Jinran Ha and Johanna Käthe Michel: Dialogue of the Objects/Komische Fragmente

2018–2020, installation of online work accessible via QR code

Researched for and first produced within N*A*I*L*S hacks*facts*fictions, a project that explored the nail salon as a site of critical, queer and transcultural practices, as well as intersectional care politics, both works by Ha and Michel find a new material representation in the Corneous Stories exhibition.

In the Dialogue of the Objects/Komische Fragmente, artists of different backgrounds disconnect from their physical body, which is always related to individual privileges and violence because of the ways in which identity categories are constructed. Instead, industrially produced objects used in nail studios chat with each other and “innocently” touch upon matters of racism, sexism, identities, capitalism, etc. The talking objects are referring to Sergei Tretiakov’s Biography of the Object (1929), in which the Soviet writer proposed to research social conditions through objects rather than the people who produce them.

Technical consulting and programming by Matej Lazar; co-produced by the City of Women, Goethe-Institut Ljubljana, District Berlin.

As part of the Corneous Stories exhibition, Jinran Ha and Johanna Käthe Michel will also hold a performative reading, inviting the audience to take on the role of the objects and read out the script of the Dialogue of the Objects/Komische Fragmente. By scanning the name tag of a character (object), the visitors can download the script of the selected object onto their device and step into roles that represent or speak about various biopolitical and social positions. Thus, the bodies coming from diverse backgrounds will be experiencing an interchange of positions during this participatory performative reading.

In addition, Johanna Käthe Michel will conduct the Conversations of Things art education project.

Still from Dialogue of the Objects/Komische Fragmente