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With 8 erweiterte portraits the Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern in Schwerin presents an exhibition that places the work of Austrian photographer Cora Pongracz (1943–2003) in focus. Through the medium of photography Pongracz’s works open a dialogue about identity and a politics of representation that is sensitive towards diversity. In order to reflect both the significance and the potential of Pongracz’s artistic practice in the context of current social discourses, a number of contemporary artists have been invited to respond and relate to Pongracz’s work through their own photographs, texts, performances, and other forms of critical interventions, throughout the exhibition.

As part of the Kulturnacht, the exhibition8 erweiterte portraits expands into the urban space of Schwerin. The Goldener Saal [Golden Hall] of the Neustädtisches Palais, formerly the Widows’ Palace and now the seat of the Ministry of Justice, is taken over by artist Deva Schubert in collaboration with Chihiro Araki with her performance Glitch Choir. The performative intervention situates the discourse on (female) identity and on image and representation politics in relation to the historic building and develops it further choreographically.

Glitch Choir has previously been shown at various locations and is continuously evolving. Each performance responds to the specific spatial conditions as well as to the changing constellation of performers and their situational contexts. These factors shape the experience of the performance through personal experiences, cultural backgrounds, and distinct modes of expression. The performance transfers the phenomenon of glitch – digital disturbances such as distorted images or stuttering videos – into the analog realm. Through deliberately placed breaks, vocal distortions, and tonal shifts, each iteration creates a new form of collective vocality.

Historically, public mourning was primarily performed by women who were paid to express the pain of others. It was mostly women who were allowed – or condemned – to ‘glitch’ the private into the public sphere. Glitch Choir takes up these feminized rituals and physical forms of expression – songs, movements, and emotional states – of collective mourning and lamentation, while at the same time opening up the possibility of translating individual grief into a moment of shared intimacy and polyphony. In the vocal distortion inherent in lamentation, grief is thus transformed into a collective moment of glitch.

For the performance in the Goldener Saal of the Neustädtisches Palais, Deva Schubert and Chihiro Araki are collaborating with women interested in singing and singers from local choirs. Together, they are experimenting with a practice of collective vocal articulation: they sing with each other, for each other, and in each other’s mouths, so that their own voices echo in the body of the other. The body thus becomesa resonance chamber in which the female voiceis shared and amplified – as a feminist-informed, participatory practice. This soundscape is accompanied by choreography that oscillates between study and improvisation, emancipation and protest.