‘Syncretism’ describes the fusion of different natural-cultural elements into a new form of expression. The English word ‘site’ refers to a place, a factory, a location, a site or also, the virtual localization on the net: the web site. Different practices and forms of knowledge, non-modern and modern cosmologies, poetic and exploratory procedures share this space. A syncretic understanding opens the world to complexity and density. Thus, what is layered, entangled, enmeshed and fused together creates not one single worldview, but worlds of coexistence – in plural.

Every era has to reinvent the project of “spirituality” for itself. In the modern era, one of the most active metaphors for the spiritual project is “art.”

Susan Sontag in “Aesthetics of Silence” (1967)

Syncretic Sites is characterized by a benevolently critical examination of both concept and practice of spirituality. The works open up references around the ephemeral, the immaterial and the spiritual, in its broadest sense. The relationship between primarily modernist spaces of contemporary art and non-modern forms of knowledge takes place as a constant negotiation with the “project of spirituality,” as Susan Sontag describes it in the quote above. In this, subtle or repressed forms of knowledge are often lost. Through formats of listening, pausing, and tracing, we come to syncretism and discover what might otherwise go unnoticed.

The invited artists specialize in following and augmenting the traces of events long past, forgotten or happening in the future. Similar to deep geological drilling, processes of sedimentation appear, which took place on site a long time ago, are taking place unnoticed at the present moment, or are yet to take place in a distant future. The speculative and the present are interwoven and played back through various media. Invocations, prayers, laments, hopes, blurs, miniatures, dissolves, echoes and new forms of archiving characterize this Protozone.

Supported by Stadt Zürich Kultur, Kanton Zürich Fachstelle Kultur, Ernst und Olga Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung, Stiftung Temperatio, Migros-Kulturprozent, IPF Institute for the Performing Arts and Film from Zurich University of Arts

LO-INTENSITY-PROGRAM 18.09.-05.11.:

Closing-Program 04./05.11.:

SATURDAY, 04.11.2023 open 14-20:00

16:00 Guided Tour with Lucie Tuma

17:00 Reading with Shruti Belliappa & Kiraṇ Kumār
Shruti Belliappa & Kiraṇ Kumār weave together threads of Shedhalle’s textile past, Indian weaving techniques and transatlantic trade with enslaved people in their reading and work Department of Para-Pedagogies: Peça da India.

18h Listening Session with a Mixtape by Arjuna Neuman
Afterwards, a listening session in the context of Denise Ferreira da Silva’s and Arjuna Neuman’s work Soot Breath – Corpus Infinitum traces the expanded echo chambers of what we can learn from listening to blues – featuring a mixtape by Arjuna Neuman.

Sunday, 05.11.2023 open 14-19:00

15:00 Guided Tour mit Lucie Tuma

17:00 Action with Nils A. Lange
Finally there is a recourse: Nils A. Lange is planning an action in connection with the work Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (BWV 21) which was presented last summer during Protozone7 at the Shedhalle.

HI-INTENSITY-PROGRAM 15.09.-17.09.:

FRIDAY, 15.09.2023

open 18-23:00

18:00 opening Protozone12: Syncretic Sites
19:30 Tiran Willemse: blackmilk (Performance)
20:30 Amparo Gonzáles Sola: If every rock is a hole (Performance)
21:30 HAUSVRAU listening session

SATURDAY, 16.09.2023

open 14-22:00

14:00 Guided Tour with Lucie Tuma
15:00 Frank Hesse: Emergency in favour of twice (Workshop)
17:00 The Universe Ball, hosted in collaboration with lila. queer festival
subsequently (ca. 21:00) Nina Emge listening session

SUNDAY, 17.09.2023

open 13-18:00

13:00 A.Livingstone: The Sequesterers: subterranean (Lecture Gesture)

14:00 Guided Tour with Lucie Tuma
15:00 Shruti Belliappa & Kiraṇ Kumār: Department of Para Pedagogic Practices (Reading)
17:00 Tiran Willemse: blackmilk (Reading)

With Syncretic Sites, a syncretic deep drilling into previously invisible or hardly perceived layers, locations, and perspectivizations of the site will take place in the fall of 2023. For just like any other place, Shedhalle is inhabited by traces from other times and places.

‘Syncretism’ describes the fusion of different natural-cultural elements into a new form of expression. The English word ‘site’ refers to a place, a factory, a location or also, the virtual localization on the net: the web site.

The next protozone is about processes of listening and about past, forgotten, repressed or future events and existences.

