Third Space
Disordering the Mess

"Third Space: Disordering the Mess" is an artistic-pedagogical initiative founded as part of the project "Group Dynamics. Collectives of the Modernist Period" at the Lenbachhaus. The "Third Space" is conceived as a bridging and mediation channel between communities of struggle—members of the urban community who are excluded by certain experiences of discrimination—and the museum as a public cultural space. The initiative's focus lies on connecting the museum to the lives and active communities around it—with special attention to their social and critical perspectives.

Associated with an art institution, "Third Space: Disordering the Mess" sees itself as an opportunity to be critical and welcome people and communities. Its intention is to facilitate practices of listening and conversations that can accommodate discomfort and conflict as part of a learning process—whether with groups of people from inside or outside the museum. In disagreement with structures as they are, "Third Space: Disordering the Mess" seeks to rearrange them and be open to wider possibilities.

Funded by the

Activities like creative interventions, performances, roundtable discussions, tea dates, or informal comments are no less central to the project than lectures, interviews, and participating in or conducting a workshop. In a world in which collaboration between art institutions and grassroots groups often reproduces unfair and unequal relations (e.g., by resulting in the appropriation of knowledge or practices), "Third Space: Disordering the Mess" wonders if and how such collaboration needs to be organized differently.

Clara Laila Abid Alsstar (art educator, Lenbachhaus), Raphael Daibert (independent curator*, researcher*, and artist*), Claudia Lercher (cultural scholar, diversity & anti-bias trainer, and photo designer), and Mako Sangmongkhon (artist*, activist*, independent art educator*, and member of the programming committee, FLORIDA Lothringer 13) have begun meeting to pool their expertise and discuss frameworks for how they can work together as a team and, more importantly, with others.

Cooperations

When: December 11, 2020, 4–5.30pm (via Zoom)

In collaboration with: Aida Bakhtiari

In order for Third Space: Disordering the Mess to open its own program in a pandemic lockdown and social distancing reality, Warm Data Lab was facilitated by Aida Bakhtiari as an open conversation between diverse people coming together through an online experience.

This Warm Data Lab envisioned building relationships and contexts that cannot be seen straight away and are often ignored in everyday life. As a group, we wanted to explore what's in between, overcoming established and rigid systems.

On this day the intention was to open up the doors to a space that deliberately would remain open. We hoped for a continuity of moments of exchange and relationship-building as a learning experience, essential for Third Space: Disordering the Mess's work. The Warm Data Lab inaugurated a bridging channel of diverse perspectives coming together.

Lecture: Gazing back – The Blue Rider dekolonial (in German)

When: June 4–5, 2021

In collaboration with: ausARTen

The lecture Gazing back: The Blue Rider dekolonial and the workshop Gazing forward: The Blue Rider dekolonial were organized in a closer relationship between Third Space: Disordering the Mess and the exhibition program of the Lenbachhaus and in cooperation with ausARTen festival. In their lecture, Tasnim Baghdadi and Hannan Salamat brought together critical perspectives on the history of museum collections and their colonial implications; on the next day, they worked closely with the participants on decolonial strategies in art mediation.

Speakers

Tasnim Baghdadi is an art historian and artist. She has several years of experience working as an art educator for museums in Germany and Switzerland, with a focus on publications and digital media. Since April 2021, she has been head of education and public programs at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich. She also writes about decolonization and related concerns at museums in the German-speaking countries.

Hannan Salamat is a scholar of culture and religion. A native of Munich, she is a cofounder and curator of the Munich culture festival ausARTen—Perspektivwechsel durch Kunst. She has been program director at the Zurich Institute for Interreligious Dialogue since 2019 and lectures, chairs panels, and leads workshops on Islam, society and diversity, feminism, and antiracism.

ausARTen—Perspektivwechsel durch Kunst is an art festival that celebrates the radical diversity of post-migrant Munich. ausARTen was hatched at Münchner Forum für Islam e.V. (MFI), a mosque in the city center, and is held under the auspices of MFI. ausARTen opens up hybrid spaces in which art and culture serve as media of education, encounters, and conversations that bring something new into being. Forging a variety of alliances, it works on a range of themes to overcome the mental division between "us" and "you."

