, offering a platform for education, artistic collaboration, and sustainable community development.
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Catalogue, Christoph Schlingensiefs Operndorf Afrika ©Operndorf Afrika
ABSURDE ROUTINEN ROUTINISED ABSURDITY
30 September 2018 – 3 February 2019 / KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art
Exhibition with CUCO – curatorial concepts berlin
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Routines give us security. They are based on our experiences, preventing us from learning new things and saving ourselves from the unforeseen. However, when these practices become rigid, unreflected habits, they interfere with everyday life and suppress purposeful behavior. We wish to break out of the day-to-day patterns and yearn for a stroke of freedom that brings variety to our cyclical regiments of work, consumption, leisure, personal care, and sleep.
The thematic group exhibition presented photographs of ten international contemporary photographers, who address our daily routines and breaking free from them. The highly narrative photographs, which are often self-portraits, not only show the absurdity inherent in repetitive habits, but also raise questions about the state of a performance-oriented society in which efficient action is paramount. They also illuminate the flip sides of the permanent functioning of each individual – fatigue, overstrain and collapse. In most of the works, the faces of the protagonists remain hidden. As a result, the viewer‘s attention shifts to the rest of the body, which becomes the medium of mental states.
With works by Louis De Belle, Juno Calypso, Brooke DiDonato, Christoph Grill, Aleksey Kondratyev, Elisa Larvego, Sandra Lazzarini, Pierrick Sorin, Sebastian Stumpf, and Ben Zank.
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The exhibition was part of Berlin Art Week 2018. It was conceived and co-curated by Annika Turkowski as part of CUCO berlin and presented at KINDL - Center for Contemporary Art.
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CUCO berlin, Absurde Routinen (Detail: Juno Calypso), KINDL Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst ©Jens Ziehe