Empathy When

This special extra episode rounds out the series of Empathy When. It features a wonderful chat with Jess Korp, and her presentation of her research and study at the swimming pool this summer.

Check out the organisation Jess mentions in the show here

The random cultural tip I offer is available to listen here, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless

The protests, the pandemic, the swimming pool time-slot cards. Summer 2020 has made visible how our everyday life is marked by inequalities, limits and restrictions. The swimming pool, a place of democratic pleasure and utopian fantasy, actually excludes many people. How does swimming feel like this summer as a person of colour? The presentation by Jessica Korp reveals perspectives, contexts and stories from the experiences of people of colour in the Sommerbad Humboldthain.

Jessica Korp is interested in the postcolonial history of migration, work in late capitalism, and everyday life as a stage for social contexts. She is a student of European ethnology and an active member of Aktivistar Filmkollektiv and Sonic In(terv)entions. Korp has supervised our program this summer as a resident researcher of REALITY.

Warning: I go full Oprah in this one! For the penultimate in the corona-time series of socially distanced podcast-readings, I chat with artist Elif Saydam. Saydam is a painter and writer, and has worked with Broken Dimanche Press in the past, most notably for a book and project for Berlin Art Week 2019 together with Vera Palme. The week after the podcast recording, they opened a show of new paintings at Tanya Leighton Gallery. They've contributed the mind-blowing online memory game Déjà Vu to Tropez's online summer exhibition REALITY. The conversation swirls around the practice of painting, writing and features some reading of their work.

Check out the show at Tanya Leighton Gallery here: https://tanyaleighton.com/current

For more info and documentation, as well as the chance to buy the blockbuster itself, check out: https://www.brokendimanche.eu/new-index#/colt-jonners-desecration-of-descent

The Silverfish-Featherduster romance Von Fleisch und Zucker can be found in the Montez Press Radio archive here: https://radio.montezpress.com/#/archive ... Just search for Elif Saydam and you can queue the piece in the webplayer. 

For documentation of the exhibition Selfing, on view at Mélange in March of 2020, and to read the texts, click here: http://megamelange.com/elif-saydam/

And a link to the book by Daniel Lavery: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781982105211 

Elif Saydam is a Turkish-Canadian artist, writer and performer based in Berlin. Past performances and exhibitions include Miss St’s Hieroglyphic Suffering at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, emic etic at Between Bridges in Berlin, No R.E.M. at Ashley in Berlin, and Le Misanthrope 1666 at La Biennale de Montréal, among others. 

Want to hear some terrible French? This episode, I start with some dreadful French. But thankfully, it's quickly forgotten thanks to the wonderful Samantha Bohatsch. Samantha's practice covers many shapes and forms, with texts, reading performances, video and printed matter among them. I have a chat with Samantha about her work and her deployment of fiction in her narratives and the role performance takes. At the beginning I shamelessly bribe with presents. We talk about breakups right at the beginning of the pandemic, being in quarantine, and nature of writing, poetry and visual art practices.

As mentioned, here is the link to Samantha's wonderful tiktok
And my much edited (boring) tiktok:

Check out Samantha's work online:
http://samanthabohatsch.com/
https://soundcloud.com/samanthabohatsch/

Thanks to Samantha, I really enjoyed this conversation and reading!

Samantha Bohatsch, born 1984 in Berlin, lives and works in Berlin. She studied in Karlsruhe (D), Vienna and Berlin and finished her studies as Meisterschülerin of Silvia Bächli at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe (D). Her works have been shown at Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (D); Efrimidis Gallery, Berlin; CAN, Neuchâtel (CH); Bob's Pogo Bar/ KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin and Forum Stadtpark, Graz (AT). She has been honored with artist fellowships by the Federal State Baden-Württemberg (D), the Arts Foundation Baden-Württemberg (D) and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.  

No. 7 turned out to be a delight. This episode I changed the format up a bit because I had never met Musa Okwonga until I had the pleasure of having this conversation with him. I had read this extract last winter. It is now his upcoming book "In The End, It Was All About Love" - which is coming out in winter 2021 from Rough Trade Books in London. Part memoir, part poetry, part self-help guide to life in this unique city; it's a look at memory, dating, sexuality, and more. In his reading and conversation, Okwonga will probably touch on, among other things, why Berlin is not Germany, how to deal with heartbreak, how to take joy where you can and how to eat cake in Berlin.

