International Paneling/June 2022
by Horster
The Normalish Spring of Now!
by Leo Kuelbs
Berlin
It’s been a strange feeling: Suddenly, a little spurt of happiness, which is quickly followed by a wash of guilt and sadness for feeling happy. The rollercoaster spring of 2022 is underway. Here are some notes from the last month:
Barbecue Magic:
Some amazing things happened when friends from different parts of the world realized we all love to barbecue! Emotions have been bottled up these past couple of years, so when a seemingly random group (Italians, Turks, Americans, Germans, Iranians, Ukrainians etc.) realized that we all love to cook and enjoy meat and other stuff on the grill, a wave of recognition and joy rolled out amongst us. The group vibe. And the food was excellent. The techniques were familiar, yet a little foreign for all. The overall effect was so sweet and wonderful that it gave all in attendance for these 2-3 early spring events, hope that some kinds of love and willingness to connect really do exist. Languages were overcome by a recognition of common interests and a realization that pretty much everyone is the same. Circumstances, oftentimes out of the individual’s control, often dictate how we see the world. War, money, religion, propaganda, etc. oftentimes used to push people apart, as though there were “others.” But as we ate our tasty treats from global recipes, we just felt like us.
COVID and the War:
Let’s just do these two awful and depressing topics together. COVID has lost a lot of steam in Berlin, it seems. I have heard of people not too far from my circle who have died recently. But, like the endless gun violence in the USA, I am somehow losing ability to really feel it. The people who are getting ill here have generally not been going to the hospital. No one is wearing masks here, except on public transit, and the sun, as mentioned, has been a welcome and warming presence after so many weeks and months without it. The fucked-up thing is that as everyone is trying to return to some kind of normal, a sneaky rash of psychological issues are revealing themselves. So many changes in relationships; un-mourned death is all around, financial shifts and ever-increasing rents and living costs are adding a palpable realization of impending hopelessness. The vibe is enjoy the moment because the other shoe is going to drop soon--whatever that other shoe might be.
The vibe is enjoy the moment because the other shoe is going to drop soon--whatever that other shoe might be. Some worry that other shoe may actually be a Russian boot.
Some worry that other shoe may actually be a Russian boot. In the past weeks, I have talked to several people from different places ,and those from places previously a part of the USSR are generally the most worried. The situation may have changed in the past few weeks, but the reigning sentiment is not pro-Russia. I haven’t met a single German who approves of the “Nazi” label applied to Ukrainians. Some people are more sympathetic to the Russians’ border beefs, but even they think that characterization is not only incorrect, but also a very unfunny joke.
I only have access to Western media, and I think we all know by now that we can only consume what is put in front of us these days, so one always wonders what is chosen to be served up. But my take on this on that Russia never really cared about the NATO thing so much. There are ports, valuable natural resources and much more money and power for a few fuckers at stake. That’s the real goal. And lots of bloodshed pleases the old gods--as I learned from Ancient Aliens. I digress, but these guys do not give a single shit about anyone, including their own soldiers. Also, after Afghanistan, doesn’t Russia (and the USA) know that you cannot beat someone on their own turf? Even if you win, it’s an endless and ultimately fruitless endeavor. But hey, in the meantime you can grab whatever you can. It’s like the Vikings raiding and raising a village. It just goes on and on and on.
Some Thoughts on Art:
In May we had Gallery Weekend here in Berlin, which was almost normal. Again, there was this double-dawning of springtime renewal mixed with a knowledge of recent past, present and impending death and suffering. But for a few hours, many of us tried to focus on the positive part and be together around paintings, videos, sculptures, photos and the general spirit of creation.
We hosted a group show titled, “In Bloom,” which focused on the above thoughts as its theme. And for some pleasant hours, we looked at “happy” art works, chatted without masks, hugged again, yet remained a little wary. Our small event was definitely a safer bet than the crowded environs of Potsdamerstrasse, where the big art crowds were. Surely the CORONA bug bit a few that weekend. But not at our little Spring gathering.
