Julia Stoschek Foundation and Panthertainment present SYNERGIE

To celebrate the closing of the first European solo exhibition by the pioneering video and performance artist Ulysses Jenkins, the Julia Stoschek Foundation is happy to announce two consecutive evening programs on 26 and 27 July 2023, from 7:00–9:00 p.m.

7:00–8:30 p.m.
Screening of works by Alice Diop, Keisha Rae Witherspoon, and Kelvin Kilonzo, Pablo Gīw & Maurits Boettger

8:30–9:00 p.m.
Conversation and Q&A with Panthertainment founder Tyron Ricketts and the artists Kelvin Kilonzo and Pablo Gīw

On the second evening, the Julia Stoschek Foundation and Panthertainment are happy to present the second edition of the screening series SYNERGIE, featuring three moving-image works by Alice Diop, Keisha Rae Witherspoon, and Kelvin Kilonzo, Pablo Gīw & Maurits Boettger.

Expanding on Jenkins’s thematical and conceptual concerns, this screening program brings together works that examines the representation of Black masculinity and performance for the camera. In her insightful documentary Vers la tendresse (“Toward Tenderness”) (2016), French filmmaker Alice Diop focuses on the fallacies of masculinity and how societal expectations, taboos, and shame end up suppressing male vulnerability. Keisha Rae Witherspoon’s Berlinale-winning short film T (2019) is a visceral mediation on grief and loss, which follows three people in the days leading up to the “T Ball,” a fictional gathering in a predominantly Afro-Caribbean neighborhood in Miami. During this time mourners make and show off T-shirts and costumes that commemorate their deceased loved ones. The screening concludes with the premiere of Dyschronia (2023), a work by dancer and performer Kelvin Kilonzo, trumpeter and performer Pablo Gīw,and artist Maurits Boettger. In their ongoing video project Dyschronia, the group conjures a dystopian future and question the notions of movement in a post-apocalyptic scenery.

The three films will be in dialogue with Jenkins’s video King David (1978), in which Jenkins’s friend artist David Hammons discusses his experiences as a visual artist of African descent, delving into the complex relationship between these aspects of his identity and the deep connection they have with his creative expression.

SYNERGIE is a film screening series founded by Afro-German filmmaker and film curator Chima Okerenkwo in 2022, which he co-runs with Afro-German producer and filmmaker Bocar Thiam. SYNERGIE embraces alternative screening methods and programming, aiming to illuminate the intersections of visual experimentation, transnational perspectives, and postcolonial narratives within the realms of cinema and video art.

PANTHERTAINMENT is Germany’s first all-Black production company, based in Berlin.