I see I imagine I do

Two passages of writing extending from the workshop Who’s the party now, sister?
Britta Wirthmüller and Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
I see I imagine I do
how documentation works
on our imagination
the as if it’s just about to happen series–book one of four

Intro duction
The as if it’s just about to happen book series invites
a reengagement with four workshops, facilitated within HZT
Berlin’s BA Dance, Context, Choreography programme between
2014–2016. Four of HZT’s teaching staff initiated a collaborative
writing project with colleagues, HZT students and alumni to
access what persists through the entanglement of their artistic
and pedagogic practices. They returned to the pedagogic events
with the question “What was and is it doing and what can we
create with it now?”
Initial experiences, notes and memories from the workshops
were approached with a strategy of interruption. A specific set of
para meters informed a structure of excerpts, footnotes, invitations
and responses that produced a new order of connections based
on selectivity, discontinuity and proliferation.
As a reader you are encouraged to be involved with the passages
of writings and drawings within these four books and online
at the HZT website — to follow, skip across, take apart, expand,
reassemble, rewrite and respond further. You are invited to
expe rience what is still creating itself, as if it’s just about to happen.
Writing
structure
a poem
of eight
excerpts
from the
workshop
experience
a footnote
of 100 words
elaborates every
six-word excerpt as
a mini-essay, index,
archive or script
an invitation
of maximum
50 words addresses
an inquiry about
every excerpt and
its footnote
a response
of 250 words or
a drawing follows
after every
excerpt, footnote
and invitation
Book one of four has two central authors,
creating two parts interwoven with guest contributions.

Britta Wirthmüller I see I imagine with I do guest contributors
I see I imagine I do
the as if it’s just about to happen series–book one of four

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8

Britta Wirthmüller I see I imagine with I do guest contributors
I see I imagine I do
the as if it’s just about to happen series–book one of four

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Tabea
Would you like to draw a
five girls and one man pattern 1 ?
To be honest, I have a strong imagination of what this drawing would
look like if I could draw. But I don’t know how to draw like you do. So
I’m inviting you to draw and I’m ready to be surprised by your response.
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
1 )
This line comes from a conversation a student and I had during the workshop. Departing
from the question “Are all personal problems political problems?” this one-on-one conversation
became very intimate. The workshop had been conceived as a residency in which we as teachers
and the students would come together as artists. There were moments when students seemed
uncomfortable with working on eye level, maybe also because it possibly meant encountering
the doubts and troubles of the person who usually listens to yours. How can we think of
teaching as equally sharing the responsibility for our artistic development?

I see I imagine I do 4
5

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Julek
You are invited to make three lists of movements:
Movements that
A) stand for themselves
B) remain incomplete by themselves
C) complete themselves through themselves
and to explain these lists to someone
and to compose these movements on paper
and to try out this composition
and to notate it.
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
2 )
This is the beginning of my notation of the dance of the unnamed dancer in Kirsten Justesen
and Jytte Rex’s film “Tornerose var et vakkert barn” from 1971. hopp means a little almost
desultory jump or leap. trippel means balancing the body on the balls of the feet, quickly
shifting weight from one to the other in a rhythmical manner. While hopp stands for one
movement in itself, trippel only refers to the first part of trippel trippel. Thus trippel is a
term that remains incomplete by itself but is able to complete itself through itself.