During the pre-opening, we look at post-digital futures: With an invitation to the curatorial collective Forever Unblocked, we celebrate the anticipation of Protozone12 with an initial focus on listening and sound formats. The freshly founded collective has developed a program of artistic positions that will take place at Shedhalle and Clubraum Rote Fabrik.

>>>Protozone12: Syncretic Sites officially begins with a Hi-Intensity Phase two weeks later, 15.09. -17.09.2023

Meet us at 8pm at Shedhalle for the launching event of our series featuring bod [包家巷], Well Born and Spellcaster. (installation open 18-02h)

The Afterparty starts at 11pm at Clubbüro with three sparkling DJs of the avant-pop deconstructed club music sphere, namely Prairie F33, LEGIT GIRL DJ, and Puduparty.

August 1 thus becomes a day for queer solidarity. This is an urgent statement especially in light of current attacks on queer cultural events and political questioning of queer identities and life models. With the QBD we want to strengthen queer culture and contribute to the networking of queer people.

The courtyard, Clubraum, Shedhalle and lakeside path are wheelchair accessible. Unfortunately, access to the lake is not yet barrier-free. However, we are happy to assist with access. If you need assistance or have questions, please contact us in advance via queer.bay.day@gmail.com or talk to us on site.

Queer Bay Day is initiated by Clubbüro IG Rote Fabrik, Gessnerallee and Shedhalle. It is realized in cooperation with LGBTQIA+ initiatives from Zurich and Switzerland. The event is non-commercial and independent of sponsors. Profits will be donated to Queer Amnesty and TSEF.

Graphic design: Lorena Cipriano

Waiting for you: Juicy DJ sets, BarbeQ with Oz & Friends, workshops with introductions and a cuddle corner by QueerNest, a massage oasis by Znüni, STI testing by Checkpoint Zurich, mini golf at Shedhalle, info booths by TGNS and Bisexual Switzerland and more info material about queer life in Zurich and Switzerland, cake by Aro-Ace-Spektrum Switzerland, a queer pole jam and iced tea bar by SLOCH collective, a book booth by FAGDOM and a reading corner initiated by the library of Regenbogenhaus as well as a product presentation by the queer sex shop untamed.love and a performance by L-AZCO & OIL Productions.

More program to be announced! 🌈

If you want to contribute to the program with your own ideas, please contact us via queer.bay.day@gmail.com

In case of rain the QBD will take place in Clubraum Rote Fabrik.

More information about the program:

DJ sets by

Sabrina Oberlin https://soundcloud.com/user-945972663

prazeres https://soundcloud.com/prazeresss

Foncé https://soundcloud.com/jean_fonceee

QueerNest cuddle corner with Julian & Sash from www.queerspace.ch

A quiet corner in the clubroom where people can retreat to cuddle with others. You can come and go as you please. All genders and orientations are welcome. At 5pm and 7pm there is an introduction with exercises and games for all newcomers and a big cuddle pile is set up each time. You decide at any time what you want to participate in and whether you want to go in or out. Pre-registration is not necessary, but beneficial to estimate how many people will be attending. queer.bay.day@gmail.com

STI Testing from Checkpoint www.cpzh.ch

You can get tested for STIs and HIV for a discounted price of 20 CHF at QBD. We will set up an anonymous place for this and provide the infrastructure.

Massage for all bodies with Simon & Aga

Thaï and Cranio-Sacral technique, four hands massage. It is best to register in advance: queer.bay.day@gmail.com

Barbecue & Salad Buffet by Oz Oderbolz

Feel free to bring your (vegi)sausage or grilled cheese.

Protozone11: it’s weird is a multi-format project, developing as an experiment in exhibition making, performance presentation and educational exchange. Since our first Protozone back in 2020, we have established an alternative model for exhibition making. Within it, we are continuously expanding and renegotiating the boundaries of artwork and reception, how to gather in public and our institutional roles. We remain receptive and porous in our relationship to our audiences and continue to learn from them. At the same time, we remain in the process of defining our mission, questioning the relevance of art production during a historical moment on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Shedhalle will once again open its doors to process-based scenarios, inviting previous and new collaborators to inhabit the space for the next nine weeks. Angela Goh will open Protozone11: it’s weird with a performance, Body Loss, and the European premiere of her new film, The Concert (2022), commissioned by the Sydney Opera House. She will remain in-residence at Shedhalle, bringing a suite of performances in-process on the two following weekends. Opening weekend continues with contributions from: Michael Portnoy who invites us to look at sex as dance and comedy, presenting the film Progressive Touch (2020); Kris Lemsalu who appears through a phantasmagorical intervention that will continue into the night, leaving traces to remain at Shedhalle; and Autumn Knight will return to Shedhalle for the third year in a row, developing on work begun in the SHED in 2021, bringing the virtual work-in-process to our walls. Finally, Pontus Pettersson, artist-in-residence 2022, returning to Shedhalle on July 1st, will reconfigure the entire set up of the space with his own weird project pancor poetics.