When: June 18–20, 2021

In collaboration with: AfroDiaspora 2.0

AfroDiaspora Teaches was a series of lectures and workshops in which knowledge from Black perspectives was shared, discussed, and generated. This specific edition, held in June 2021, took place at the studio of the Lenbachhaus, by invitation of Third Space: Disordering the Mess.

Throughout the weekend, experts were invited to speak on current topics deemed relevant by the AfroDiaspora community. Each workshop was followed by a moderated discussion as well as an opportunity for networking.

As part of the collaboration with Third Space: Disordering the Mess, AfroDiaspora pre-recorded and produced several input sessions of AfroDiaspora Teaches in order to engage members physically and also to create a hybrid format. This was the group's first formal in-person meeting since the fall of 2020.

AfroDiaspora 2.0//e.V. is a Black Women's collective in Munich that advocates for community-based Black empowerment. The collective conceives itself as a platform for Black Women, children, teens, non-binary people and artists, focusing on workshops and events on Black voices, Black perspectives, and Black knowledge.

When & where: August 2, 2021, 1–5pm, Hasenbergl

In collaboration with: Der CLUB Hasenbergl, via Leo Cocco

In August 2021, Third Space: Disordering the Mess went on an excursion from the city center to Munich's northern periphery, where it realized a zine workshop at Der CLUB that revolved around the themes of collectives and group dynamics. The youth center's common rooms were transformed into an open magazine workshop where, for one afternoon, children and teenagers were invited to join in whenever they wanted and get creative, individually or in groups. Using tools like Polaroid cameras and collage material waiting to be cut up and rearranged, they produced a collaborative and diverse digizine that compiles and brings into focus the workshop participants' manifold ideas.

Held in connection with the exhibition "Group Dynamics—The Blue Rider," the event prompted thoughts on and visions of solidarity and friendship, but also conflict management and various forms of discrimination in groups. The participants worked through and discussed these concerns and gathered their different perspectives on the collective pinboard, which steadily grew and evolved over the course of the day.

We at Third Space would like to thank Der CLUB for hosting us and for the wonderful collaboration, and look forward to your return visit at the Lenbachhaus—soon, we hope!

Der CLUB is a central meeting place for children and teenagers in Munich’s Hasenbergl neighborhood. With its wide range of offerings for young people, from school holiday programs and meals to workshops and opportunities to simply hang out together, Der CLUB is a fixture in the lives of many locals.

When & where: July 17, 2021, 2–5pm, garden of the Lenbachhaus, in the context of Kunstareal Fest

In collaboration with the Önder sisters (Tunay & Tuğba Önder) with DJ Ü

In cooperation with the artists Tuğba & Tunay Önder, Third Space: Disordering the Mess organized a summer afternoon event Practicing Strategies of Togetherness, with DJ Ü music and freshly brewed tea. Even if the intention was to ask and reflect on provocative questions to the museum and a broader art community, the most important part of this collaboration was about taking time to be together drinking tea, informally talking and occupying the Lenbachhaus garden.

The siblings Tuğba & Tunay Önder develop performative formats that wrestle with the realities of the post-migrant society and change them. They are part of the blog project "migrantenstadl," established by Tunay Önder and Imad Mustafa in 2010 as a virtual playroom for marginalized (hi)stories, which has grown into an archive and breeding ground for the development of curatorial, performative, and journalistic formats.

Third Space: Gazing at the Gaze – An Enactment

When & where: October 28, 2021, 7–9:30pm, Collaboratory

In collaboration with: ausARTen & HFF BIPoC group

In a collaboration with HFF BIPoC Group, ausARTen and Lenbachhaus curators, Third Space: Disordering the Mess created a video piece entitled Gazing at the Gaze: An Enactment, highlighting personal and critical gazes on the two exhibitions "Group Dynamics: The Blue Rider" and "Group Dynamics: Collectives of the Modern Period." The intention of the piece was to draw attention to Third Space's effort to bridge inside and outside perceptions, positions, and perspectives, which were discussed in a final event held on the Collaboratory platform.