The Plastic Stares Back: The Aura and the Special Offer
A site-specific installation of plastic packagings and other remnants of of human productivity, in the framework of the annual exhibition of YOUR ART BEAT e.V. on the 2nd floor of the Neukölln Arcaden, Karl-Marx-Str. 66 in Berlin. Running April 11 – May 30 2026, open (approx.) Thurs-Sat 4-9 pm.
On Friday, May 29, from 5 to 8 p.m., I invite you to the closing event of my site-specific installation located between Media Markt and Superfit.
Around 7 p.m., I will give a performative reading of a new text by me&ai (approx. 20 minutes):
Narcissus in Patriarchy
Location:
2nd floor of the Neukölln Arcaden (between Superfit and Media Markt), Karl-Marx-Str. 66, near U7 Rathaus Neukölln
Time:
Friday, May 29, 2026, 5–8 p.m.
Reading: approx. 7 p.m.
I look forward to seeing you there!
About the installation:
A headless and armless, male-presenting torso stands monumentally on a glowing pedestal and a stack of styrofoam boxes — some of these are marked “aura freshday” — a wink to Walter Benjamin’s reflections on aura in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935).
This monument of impermanence would, if it had a head and eyes, gaze upon a wall filled with over 70 stacked plastic crates from a vegetable market, each packed with painted plastic packaging and other remains of our disposable society. On closer inspection, pairs of eyes, faces, creatures can be discovered — sometimes even scenes or stories. Imagination is free to roam, from the past lives of the reanimated packaging to possible fictions yet to be told. In addition, video documentation from unannounced performances in the department store window “Donau Ecke Ganghofer” will be shown, featuring some of the plastic objects on display. In the other room, you can hear a recontextualized audio narrative I wrote in 2018 about plastic waste. Spoiler: it’s still relevant — only the numbers have changed.
Also at Neukölln Arcaden, I will offer
PranaSoma Sessions
Saturdays, April 25 to May 30, from 11 am to 1 pm
PranaYoga with somatic awareness:
A somatically attentive body practice that lets your breath flow more easily and deeply, increases energy and endurance, and refines body awareness. Gentle warm-ups and light conditioning prepare you for Pranayama (breathing meditations).
All exercises can be adapted to your pace and mobility.
Please bring your own mat if you have one, as well as comfortable clothes that allow free movement. Barefoot practice is recommended.
Speaking to the Ghosts of Kaliyuga
Throughout the month of April, the first part of my upcoming series of audio essays Speaking to the Ghosts of Kaliyuga will be hosted by the New Zealand Audio Foundation / AFM as part of their series Unframed Signals:
https://afm.org.nz/STEPHANIE-HANNA-SPEAKING-TO-THE-GHOSTS-OF-KALIYUGA
(… the stream runs continuously, so it won’t necessarily begin at the start when you tune in — you’ll join exactly where and when you enter …)
Speaking to the Ghosts of Kaliyuga is a series of audio essays by Stephanie Hanna in which reflections on collective social crises are woven into a dynamic soundscape of ASMR-triggering field recordings drawing from urban, natural, and working environments. As tools for discernment in disorienting times, each episode weaves specific somatic grounding practices and body-mind awareness into reflections on different aspects of humanity’s current condition. In the first episode, rainset, the waters pour in various ways. Pluriharmonic wailing choruses and reinterpreted fragments of familiar tunes punctuate the stream of thought, which concludes with a somatic exploration of money as a force that might connect humanity — but for now largely divides it.
Enjoy listening!
talking with rosa
Video installation at Exploratorium Berlin in the context of the symposion “Improvisation und Resonanz”,
January 31 – February 1, 2026
Körper Spüren: Resonanz und kollektives Bewusstsein
Workshop in the context of the symposion “Improvisation und Resonanz” at Exploratorium Berlin, January 31, 2026
Europahymne der Vielen
Video-object and collective singing of “Europahymne der Vielen” (Bernadette la Hengst´s and Barbara Morgenstern´s actualisation of Friedrich Schiller) in the one-night-show “Europa ohne Ende”, Spor Klübü, Berlin-Wedding, November 28, 2026
as long as people are
An embodied thinking imaginary on occasion of
the #BerlinIstKultur day of action during Jazzwoche Berlin
When: Friday, July 4 2025, 5:45 pm
Where: Kulturkneipe WATT, Metzer Str. 9, 10405 Berlin
Open Studios Naumannpark
Sunday, July 6 2025, 1-7 pm
Haus 1.2, nearest entrance Naumannstr. 33, 10829 Berlin
Ways of Becoming: 25 years with UNIDEE
Contributions to the exhibition and a participative Performance in context of the festivities
at Cittadelarte / Fondazione Pistoletti in Biella, Italy
September 21-25, 2024 (exhibition running until June 2025)
https://www.cittadellarte.it/unidee/activity.html?id=215
Niemand hat die Absicht, Kapitalismus abzuschaffen
(Nobody intends to abolish Capitalism)
August 30 – October 30, 2024
Costume Party and Finissage November 1, 8pm
in the record store POP, Yorckstraße 52, 10829 Berlin near U & S Yorckstraße
the embodied reading lab
continues
reading “On Connection” by Kae Tempest
When: Sunday, September 29 and October 27, 2024 from 2 to 4:30 pm
and Sunday, January 19, 2025
at Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek (Zentrale Landesbibliothek Berlin)
Blücherstr. 1, 10961 Berlin (near U-Bhf Hallesches Tor).
Language: German and English spoken
detox narcissism
You can hear my audio reflection on this matter here:
Shown as sticker with QR code link in the group show “Zero Tolerance” and elsewhere in the world
at Spor Klübü, Freienwalder Str. 31, Berlin-Wedding on Friday, November 24, 2023, starting at 7 pm
expanded spaces for encounters
October 7th 2023, 2 – 8 pm
around Bürgeramt Rathaus Mitte and Kino International,
near U5 Schillingstraße
In preparation for the future lesbian and queer-feminist housing and cultural center of RuT gGmbH, we have been experimenting with cultural offerings that “queer” the neighborhood of Karl-Marx-Allee (KMA II). How and what can artistic-performative works contribute so that we encounter each other more honestly and directly?
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, the site-specific research by the artists Alice Chauchat, María Ferrara, Rike Flämig, Kollektiv TILT (Tamara Rettenmund and Türe Zeybek) and Tanja Ostojić will result in five artistic and performative “expanded spaces for encounters”. Between 2 and 8 pm, unusual forms of urban participation will be invited from various perspectives.
I can see clearly now (the rain is gone)
A performative sculpture made out of plastic packaging, right before your eyes.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
5:30-6:30 pm
James-Simon-Park, Berlin Mitte
Part of
@fishing_for_future by @kristina__popov with support by @boellstiftung
Körper Lesen — embodied reading lab
When: The first Tuesdays of the month from 6 to 8 pm, April through September 2023
Where: Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek, Blücherstr. 1, 10961 Berlin (near U-Bhf Hallesches Tor).
The workshop takes place in public: In good weather we are outside under a large tent roof, in wet and / or cold we are inside in the salon of the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek.
Language: German and English spoken