Over the course of its nine-week manifestation, curator Michelangelo Miccolis, producer & moderator nick von kleist and guest editor Lisa Andreani will develop and serially publish The Weird Reader. This slow publication opens new and weird spaces for access and engagement with the works and processes of Protozone11. It uses the processes presented as its foundation for us to both listen to and build on, collectively. The process of The Weird Reader will be on view as an installation at Shedhalle and online on “the SHED”, our virtual greenroom and online residency program.

Curated by Michelangelo Miccolis

Produced and moderated by nick von kleist

Editor and contributor The Weird Reader: Lisa Andreani

Graphic design: Studio Yukiko

Supported by: Stadt Zürich Kultur, Australian Government & Australia Council for the Arts (Angela Goh), The Swedish Arts Grants Committee & Embassy of Sweden (Pontus Pettersson), Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim Stiftung, Ernst und Olga Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung, Elisabeth Weber-Stiftung

LO-Intensity Phase

17.06. – 6.08.

open every Sat 14-20h & Sun 14-18h

Check for weekly updates on “the SHED”

Installations (during opening hours):

vinyl-drawings by Autumn Knight, installations by Pontus Pettersson and Kris Lemsalu, films by Angela Goh (starting Sat 15,17 and 19h and Sun 15 and 17h) and Michael Portnoy (on a loop), ongoing publication of “The Weird Reader”

The Weird Reader

weird reading group & weird film program, time tbc

at Shedhalle and online via “the SHED”

PAST

HI-Intensity Phase

June 09-11, during Zurich Art Weekend

Fri, June 09, 17:00 – 23:00

18h Angela Goh, Body Loss (2017) PERFORMANCE (Swiss Premiere)

19h Angela Goh, The Concert (2022) FILM (European Premiere)

19h45 Michael Portnoy, Progressive Touch (2020) FILM

20h Kris Lemsalu, New untitled performance in collaboration with Maria Metsalu

22h Michael Portnoy, Progressive Touch (2020) FILM

Sat, June 10, 14:00 – 20:00

19h Angela Goh, The Concert (2022) FILM

Sun, June 11, 14:00 – 18:00

17h Angela Goh, Body Loss (2017) PERFORMANCE

Lo-Intensity-Phase

Sun, June 18

17h Angela Goh, Pattern Recognition, PERFORMANCE

Sun, June 25

17-19h open rehearsal of a new work by Angela Goh with sound by Corin Ileto, PERFORMANCE

Sat, July 01

14-20h Pontus Pettersson, Pancor Poetics, PERFORMANCE

with Aga Pędziwiatr, V Pierzyński and Tyra Wigg

14-15h miniature golf course open for use
15-17h performance
17-18h miniature golf course open for use
18-20h performance

When – and how – are you “touched” by a sound, a movement, a texture, a sight, a taste or a smell in a space of “visual” arts?

Which bodily sensations are emerging when you encounter a sculpture, installation, performance, an image, video or sound? Where are the limits of these sensations for you in an institution for contemporary art?

How can the ProtoZone* enhance the embodied, affective properties of artistic practices?

To answer these questions, Feels Like… ProtoZone13 hosts artists who are re-valuing affective qualities and sensory perceptions in their work and refuse to be “read” in a specific way. Their practices dare us to challenge a binary split between feeling and understanding. Rather, they invite us to acknowledge the simultaneity of sensing-thinking as a non-binary entanglement when it comes to processes of “making sense” or “feeling like”. In such ways, they open up to the complexities and contradictions of aesthetic experience.

ProtoZone13 invites you into a space of collective learning: to negotiate proximity, emotions, sensuality and solidarity within shared ecologies of the exhibition space and beyond.

Supported by Stadt Zürich Kultur, Jubiläumsstiftung der Mobiliar Genossenschaft, Mondriaan Fund (Schule der Liebenden), Taiwan National Culture and Art Foundation (Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos)), Pro Helvetia, Swiss Cultural Foundation & Oertli Foundation (James Bantone), Abteilung Kultur Basel-Stadt (Deborah-Joyce Holman), Georg und Josi Guggenheim Foundation, Ernst & Olga Gubler-Hablützel Foundation

Friday 17.11. 18-23h / Saturday 18.11. 15-20h / Sunday 19.11. 14-18h

HI-Intensity Phase – OPENING Weekend

17.11. 18h introducing and eating ProtoZone13
18.11. 13-15:30h Collective Worlding Workshop with Steph Holl-Trieu

18.11. 17-18h Artist Talk with Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos)
and more tba

Thursday 23.11.

