Bella Zanna Geetha Brückner: A good theory in theory

In the organizer's words:

Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner

A good theory in theory

September 27, 2024 - January 05, 2025

Opening with cheesecake: Thursday, September 26, 2024, 7 pm

Press conference: Thursday, September 26, 2024, 11 a.m.

What is the first dish you want to cook and eat with your loved ones after your release? Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner is conducting ongoing research by writing to prisoners in various penal institutions in several countries and asking them about their recipes for freedom. She is now bringing together the answers she receives in A good theory in theory in the outdoor area of the GAK. The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Antonio Negri, who says that a good theory in theory is possibly a bad theory in practical application.

The Italian philosopher, state theorist, part of the radical left-wing movement Autonomia Operaia and author, experienced imprisonment first-hand, which influenced both his personal life and his theoretical work. Recipes can also be read as theories that require implementation. At the same time, Negri's remarks can be applied to the prison system, which sounds plausible as a theory for so-called resocialization, but in practice in many countries cannot deliver what it promises.

In A good theory in theory, Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner explores the tension between the political functions of food cultures and the prison system: shared meals create a sense of sociability, they promote a sense of belonging and exchange, and conflicts are often resolved at the dinner table, important decisions are made and memories are shared. In German prisons, meals are rarely eaten together.

For the exhibition in the poster frames in the outdoor area of the GAK, Brückner collages the preserved recipes with used tea towels and creates visibility in the public sphere for voices that otherwise remain separated from social life.

In addition to the recipes, Brückner fills two of the poster frames with embroidered contexts: Including a depiction of the protest action of two Stop Oil activists during the 2023 Snooker World Championship, this embroidery provides context to the imprisonment of one of her pen pals.

In her artistic practice, Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner explores power structures in neoliberal contemporary societies, searches for ambivalences in narratives of democracy and social participation and uses transparency and freedom of information laws, documents from archives as well as interviews and other forms of exchange with those involved. In this order, recipes seem rather banal at first, but they certainly have a democratic and emancipatory character. They convey knowledge and culture and are by no means obligatory, as ingredients can be omitted, added or replaced, quantities halved and expanded. Recipes demand participation and only unfold their full meaning when interpreted and implemented by a cook. Preparation and access to food is severely restricted during imprisonment and financially burdened by a monopoly of the company Massak GmbH. In addition, the meals served by the state are usually eaten individually in the cell. This reinforces the already disintegrating character of imprisonment. A good theory in theory is a dialog with prisoners and their desire for physical self-determination and at the same time an invitation to passers-by to exchange theories and their practice while re-cooking the recipes.

Artist

Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner (*Mönchengladbach) studied time-based media at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg and at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research-based works have been awarded the Karl H. Ditze Prize and the Max Ernst Scholarship, among others, and have been shown in solo and group exhibitions at Kunstverein Dortmund (2024), Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (2024), Kunstverein Gastgarten Hamburg (2024), City Surfer Prague (2023), Goldsmiths University London (2023) and EIGEN+ART Lab Berlin (2022). From 2023 to 2024 she was the recipient of the Hamburg Cultural Foundation's scholarship for the promotion of young artists.

Exhibition series "Re-Framing"

A good theory in theory is part of the exhibition series "Re-Framing" in the poster frames in the outdoor area of the GAK. In several consecutive individual presentations, the invited artists take language as a starting point to intervene in the tense relationship between word and image. They interrupt familiar ways of seeing, reflect on (in)visibility or create intimacy in the public sphere.