Archive of Disobedience
Solo Exhibition
Diren Demir
October 25 – November 30, 2022
Deutsche Literaturarchiv Marbach, Germany

Academy in Exile inaugurated an Artist-in-Residence Program in 2022 on the theme of Fixing What’s Broken. The four performance artworks presented here were produced prior to and during Demir’s artist residence in Berlin. Relating to the topics of archive and exile, the performance pieces mirror Demir’s own lived experience, experience that is carried within their body as a collection of stories about life and society. Demir aims to create new models of resistance in their work by drawing on transformational activist practices. In this respect, the works in Archive of Disobedience may be seen as performative acts of civil disobedience. Demir believes that performance lends new meaning to the objects that are left behind. Communication is fostered between the immaterial and the material, between the performance works and their physical remains, and audiences glean impressions from these remnants.