I only saw a few shows, and though they were fine, the better vibe was simply that they were happening. Creativity is a little hopeful fire. The art scene creatures could get back to their old habits. The funny thing is, I think everyone realized that no matter who you were before these past years, you are now something else. The theme of dawning realization about who we have become and how we will deal with these changes will be with us in these coming months and long years ahead.
Shorty of the Month! Juliane Pieper’s “Keep Your Secrets,” from “DFT: Obvious Surprise”
intro by Leo Kuelbs
Just as the virus began to take hold, the Digital Fairy Tales who, “Obvious Surprise” was scheduled to appear as part of the LIGHT YEAR series in March of 2020. The show, curated by Eszter Szabo, started as “Feminist Fairy Tales,” and grew from there. Due to the NYC lock-down, “Obvious Surprise”was never screened on the Manhattan Bridge. But, this July, “Obvious Surprise” will finally get a chance to be seen on one of the coolest canvases for video art in world! As part of LIGHT YEAR’s Summer reRun series. We are happy to preview the show with this great piece by International Paneling favorite, Juliane Pieper. Taken from an African tale, “Keep Your Secrets,” is a colorful hand animated to digital work with a soundtrack by Sea of Daisies. Check it out here, and, if possible come visit us in DUMBO on July 7th. If you can’t make it to NYC, then try to see it in Berlin, Toronto or ONLINE!
image by Juliane Pieper
You Have just Arrived at POETRY PLACE
by Sanj Nair
Brooklyn
Politesse
I have been as shy as trees, though perhaps not so polite.
What of the crown on my head? Angled thing, really just a ring
of faded peonies. Notice I did not mention roses.
Roses are reserved for others. I share a shyness of crowns
with the canopy of green stretching above me, extended
arms of each solid trunk stopping shy of touching—
a kind of politesse I’m not sure I’ve mastered.
Tell me, do you know the trick of the tree?
Whose limbs do you avoid? To think of illness is to think of dying
to think of dying is to know mortality. It can’t be forgotten or unlearned.
The trees know this. The trees have always known.
Moving Past the Crypto Crash
by Mark Bailey
Minneapolis
The cryptocurrency economy is notoriously volatile and heavily manipulated. The latest collapse, driven by fishy activity on Terra Luna, wiped out billions upon billions in value, causing the Terra blockchain to halt operations at block 7607789. There are rumors that big players in the legacy economy deliberately engineered the event. Whether or not these rumors are substantiated, many in the crypto community view the crash as the result of deliberate market manipulation by traditional financial firms.
During the past year, I had a writing client who insisted on paying me for jobs in Terra dollars. The funds from these jobs now sit in a wallet on my computer, worth nothing at all. Fortunately, my exposure to this now-valueless asset was limited. My Terra losses amounted to earnings from a couple of weeks of work, which isn't the end of the world.
I should be more stressed out about the recent catastrophic devaluation of tokenized assets I hold. As of this writing, my overall portfolio has lost over two-thirds of its value since January.
With half of my life in the crypto economy, I should be more stressed out about the recent catastrophic devaluation of tokenized assets I hold. As of this writing, my overall portfolio has lost over two-thirds of its value since January. But this latest downturn looks to me like a downturn in price only. The work I do in the crypto industry has almost nothing to do with price. It has to do with the building blocks of future value, which is to say productive creativity and collaborations.
Right now, I'm working on two big NFT projects. One is Sifer Wars, a collectible card set illustrated by popular NFT artist Bulging Idiot. The concept is an homage to the total world of science fiction, expressed in twenty-five characters. An Australian named Brendan Woodward is behind it. My role was to write backstory and narrative for each of these twenty-five characters.
Sifer Wars has been in development since late last year. We'd hoped to launch in May on the Terra blockchain. But Terra has collapsed, so the project will have to pivot to another blockchain. Wherever it eventually ends up, my part in things is mostly done.
My other current NFT project is more involved. The concept is a sci fi novel released as an NFT collection. Each of the work's 40+ chapters will be its own NFT, with both art and text immutably stored on IPFS. The project will be released on the Tezos blockchain. Tezos is more environmentally friendly and affordable than Ethereum, though its user base is smaller. Objkt.com is the most popular platform for Tezos NFTs.
