Neither/Nor & de_coloniaLanguage: Artistic Practice and Theoretical Intervention

Meeting somewhere on the waves of independent art and activist scenes in Berlin, the projects Neither/Nor and de_coloniaLanguage have been in dialogue and exchange for some time. Anastasia Kolas (Neither/Nor) and Denis Esakov and Marina Solntseva (de_colonialanguage) will discuss their overlapping as well as divergent interests in the question of coloniality, “Eastern Europe” and/or the “post-Soviet region,” and present their approaches to knowledge production through auto-theoretical artistic practice and collective organizing and research, respectively.

Founded in March 2023, Neither/Nor is organized by Anastasia Kolas and began as a discussion group assembled in search of a better self-articulation and to work through the urgent issues related to post-Soviet, Eastern European and hybrid contexts, with a view of elucidating potential anti-colonial position(s) relevant to the regional experience and distinct from the dominant Western discourse (here: American/Western European). As of October 2024, the project has shifted its research focus to reciprocity, opacity and hybridity.

Anastasia Kolas is an artist and organizer based in Berlin. Between 2018 and 2023 she was the editor of Nacre Journal. Her work explores what she calls “aesthetics of disappointment” or the homogenizing forces of globalized modernity as related to notions of comfort, belonging and personal aspiration. She frequently uses inherited, archival and found material in her work.

de_coloniaLanguage is a transfrontier art collective, operating in the sphere of critical language studies by employing a decolonial method of radical solidarity. It is a community of artists, curators, researchers, and activists interested in exploring the complexities of power relations embedded in languages. The aim is to de_un_co_render Russian-Soviet colonialisms and other hidden imperialisms. As of 2023, the collective has launched an Open Air Museum of Decoloniality on Alexanderplatz (Berlin) and the University of Collective Mixed Reading – Nearby Reading Room.

Denis Esakov is a father, migrant, writer, curator, and activist. The main focus of Denis’s research, artistic and political work is the space of knowledge production and power relations within it. Collective thinking, multiplicities and polylingualities are crucially important for his work and life. Denis is the author of the book Attentive Curiosity of notUnderstandingness (2022).

Marina Solntseva is a researcher in the DFG Project Imperial Aitiology – Russian Eurasianism between Origin Myth and Apocalyptic Conflict at the Department of Political Philosophy, Political Theory and History of Political Ideas, Institute of Political Science, at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU).

If you would like to attend, please send a note to theorycese@zfl-berlin.org.

Fig. above: © Anastasia Kolas