I see I imagine I do 6
7
Departure plateau crossing the country in a mobile
07.02 am 600 m space of 4 m2. 3 bodies, a jug of
black coffee.
Response
from Julek
Pause chalk a triangle (3 bodies), two stones,
1.43 am riverbed a dead branch.ideas and cider
out of conic container
Drive the foot of sun burning. skin bursting.
1.02 pm the mountains knee piercing.
(Alpes-Maritimes) silence.
Arrival la gordolasque 13 bodies, leisure activities bottles
07.28 pm Mercantour 2675 m of liquid paper w / leafs of plants.
When he said he’s looking forward to see the Atlantic ocean and casually
mentioned that one could never see the sun setting nor rising over the
Mediterranean sea in Nice, I dived down to silence, watching out of the
window of my back seat, and directed my eyes on the landscape outside of
the car. My legs stretched out under Matthias’ seat, I thought, I cannot
change that. The sun will truly never set on the Mediterranean, observed
from the Promenade des Anglais (at least not as long as any of us is alive).
Impossibility of changing our relation to the sun. At night, the mountain
stands where it stood, hiding the image of the fireball falling into the sea.
No fleeing from its light. I want to puke. I want to leave the planet. An
omnipresent eye, inescapable. (I probably suffer from Erdenmüdigkeit*.)
Run or swim. Cross space from right to left, from West to East, from
cold to warm. I could balance on one foot on the Equator.
* means
“tiredness of
the Earth”
by (the act of) walking can we change the mountain?
the sun burning my body crossing land the planet rolling
the mountain standing walk through empty space
the valley lying drive universe
the city concrete fly ovaling of the stellar
swim
bodies

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Rhys
Dear Rhys,
This is an invitation to write new lyrics for the refrain of a song
that already exists. It could be a song that you are very familiar with or
one that you just discovered recently. Feel free to use any of the words
below or none at all.
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
3 )
“Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore” is a line from Bob Dylan’s song “Oh, sister,”
released in 1976. My parents always watched the evening news and the images of hijacked
or crashed airplanes of the 1980s seem to be etched in my memory. As a child the hours at the
airport before take off turned into contemplations of our forthcoming death, thoughts that
I didn’t dare to speak about. Thoughts I still hardly ever dare to speak about but thoughts
I’m apparently returning to rather than refraining from.

I see I imagine I do 8
9
Time’s an ocean sister, forthcoming death, the shore
That image, stays alive. Parents’ TV shows it live
Hijacked crash gone missing in nineteen eighty four
Fear returns all her life
Contemplates loss of life,
But stays alive
But stays alive
Response
from Rhys

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Forough
Dear Forough,
In a workshop on feminist practices of the 60s and 70s I came
across a film by Kirsten Justesen and Jytte Rex. Below you can read an
extract from a letter that I addressed to them. How do you think about
the time we currently live in?
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
4 )
“I cannot not make this one connection: at the moment it’s the first time in my life that
I experience how a political crisis truly concerns me. All through my childhood, my teenage
years and up till now, the wars, conflicts and threats just came to me through the daily
news. I’m not afraid of terror attacks. I’m afraid that we don’t find ways to overcome the
misunderstandings. I’m shocked to see how quickly the conceptions of nationality, defence
and revenge are reactivated.”
— Extract from a letter to Kirsten Justesen and Jytte Rex that hasn’t been sent yet

I see I imagine I do 10 11
Valleys of void are well constructed between the ones and the others
And that is why there is no guaranty that messages, that are
constantly being shot by the ones to the others, will reach the others.
That creates a huge mass of untransmitted messages,
That could be the end of dialogue,
That could be the end of shared understanding,
That could be the end of understanding,
That could be the end of awareness,
That could be the end of knowledge,
That could be the beginning of self-interpretations,
That could be the beginning of misunderstandings,
That could be a beginning of violence,
That could be a beginning of power,
That could be a beginning of power distributions,
That could be a beginning of formation,
That could be a beginning of community formation,
That could be a beginning of resistance,
That could be a beginning of actions,
That could be a beginning of verbal actions,
That could create a huge mass of transmitted messages,
That could be the beginning of dialogue,
That could be the beginning of shared understanding,
That could be the beginning of understanding,
That could be the beginning of awareness,
That could be the beginning of knowledge,
That could be the end of self-interpretations,
That could be the end of misunderstandings,
That could be the end of violence.
Response
from
Forough

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Tabea
list of possible problems (gathered over 7 days):
indifference
commodification
loss of belonging
complexities of cause and effect
antimicrobial resistance
unspoken hierarchies
inefficacy
greenwashing
dissipation
lack of problems
lack of conviction
work
no work
nothing but work
privileges
perfectionism
outsourcing
cynicism
You are invited to draw whatever you find appropriate.
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
5 )
“All personal problems are political problems,” were the words in mind with which women
examined their lives at the beginning of the feminist movement. What would I call a personal
problem in my life? What part of my life would I call problematic — not for others but for me
personally? So what is an appropriate equivalent today? Which global problems can I identify
as my own problems?