The novel itself is about a man who travels back in time to 9/11 and attempts to influence the course of events. This man's most ambitious goal is changing the outcome of the US 2016 Democratic Primary. Each chapter contains 2-5 links to media reports from relevant eras, which is something I've never seen in a sci fi novel before.
For the art, I decided to experiment with AI image generation. Using the title of each chapter as a seed, I grew the images with algorithms provided by NightCafe, a startlingly easy service to use. With a background in traditional oil painting, I'm more comfortably working a canvas for six months than I am setting parameters to create art at the push of a button. So this project took me out of my comfort zone, in a way that seems in accordance with the times.
The latest crypto market crash is a big deal. But the technology underlying the blockchain economy remains sound regardless of token price movements. And the vast numbers of people who contribute to this economy will continue producing value for it, even if the market is slow to recover. At the end of the day, there are few opportunities in the legacy economy for a person like me. The blockchain economy is inherently risky, but it's also where all of the most promising opportunities seem to be.
A Sydney Harbour Crossing
Image and Text by Stu Spence
Sydney
I thought, ‘this is wrong, this ain’t me,’ but sure enough, I followed her anyway. I was heading to Danielle’s, for fuck sake, but here I was, making a left down to the wharf and onto the ferry. Where was it going, no idea? Did I have a ticket? Well, no.
“They’re the ones with lightning,” I said from the seat behind. Her hair looked like it hadn’t been long off a pillow.
“Yep,” she said, staring through the window of fresh droplets, out to the storm following us.
“Fry us where we sit.” I was remembering a story some guy told me about finding a body hit by lightning, fried in the driver’s seat of a Dodge pickup. He said the skin had melted into the seat.
A decent wave smacked us high and sideways. I felt the beer in my gut do the same.
“We’ll outrun it,” she said tapping a smoke on the window ledge, “it’s you I’m not so sure about.” She suddenly stood, shimmied sideways out of the seat, and headed down the gangway. The ferry was really lurching now, but she never steadied herself on the seats as she passed, like the horizon was hard wired into her or somethin’.
She slid open the iron door and was gone. I could just see her through the glass, up there on the deck in that southerly, her hair, dress, coat, everything mixed up in a howling mess.
I wanted to follow, tell her be careful, save her, even, but thought better of it.
Some storms have no room for strangers.
3 Questions with…Curator, Writer and Gallerist Jung Me Chai
Digital, conceptual, articulating the boundary area between digital and what it means to be a person, Jung Me Chai’s Diskurs Gallery in Berlin has consistently presented though provoking, yet always visually interesting, artists and their works. Let’s let Jung Me’s robot tell us more…
The Questions:
1. Jung Me, can you tell us a little bit about your background and emphasizes in the art world?
2. As a world citizen, do you see art impacting different cultures in different ways? Or what similarities do you see?
3. What about the future is exciting for you? What are some new shows you are excited to present or see?
Crediting Info:
Jung Me Chai, Director, DISKURS Berlin ©Courtesy of Artists & Diskurs Berlin; Voice by ttsmp3.com : British English / Brian Mooni Perry: Green snake_Binlang Xishi, 2022 / White snake_Binlang Xishi, 2022 Nina E. Schönefeld : NFT VIDEO FREE PRESS 1,3,5,7; Moving 1,3,4,5; 2022 Hana Yoo : HYSTERIC C, 2020 Fabian Reetz : PRETENDING TO SWIM, 2021 Merani Schilcher : MAKE ME A WEAPON, 2021 Olaf Schirm : SWARM, 2019 Edith Kollath : Trying to expand, 2020 Sebastian Wolf : lovesmenot, 2019 Jérôme Chazeix : LOVEANTIC, 2020 Yiannis Pappas : HALF-STAFF, 2021
Kiev-based Artist’s Real-time Response to the War
#headacheeartlaboratory
Kiev
For the past three months, the Russian military has waged war against Ukraine. The images sent back to us provide a glimpse into the suffering, the crimes, the waste of a war that appears to be from a different, more barbaric era. Headacheeartlaboratory has been creating a variety of work in a variety of media for many years. Just recently, these new ink on paper images started appearing. The intensity, heartbreak and anger come through these images in a manner more visceral somehow than many photographs. As was communicated to me, “I cannot remember who I was before this started.” International Paneling and all of our friends are sending love and prayers to the people of Ukraine. May peace come soon. Check Instagram for more images and information.