Some Musa links: his music outfit:
Musa on Twitter
Stadia podcast:

The intro I don't give in the podcast: Musa Okwonga is a Berlin-based writer, broadcaster and musician. The co-host of the Stadio football podcast, he has published one collection of poetry and three books about football, the first of which, "A Cultured Left Foot", was nominated for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. His work has appeared in various outlets, including Africa Is A Country, Die Zeit, Die Welt, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Economist.

PS: Shout out to my brother Fergus who was in the socially distanced live audience.

For this outing of BDP's Empathy When, we were delighted to be joined on the terrace of TROPEZ by Adam Fearon. Get ready to travel from Berlin to Frankfurt, Cairo to Baghdad, Adam reads his incredible essay that goes below the surface of the Fayum mummy portraits that date from the 1st century BC onwards, and how our contemporary self-expression is more tactile that our flat screens may suggest.

The essay that Adam reads from is supplemented by the following slides:

Check out Adam's work via his website

The exhibition discussed in the chat can be viewed here

Adam Fearon was born in Dublin in 1984 and now lives and works in Berlin. In 2019 he was a recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland's Next Generation award and recent solo projects include: »Relief« at Butler Gallery in Killkenny in 2019, »Ligning« at at Harbinger in Reykjavik or »Things I Think I Want« at Frankfurter Kunstverein in 2017.

The sun is shining in this one! In this episode John Holten is joined live on the Tropez terrace by artist and writer Mitch Speed. Reading his much commented upon essay, 'The Case Against Art', the conversation is anything but boring. Mitch Speed is an artist and writer based in Berlin. His book about Mark Leckey’s 1999 video artwork Fiorruci Made Me Hardcore, was published Afterall Books in Autumn 2019. He contributes to several publications, including Frieze, Mousse, Momus, and Camera Austria.

This summer Broken Dimanche Press' John Holten invites you to join us poolside in TROPEZ for a series of readings and chats with writers, poets and artists. Literature has the means to help us escape, reimagine the world anew, or offer bold new ways to engage with our surroundings. It's empathy building. It's also fun. Between weekly live readings and interactions with the TROPEZ live webcam, BDP and TROPEZ are excited to announce Empathy When, the Tropez Writing Podcast! We will be recording our invited guests and producing a weekly podcast for you to enjoy some socially distanced storytelling

Broken Dimanche Press reading series at TROPEZ is part of REALITY

Please join us for Empathy When no. 4! We're delighted to welcome you to the terrace of Tropez to enjoy the poetry of Jasmine Reimer. She will be reading some of her book Small Obstructions, and then having a chat with John Holten.

Jasmine Reimer is a writer, artist and researcher who has received a BFA from Emily Carr University in 2009 and an MFA from The University of Guelph in 2015. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Of, In, or Under’ at Forest City Gallery in Ontario, ‘Small Obstructions’ at Georgia Scherman Projects in Toronto and ‘the harder softer side’ at The Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina. In addition to her visual art practice, Reimer maintains a creative and critical writing practice. Her art criticism can be read in Canadian publications including “The Capilano Review”, “Border Crossings” and in the upcoming issue of “Femme Art Review”. In February 2017, in conjunction with an exhibition by the same name, Reimer released her first book of poetry titled, Small Obstructions. Later that year, “Bluestem”, an online and print publication produced by Eastern Illinois University’s English Department, recently published “To Be A Bowl of Tangerines” in its Spring issue.

This summer the audience is invited to join us at the poolside in Tropez for a series of readings and poolside chats with writers, poets and artists. Literature has the means to help us escape, reimagine the world anew, or offer bold new ways to engage with the world. It's empathy building. It's also fun. Between weekly live readings and interactions with the Tropez live webcam, BDP and Tropez produce Empathy When - the Tropez Writing Podcast! We will be recording our guests Dani Arbid, Alan Murrin, Mitch Speed, Jasmine Reimer, Adam Fearon und Anna Szaflarski for the public to enjoy, socially distanced storytelling!