I see I imagine I do 12 13

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Sheena
Dear Sheena,
Every now and then I’m writing short reports to myself.
Connecting the now and the then. You could do the same. Right now
it’s raining, strings of rain against a friendly blue sky. Contradictions.
Change of scenery. Continuity. Things stay vague but tend to return
months later as very distinct.
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
6 )
I project I extract I transform I arrange I re-arrange I recognise I worship I copy I become
I align I identify I mistake I sort I mingle. Inviting someone else’s work into one’s own process.
Entering someone else’s work through one’s own process. Committing oneself to one artwork
from the 1960s or 70s by a feminist artist. Letting it become the guide to enter a different time
period. Allowing it to be the lens through which one observes, does, thinks, acts, understands
eventually one’s own process while knowing the other at one’s side.

I see I imagine I do 14 15
At home, in every house, tea, coffee, sugar pots. The standardisation.
Fitting in. No standing out. Tones of beige. Isn’t that such an undecided
colour beige. Egg shell off whites with one floral wall and then that black
hole that every seat in the house is poised towards. Background noise to
background noise. Zu Hause.
Response
from Sheena
Those misunderstandings, when the words you just spoke sound more
like music, lost in translation today, a part of everyday here. I get it, I do.
You just don’t have to shout it all up in my face like that, all red and things.
Capitals don’t make the things louder. She was a soft and tender butch.
Yesterday you ran at me crying.
Her ear was all red and swollen, crusty with parts dropping off. It was also
freezing out. But mountains stood tall and beaches empty.
The scrolls of the facebook page, on and on.
That corner that you built. When we splashed the paint dead slow across
the wall. A sort of pastel soft porn she said or a sort of drowning without
anxiety she said. Burning neon.
New news.
Mama don’t preach, just keep troubling she kinda told me. With that
everything in between and then you say, I don’t get the “they” part, that
means many. Yes mum that’s right.

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Sheena
This is an invitation to write a manifesto.
This is an invitation to write an anti-manifesto.
This is an invitation to have a text message conversation with me.
Proposed rules:
only one text message (160 characters) at a time
we stop at 250 words
no abbreviations!
Disobedience. Yes!
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
7 )
This is a taboo, but let me say it nevertheless and even more so for that reason. Let’s practice
a feminism that doesn’t reinforce binary division and dichotomy.

I see I imagine I do 16 17
Britta, I went for disobedience. I took the decision to divert from the
manifesto and to expose just some of those artists we encountered during
Who‘s the party now, sister? that were eclipsed or shadowed in dominant
narratives of art history. The desire to do this project, which is still
ongoing was not only guided by historical interest and nostalgic sentiment.
It was to expose how omission and exclusion are still at play today.
We should keep asking what gets remembered, what gets forgotten, by
whom and how? And while standing in the centre, the periphery should
always be in view and vice versa.
Response
from Sheena
So here is to you, Eleanor Antin, Judith F. Baca, Lynda Benglis, Renate
Bertlmann, Nancy Buchanan, Disband, Rose English, Whoopie Goldberg,
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Mona Hatoum, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Kirsten
Justesen, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Lee Lozano, Léa Lubin, Anna Maria
Maiolino, Ana Mendieta, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, Itziar Okariz,
Gina Pane, Ewa Partum, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Piper, Jytte Rex,
Ulrike Rosenbach, Martha Rosler, Kiki Smith, Annegret Soltau,
Spiderwoman Theater, Anita Steckel, Faith Wilding, Exterra XX.