Warning: Some images are pretty graphic.
#headacheeartlaboratory
#headacheeartlaboratory
#headacheeartlaboratory
#headacheeartlaboratory
Meanwhile…in Sunny Sardinia….
Video by John Ensor Parker
Image by Tom Rotenberg
The Reasons You are Not as Rich as You Were (an Update on the Markets)
by Adrian Pocobelli
Berlin
Perhaps you’ve noticed your portfolio isn’t performing at the same caliber in recent months. What changed? "Why am I no longer rich like I was last autumn?" Well, unfortunately, a simple question does not always yield simple answers, but perhaps I can help bring you up to speed in a concise and efficient manner, as many people have been inquiring about the status of their vapourware (i.e. Bitcoin and Ethereum). But to understand what’s happening in the cryptoverse, we need to take a step back and look at the larger macro picture, as crypto exists in a global system of value, in which it plays a relatively small, although increasingly important role, and is not immune (as some like to think) to the vicissitudes of the wider world.
So, in a word, inflation. Inflation spoiled the party after almost 14 years of loose monetary policy that began during the 2008 financial crisis. Up until only a year or so ago, central bankers were more concerned with deflation based on worsening demographics and Moore’s Law, which says that the progress of technology results in cheaper and better products at an exponential rate. Hard as it may be to believe now, central bankers were then concerned that prices were falling below their target 2% (nominal, not real) inflation rate, which in their view, is the ideal rate of inflation for the American economy. As long as deflation was the concern, conveniently, injecting new money (liquidity) into the financial system, pejoratively called ‘printing money’, was a way to retain price stability (!) so that, perish the thought, prices didn’t fall too low—all debatable precepts.
Well, as anyone that does their own shopping knows, this all changed last autumn, when prices started rising even more than the already noticeable rises that had been taking place in the previous months (think real estate prices). By November, it was clear the significant rise in prices no longer looked ‘transitory’ as the central bankers were reassuring, but more fixed, and, hence, inflation became a major political problem. After all, who gets re-elected on providing the electorate with a lower standard of living? It’s important to understand that there are two main kinds of inflation—supply-side and demand-side inflation. Most of the rises in prices that we’ve been seeing are supply-side driven (as the Fed aptly recognized), meaning that they had more to do with botched global supply-lines, resulting in shortages and higher shipping costs (remember all the talk about the rising cost of cargo ships?). As a result, because of the relentless rise in prices, the Federal Reserve, in order to look like it is doing something, has had to tighten financial conditions in order to reduce demand for goods, and hence lower prices (demand-side inflation). But this is only a half measure, as central banks can’t produce more chicken, barrels of oil, or lumber (i.e. supply), they can only reduce the demand, so they can only address half of the cause of inflation (the demand side, not the supply side).
If this wasn’t bad enough, we also have a war between two major commodity producers, Russia and Ukraine, resulting in a major financial conflict between the overly-indebted, financialized West and the largest supplier of the world’s commodities
If this wasn’t bad enough, we also have a war between two major commodity producers, Russia and Ukraine, resulting in a major financial conflict between the overly-indebted, financialized West and the largest supplier of the world’s commodities (or real things), Russia, creating more pressure on supply-side inflation. And though the Western media is attempting to make it look like the West is running laps around Russia in this contest, the reality is that European nations are now conceding to pay Russia for it’s natural gas in Rubles. As the saying goes, “The person who has the gold makes the rules.” In fact, although Russia has been disbarred from the Swift payment system (a questionable idea that was largely a result of complaints on Twitter to U.S. congresspeople), the Ruble, after initially dipping hard when the sanctions were imposed, is in fact now stronger than before the war began. It may even be too strong for the Russian economy—so much for sanctions. And when you consider that Europe is now paying for its gas in more expensive Rubles, the cost of energy continues to rise. So one has to ask, who’s actually winning this financial war? And, as we all know, higher energy prices mean higher prices for everything, including food. So, needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), the cost of energy is the main reason your costs are going up. And, from Russia’s perspective, if you want to create a recession, or even destroy an economy (e.g. Europe and other ‘unfriendly countries’), do what you can to raise the cost of their energy (see $150/barrel oil pre-2008 crisis).
