Introduction
How can we, as workers of the imaginary, recognize the significance and the poetics of being when all manners of racism, war and patriarchal violence redirect the gaze from our indisputable presence?
For Real For Real was the third exhibition and symposium project organized by TRII, following On Whiteness (The Kitchen, New York, 2018) and On Nationalism (Los Angeles, New York, 2022), and was the first in Europe.
In conversation with Kevin Quashie’s book 'Black Aliveness: A Poetics of Being', For Real For Real gathered together artists working to bring us closer to the particularities, obsessions, peculiarities, playfulness, obscurity, wonderment of a single one doing life, being alive, loving, seeing, making, breaking, collapsing, doing and doing in the wild wilderness of now. In Black Aliveness, Quashie calls for the need of a poetics of the everyday and the ordinary, especially when racism, war, and misogyny shape daily life.
FOR REAL FOR REAL
daadgalerie, Berlin
May 16 – July 27 2025
Artists: John Akomfrah, Garrett Bradley, Mel Chin, Lyle Ashton Harris, Harmony Holiday, Dozie Kanu, William Kentridge, Nate Lewis, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Jennifer Packer, Yuval Pudik, Martine Syms, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems
The exhibition was accompanied by an extensive program of readings, talks, and screenings.
FOR REAL FOR REAL
The Reading Room featured a selection of unique art books that exist in the space between auto and bio to manifest the creation of individual selves on the page.
The project aimed to flip the order of things so that the subject precedes the politics of the moment, and emphasizes the importance of the quotidian, the relational, the day-to-day negotiations, entanglements and management that exist beyond just staying alive in the context of modes of governance.
The Reading Room at daadgalerie reactivated the decommissioned MZIN bookstore installation from the Museum der Bildenden Künste.
With books by Baff Akoto, Lotte Andersen, Fatma Aydemir, Mary Jo Bang, Catherine Barnett, Sarah Benson, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Black Visual Grammar, Diane Borger, Julie Boukobza, Rizvana Bradley, Dionne Brand, Felisha Carenage, Prudence Carter, Reyes Coll-Tellechia, Bevil Conway, Helga Davis, Monica de la Torre, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Biswamit Dwibedy, Torkwase Dyson, Jody Ellant, Radna Fabias, Daniela Faurel, Logan February, Nick Flynn, Patrick Gaspard, Theaster Gates, Carmen Giménez, Kimia Godarzani-Bakhtiari, Sana Goldberg, Tony Guerrero, Saidiya Hartman, Terrance Hayes, Annie Howard, Christine Hume, Kahlil Joseph, David Knight, Isadora Knutsen, Lauren Kolar, Raymond Koranteng, Marta Kuzma, Alix Lambert, Satchel Lee, Isaiah Lopaz, Canisia Lubrin, John Lucas, Margo Lucas, Tracy Biga MacLean, Saraswati Nandini Majumdar, Maria Markham, Dawn Lundy Martin, Stefan Marx, Lebogang Mashile, Fiona McCrae, Joshua Mensch, Katie Merz, Christine Millerin, Leah Mirakhor, Dasia Moore, Lethokuhle Msimang, Nicholas Muellner, Sandeep Mukherjee, Jackie Murray, Tochi Onyebuchi, Nell Painter, Diana Pfammatter, Patricia Powell, Paul B. Preciado, Thomias Radin, Claudia Rankine, Asad Raza, Nasima Sophia Razizadeh, Raphaëlle Red, Andrea Rexilius, Jess Row, Simon*e van Saarloos, Enas Sabbah, Christina Sharpe, Eleni Sikelianos, Dirk Skiba, Emily Skillings, Jackson Elijah Smith, Therese Stanton, Rune Steenberg, Ann Sundberg, Mercedes Teixido, Martha Tuttle, David Ulin, Maslen Bode Ward, Gus Weiner, Joshua Weiner, Susan Wheeler, Carla Williams, Maggie Winslow, Tiphanie Yanique, Janise Yntema, among others.
FOR REAL FOR REAL
This part of FOR REAL FOR REAL activated the exhibition and the Reading Room with a lineup of Public Programs including
Keynote by Kevin Quashie
watch the keynote: In Praise of Mere Beauty
Talk by Mel Chin, followed by a conversation with Claudia Rankine
watch Mel Chin's talk & conversation
Reading with Jericho Brown, followed by a conversation with Claudia Rankine
watch Jericho Brown’s reading & conversation
Reading with Terrance Hayes, followed by a conversation with Claudia Rankine
watch Terrance Hayes's reading & conversation
Reading with Raphaëlle Red, Fatma Aydemir & Delfi Magazine
Bookmaker's Reading
watch 23 bookmakers read their work
Screening of ‘Touch of Red’ by Shamel Pitts and Taylor Antisdel, followed by a conversation with Claudia Rankine
watch the conversation with Claudia Rankine, Shamel Pitts & Taylor Antisdel
Screening of 'RIVÂL' by Thomias Radin, Mats Meisen, and Alex Brack, followed by a conversation with Claudia Rankine
watch the conversation with Claudia Rankine & Thomias Radin
Screening of ‘Exhibiting Forgiveness’ by Titus Kaphar
The event program of For Real For Real was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and New England Foundation for the Arts
John Lucas
Claudia Rankine
Russel Salmon
Mathias Zeiske