The forthcoming publication brings together research, writing and performance developed throughout a year-long program at Klosterruine Berlin, curated by Juliane Bischoff.

Traversing centuries of layered histories, the publication brings forgotten realities and imagined futures into focus. Guided by the understanding that history is composed of diverse, asynchronous, and often contradictory experiences, it moves beyond dystopia and nostalgia to explore storytelling from feminist perspectives as a means of orienting toward the future.

Combining images, poetry, and movement, the publication delves into the intricacies of social realities that cannot be expressed through spoken language alone. It gives space to rarely told stories, addressing a range of themes: the history of medieval beguine communities—radical lay religious women who formed collective lifestyles in the Middle Ages (Bryana Fritz, Chloe Chignell, Stefa Govaart, Begin/Beguines [here love speaks]); marginalized voices in contemporary post-migrant society (Schlechte Wörter, Let it matter what we call a thing); the conditions of Korean contract workers who migrated to Germany in the 1960s under a labor recruitment agreement (Mira Mann, objects of the wind); the dynamics between Roma and non-Roma communities in present-day Europe (Elisa R. Linn & Carmen Gheorghe, Home from Home); constructions of otherness (Leyla Yenirce, Landscapes that could not be more beautiful); and visions of social utopia grounded in collective resources (Mikołaj Sobczak, The Universal Empire).

The publication unfolds in two parts. The first part centers on the performative works: it presents visual documentation using methods of fragmentation and distortion to blur the lines between past and present. Central literary references—brought into focus through facsimiles and excerpts—further contextualize the performances. These span from the mystical writings of Marguerite Porete, dating to around 1270–the same period when the monastery church, now Klosterruine, was built–to contemporary voices such as Enis Maci and Mazlum Nergiz, whose work Karl May brings the narrative into the present day.

 

The second part of the publication documents Kate Newby’s sculptural interventions, anything, anything, installed at Klosterruine Berlin from June 2024 to April 2025.
Newby’s work fosters an ongoing dialogue between the sculpture and its shifting surroundings, forming the conceptual foundation for the performative program explored in the first half of the book. Like the performances, her interventions draw attention to often-overlooked elements of social fabric and the ephemeral, contingent nature of everyday life. This section is accompanied by a newly commissioned text by artist Miriam Stoney.

Together, both parts of the publication offer a meditation on layered histories, entangled perspectives, and nonlinear timeframes—all grounded in the immediacy of the present.

The publication will be released in June 2026 and will be available through Ness Books and selected bookstores.

It includes projects by: Kate Newby, Chloe Chignell, Bryana Fritz & Stefa Govaart, Schlechte Wörter (with Logan February, Moshtari Hilal, Nazanin Noori, Tanasgol Sabbagh, Fabian Saul, Ralph Tharayil & Mathias Zeiske), Mira Mann with Domi Chansorn, Carmen Gheorghe & Elisa R. Linn, Leyla Yenirce with Enis Maci, Mazlum Nergiz, Noah Jinu-Moerbeck & Theresa George as well as Mikołaj Sobczak

New text by: Miriam Stoney

Reprints of texts by: Marguerite Porete, Solmaz Sharif, Kim Hyesoon, OMARA (Mara Oláh), Enis Maci & Mazlum Nergiz, William Blake

Language: English (with one Hungarian and one German addition)

Editor: Juliane Bischoff

Graphic design: Espace Ness (Sophie Rentien Lando)

Published by:
Ness Books
9 Passage Saint-Pierre Amelot
75011 Paris, FR
espaceness.com/books

ISBN: 978-2-9594887-3-3

© 2025 the authors and Ness Books