Transnationalities: The Anthropology of Migration
In this first public program by Green Papaya in Berlin, the concept of transnationalism will be explored. What does it mean for migrants and the second generation of migrants? How does their transnational self-perception shape their ideas of globalization, nation-states, and geopolitics?
Transnationality and the transculturality of household, kinship, marriage, family, and friendship focus on interpersonal relationships and interactions, placing these topics within the domain of cultural and social anthropology.
This event will highlight emerging transnational cultural forms and expressions. Artists Jasmin Werner, Silke Lapina, and Lizza May David will present their practices as artists living and working between two cultures. Jasmin Werner and Silke Lapina are German-Philippine dual citizens, while Lizza May David is a German citizen with Filipino parents.
Giah De los Reyes and Norberto Roldan of Green Papaya, currently fellows in the Visual Arts section of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, will respond to the contributions of these three "transnationals." Patrick Flores, a Filipino curator, art historian, and current deputy director of the National Gallery Singapore, will moderate the discussion.
Transnationalities: The Anthropology of Migration is part of the project Translokalität/Translocality, Green Papaya Art Projects' program as fellows of the Berlin Artists-in-Residence Program 2024.
The collective fellowship for Green Papaya is made possible through a partnership with the Matschinsky-Denninghoff Foundation under the umbrella of the Berlinische Galerie.
Jasmin Werner is a German-Philippine artist based in Berlin. Her work explores architectures of power and status symbols, focusing on transnational movements while occupying spaces of production and consumption. By doing so, Werner investigates historical analyses, ideologies, and individual desires, creating her own systems that interconnect cultures and eras in non-hierarchical ways. Her sculptures challenge economic, social, and intellectual structures oriented towards constant growth.
Silke Lapina is a German-Philippine artist in Berlin who combines pop culture with spirituality. She has assisted various photographers and visual artists in the fields of street art and fashion worldwide before earning a B.A. in Cultural and Social Anthropology from the University of Vienna and an M.A. in Religion and Culture from Humboldt University in Berlin. Lapina’s works span photography, painting, installation, and performance, addressing themes such as religion, societal transformations, meditation, and interculturality.
Lizza May David is interested in gaps and silences within personal and collective archives, experimenting with forms of activation or disruption through abstract painting. She navigates affective moments and experiences that resist representation, leading to experimental approaches. David rejects binary simplifications of the world, instead thinking relationally through intersections, turning points, overlaps, and divergences, expressed in collaborations, architectural interventions, or installations. She lives and works in Berlin and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, and the Berlin University of the Arts.
Images (from left to right): Jasmin Werner, Schloss der Republik Burj Khalifa OFW I, 2021; Lizza May David, On Surface, 2012; Silke Lapina, Holy Hands, 2021.