Müge Yılmaz (NL/TR) uses images and performance as tools for speculating on possible futures. In The Adventures of Umay Ixa Kayakızı, a retired astronaut named Umay, now a grandmother to many, takes us to her secret ‘studiolo’ where she devotes herself to reading and writing feminist science fiction, experimenting and studying various other subjects. On the island ship where she lives, we visit this studiolo with its library – handmade in wood by Umay herself. We get a chance to see her collection of books, artefacts and memorabilia and become her grandchildren. 

Müge Yilmaz - click here for feministscifi
http://www.mugeyilmaz.com/

Natasha Tontey (IN) consults ‘other species’ and ‘spirits’ in order to engage in speculative thinking. In ‘Pest to Power’ she showed us the power of cockroaches. Currently she is researching the cosmology of the Minahasan, an ethnic group in North Sulawesi Indonesia, and their relation to a geo-entity, the stone. The Minahasan once believed that the first person was a woman and god was not a patriarchal deity. Tontey speculates on a geological force interacting with inhabitants of the earth out of mutual solidarity. The work is co-produced by Transmediale Berlin during Tontey's time as transmedial artist-in-residence.

https://tontey.org

‘Ingahy Kama’ is the Malagasy name of James Cameron, the missionary who introduced bricks in Madagascar. The eponymous film by Bie Michels (BE/CG) opens with a shot of Cameron’s statue in the capital. Michels’ work is about decolonizing public and mental space. Her installation combines the film with ‘Piles of Bricks’, an installation/performance made in collaboration with the Malagasy artist Liantsoa Rakotonaivo, and ‘Bricks Dust’, a series of drawings where the red dust that is shed by bricks is turned into weightless creatures and body traces.

The performative installation Piles of Bricks is by Bie Michels and Malagasy artist Liantsoa Rakotonaivo. The installation is based on scores that play with body vs. space, rhythm, migration, defense, continuously changing reality. Each new installation/performance generates a new interpretation. 

Liantsoa made his own installation in Madagascar as well as a video, edited by him and Bie. The performance at the Other Futures Festival will combine perspectives from two different places, with Bie and Li reacting to  each other’s work.

Bie Michels - click here for "Scores for the performance ‘Piles of Bricks’"
Click here for Bie Michels Website

Mehraneh Atashi was born in Tehran (IR/NL). They held a residency position at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Their work embodies ruptures and remains fluid, open in more directions. They often focus on catastrophe, apocalypse, and growth through autobiographical elements: “Through the excavation of memories, archiving and documentation of the self, I look at the relationship between the time of the self and the time of the world.” For the Other Futures’ exhibition, Atashi is showing a new body of work, in which they investigate these temporal relationships. 

Mehraneh Atashi - click here for 'Letter to P'
http://mehranehatashi.com/

‘Master Plan’ is a sculptural installation by Singapore-based artist and writer Jason Wee (SG). This dystopian future city, where destruction occurs in the name of progress, bears a strong resemblance to his home island, where the same developments are occurring in a strikingly aggressive way. Wee is also investigating other megacities, such as Seoul, Delhi, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo, gathering materials towards a multi-year art research culminating in exhibitions and publications. He is the founder of ‘Grey Projects’, a library and an artist-in-residency that results in exhibitions, lectures and publications.

Jason Wee - click here for "Not Pulling Back the Welcome"
https://www.greyprojects.org/