19h Le Foyer in Process – talk about the process“Schule der Liebenden”

Monday 27.11.

19-23h book release ‘Contemporary Queer Chinese Art’ with Diyi Mergenthaler, Ziwei Huang & Yumo Cheng and Dr. Daniel Berndt

Friday 01.12. at Riff Raff cinema

20:40h “UKI/IKU” double feature Shu Lea Cheang in collaboration with Porny Days

Saturday 02.12.

14-16h “Just say it!” workshop with Chill Pawel Dudus & Eeeezzii melanie bonajo

Friday 08.12.

„Die Schule der Liebenden“ premiere – more dates 10./14./15./16.12.23 and 5./6./7.1.24, tickets here

Saturday 13.-14.01.

HI-Intensity Phase – CLOSING Weekend
with Chris Paxton and more tba

16.12.2022/ 18–00h Performance at 19h00

17.12.2022/ 14–22h Performance at 19h00

QUEER is, among other things, a term for the ambiguous and the unenclosed. In this sense, the term goes beyond sexual orientation or the question of gender. It is the basis of an attitude that insists on an “in-between,” a diversity of perspectives, and constant change.

For Protozone8, QUEER is joined with the term TRUST. Relationships with artists and trust in artistic processes are the foundation that gives support to constant change and non-fixation. This is what makes working in the art space Shedhalle possible in the first place. TRUST is also placed in the visitors, who are invited into this space of fluid transitions. QUEER TRUST is a call to trust the space between.

Protozone8: QUEER TRUST is developed and organized in exchange with the participating artists. Together with the visitors, QUEER TRUST creates space for the presentation of works as well as opportunities for gatherings, new experiences, and learning.

Participants

Dana Michel (artist-in-residence) & Tracy Maurice Lay Them All Down (2020)

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė Leave No Trace (Athens) I-VIII (2022), RYXPER1126AE (2019), Votive Flowers (I–II), Freestanding Votive Flowers (I–VI) (all 2022)

Isabel Lewis The Institute for Embodied Creative Practices (ongoing) – in collaboration with Josephine Baan, Nina Emge, Izidora I LETHE, Ceylan Öztrük, Tyra Wigg and international art schools

Natasha Tontey Garden Amidst The Flame (2022) – commissioned and produced by Auto Italia, London in partnership with La Becque, Tour-de-Peilz, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague and Shedhalle, Zurich

Sunny Pfalzer I know what to do – with Lau Lukkarila and Slim Soledad, music by Marshall Vincent – produced in collaboration with Perrrformat

Tarek Lakhrissi Beast! (2022) – with Makeda Monnet and Victor da Silva – co-commissioned performance with Tinguely Museum (Basel), Move Festival, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Shedhalle (Zürich), Bureau des Heures Invisibles (Aubervilliers) & A horn is a thorn is a horn (2021)

Terre Thaemlitz Interstices (2001) & talk with Laurence Rassel

curated by Philipp Bergmann & Thea Reifler, curatorial assistants Ani Ekin Özdemir & Vanessa Bosch

With kind support of Stadt Zürich Kultur, Kanton Zurich Fachstelle Kultur (for The Institute for Embodied Creative Practices), Tanzhaus Zurich (für Dana Michel), Embassy of Canada (for Dana Michel), Kulturpauschale Kanton Basel Stadt (for Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė), Ernst and Olga Gubler-Hablützel Foundation.

Hi-Intensity

16.09. open 18-24h

Dana Michel (intermittently, time tbd)

further program tba

17.09. open 14-22h

Dana Michel (intermittently, time tbd)

further program tba

18.09. open 14-20h

Natasha Tontey (time tbd)

further program tba

Lo-Intensity

19.09. to 04.12., open every Sat 14-20h & Sun 14-18h

29.10. 20h Beast! Performance byTarek Lakhrissi with Makeda Monnet and Victor da Silva

05./06.11. The Institute for Embodied Creative Practices Isabel Lewis in collaboration with Josephine Baan, Nina Emge, Izidora I LETHE, Ceylan Öztrük, Tyra Wigg and international (art) schools

11.-13.11. Zurich Art November with Sunny Pfalzer