So back to crypto. Well, as some have commented, 2021 may be seen in time to be a year similar to 1929. In retrospect, we had all the makings of a blowoff top. Although it was hard to see at the time, if we look at the numbers, Bitcoin rose from $3000 during the financial panic in March 2020 all the way up to $69,000, a 23x move. If that’s not a blowoff top, then, my friends, what is? The same argument could be applied to the stock market, particularly the tech heavy NASDAQ (although to a lesser extreme). Unless the Federal Reserve loosens policy again, last year was likely the peak of the market. And the Fed’s hands are tied until inflation is at least perceived to be cooling off. Inflation is so damaging to an economy that they will sacrifice the markets in order to stop it.
“But isn’t Bitcoin and gold supposed to do well in an inflation? I thought they were a store of value.” This is a topical question and brings us to our current situation. Counterintuitively for an inflationary period, the US dollar has become one of the very best trades you could make in the past six months. Almost all asset prices (except commodities) have dropped against the U.S. dollar during this time because of fear of tightening of monetary conditions (i.e. no more money printing) from the Federal Reserve. So you have two huge dynamics that you need to consider as you navigate this environment: 1) the fear trade, which strengthens the U.S. dollar as people sell falling assets like stock and cryptos and 2) inflation, which over the long term weakens the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar. So, strategically, if you manage your own money, what you need to do is figure out when we’re entering a fear trade and hence accumulate U.S. dollars when we approach those times (and that trade has gone quite far already, so you may not want to jump on at this point), and when we’re in an inflation trade, which will likely occur when the Federal Reserve ‘breaks the economy’ and has to ‘pivot’ and loosen monetary conditions in border to save the system (and also get everyone re-elected, so maybe August-September), which is when you’ll want to be in assets, like commodities, gold, and potentially (although its far from certain) bitcoin.
— None of this is financial advice and is purely for educational/entertainment purposes only.
Walter Benjamin – Places of a Berlin Childhood
by Eddie Bonesire
Brussels
Blumes Hof? Nettelbeckstrasse? Stettiner Bahnhof? What has become of the places which author and philosopher Walter Benjamin (Berlin 1892 – Portbou, Spain, 1940) described in 'Berlin Childhood around 1900'?
Eddie Bonesire's photographs take us to neighbourhoods in Berlin where Benjamin spent his childhood; his photographs revive some of these places in our imagination, even though their appearance has sometimes changed drastically. Searching for traces of Walter Benjamin – who killed himself while fleeing from the Nazis – , one discovers a city that was largely destroyed in World War II. Everywhere in Berlin, one still comes across evidence of the eventful history of the city.
Eddie Bonesire's book 'Walter Benjamin – Orte einer Berliner Kindheit' was published in 2021 by Berlin Brussels Art Projects.
The former Anhalter Railway Station
A Scene from the Prussian-Danish war, on the base of Victory Column
The Goldfish Pond in Tiergarten
The Monument to Queen Louise
The former Stettiner Suburban Station
The Halle Gate
Blumeshof, the street where both of Benjamin's grandmothers lived
The Kaiser-Friedrich-Gymnasium, where Benjamin went to school
Kurfürstenstrasse 154 – Benjamin lived here with his parents
Kurfürstenstrasse 154 – The appartement on the second floor
The Newsstand on Steinplatz
The view towards Potsdamer Platz Railway Station
Eddie Bonesire was born in Ghent, Belgium. He has an MA in Translation from Louvain University and studied photography at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin-Weissensee (Postgraduate Master Class of Prof. Ute Mahler and Ingo Taubhorn). He lives and works as a freelance photographer and author in Berlin and Brussels. His main interests include political and social history, as well as urban, landscape and experimental photography.