Broken Dimanche Press is a European press interested in all aspects of books within the wider discourses of contemporary art and literature. It is committed to operating beyond and across national borders and language regions. Ten years after its founding in 2009, the publishing house, which has published over 70 titles and organised numerous exhibitions and events, started a Writers' Prize. BDP is based in Berlin.

Broken Dimanche Press podcast series at TROPEZ is part of REALITY.

In this episode, John Holten is joined live on the Tropez terrace by artist and writer Anna M. Szaflarski. In 2004, Szaflarski competed at the Canadian Olympic Trials. That is to say, she can swim, and swim well. For this session, she composed a special text for the context of Tropez, and indeed carries out a full blown swimming class! The audience participated, form was improved, the speed in the pool increased! Check it out. Anna published the book of stories and illustrations Very Normal People in 2019 and a collection of essays in Letters to the Editors in 2016.  Check out her webpage for more: http://www.annaszaflarski.com/


This summer Broken Dimanche Press' John Holten invites you to join us poolside in TROPEZ for a series of readings and chats with writers, poets and artists. Literature has the means to help us escape, reimagine the world anew, or offer bold new ways to engage with our surroundings. It's empathy building. It's also fun. Between weekly live readings and interactions with the TROPEZ live webcam, BDP and TROPEZ are excited to announce Empathy When, the Tropez Writing Podcast! We will be recording our invited guests and producing a weekly podcast for you to enjoy some socially distanced storytelling

Broken Dimanche Press reading series at TROPEZ is part of REALITY.

This Saturday for the next installment in our series »Empathy When« we'll be joined on the terrace by Alan Murrin! Alan Murrin is an Irish fiction writer based in Berlin. His fiction has been anthologised in »Literally Speaking Berlin 2019«, and »The Sacred Exists to be Found« and he has been short-listed for the Irish Arts and Writers Festival short story prize.

This summer Broken Dimanche Press' John Holten invites you to join us at the poolside in TROPEZ for a series of readings and poolside chats with writers, poets and artists. Literature has the means to help us escape, reimagine the world anew, or offer bold new ways to engage with our surroundings. It's empathy building. It's also fun. Between weekly live readings and interactions with the TROPEZ webcam, BDP and TROPEZ are excited to announce »Empathy When - the Tropez Writing Podcast«! We will be recording our invited guests and producing a weekly podcast for you to enjoy some socially distanced storytelling

Broken Dimanche Press reading series at TROPEZ is part of REALITY.

Recorded on Saturday, 4.7.2020, 4.30 pm
Broken Dimanche Press
Empathy When #2 Alan Murrin reads the short story Names

Check out more of Alan's work on his website: https://alanmurrin.com/

Empathy When starts with Dani Ghassan Arbid. Born in London, raised in Abu Dhabi, Arbid is a writer, filmmaker and recent entrepreneur. He has worked and lived in Istanbul, Beirut and Berlin where, in 2018, he co-founded Barakunan GmbH, a publishing and media start-up. In September 2019, he was awarded the inaugural Büro BDP Writing Prize, with the novel »The Year of Things Lost« forthcoming in 2020.

This summer Broken Dimanche Press' John Holten invites you to join us at the poolside in TROPEZ for a series of readings and poolside chats with writers, poets and artists. Literature has the means to help us escape, reimagine the world anew, or offer bold new ways to engage with our surroundings. It's empathy building. It's also fun. Between weekly live readings and interactions with the TROPEZ live webcam, BDP and TROPEZ are excited to announce Empathy When, Tropez Writing Podcast! We will be recording our invited guests and producing a weekly podcast for you to enjoy, socially distanced storytelling!

Recorded on Saturday, 27.6.2019, 4.30 pm
Broken Dimanche Press
Empathy When #1: Dani Ghassan Arbid reads from The Year of Things Lost

You can buy Dani's books here: https://www.barakunan.com/
And check out the full programme of Tropez here: https://tropeztropez.de/