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
book 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Invitation
to Johanna
Imagine the armpit was a person or an epoch; someone or something
with clear characteristics. Feel free to associate: If the armpit was a
person or era, who or which one would it be?
Imagine the armpit died. Could you please write an obituary? Keep the
armpit’s real identity disguised.
a poem
five girls and one man pattern
hopp trippel trippel hopp into profile
time ends at the shore mother
as the rhetorics of battle reappear
how should we examine our lives
I see I imagine I do
feminism should just be more attractive
yearning dancing shadows under the armpits
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
8 )
The armpit must be considered the most sophisticated place of human interaction. It is a
negative space of unmistakable but ever-changing identity. Not bone, not muscle, not tissue
nor skin, it is not bound to sentient matter, yet our senses are ensnared by it. Its splendid
countenance must not be mistaken with vanity, its hairy adornment is no armour. No perfume
will compete with its manifold scent. Its beauty, elegance and versatility are just there for that
one purpose: to draw us closer or repel us.

I see I imagine I do 18 19
the era of great discoveries is over. it’s over.
it’s over and over again. did you know that
Vasco da Gama was not alone when he sailed around hope
and first stranded on the beaches of India?
Response
from
Johanna
he wasn’t alone. he travelled with his sister,
Vasca da Bagno* whom we tend to forget.
the brain of history’s a leaky thing alike as she.
we tend to forget about this time of great discoveries.
we shall remember though. recall.redo.reinvent …
when we skip down the street, instead of waiting for
the late-night bus to come and pick us up, we’re doing it.
the dream of flying. one-and-a-half kilometres away.
when we unleash a shout, bound somewhere
near the heart, behind the bony cage, the chest,
when the skins don’t hold together what they’re told,
we’re doing it. uncover.discover. we enter the forest.
come. lay your finger into it and feel its breath persist,
between door and hinge, where you can place an easy chair
for light conversation. transpiration. leak detection.
hairy forest — lost and found. great grey era — new and old.
*ital. bathtub

Sheena I McGrandles see I imagine with I do guest contributors
20
how documentation works
on our imagination
the as if it’s just about to happen series–book one of four

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation
to Tabea
Dear Tabea, over the period of 5 days while going about your daily
activities observe how your time is spent. On the 6th day sketch out on
one page the different forms of labour you think you engaged in. Abstract
or illustrative.
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
1 )
“clean you desk, wash the dishes, clean the floor, wash your clothes, wash your toes, change the
baby’s diaper, finish the report, correct the typos, mend the fence, keep the customer happy,
throw out the stinking garbage, watch out don’t put things in your nose, what shall I wear,
I have no sox, pay your bills, don’t litter, save string, wash your hair, change the sheets, go to
the store, I’m out of perfume, say it again — he doesn’t understand, seal it again — it leaks, go
to work, this art is dusty…”
— Manifesto For Maintenance Art 1969!, Mierle Laderman Ukeles

how documentation works on our imagination
22 23

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation
to Xenia
Dear Xenia, what is urgent for you right now, what does urgency look
like, what could urgency be useful for? Please write a manifesto for
urgency in no more that 250 words.
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
2 )
An old frame for a female subject. The leaking and the lacking. A disembogue, a coming out.
Faith Wilding is speaking:
“Wait-with, an act of political love.
Wait-with, an action,
Wait-with, a meditation,
Wait-with, open space between actions,
Wait-with, a space of resistance,
in this room,
in this moment.
Wait-with as our work.”
— Faith Wilding

how documentation works on our imagination
24 25
manifeste d’urgence
“I AM ILLUMINATED BY THE MARVELLOUS INCANDESCENCE OF MY
ELECTRICALLY CHARGED NERVES.”
Response
from Xenia
ALLOW IT TO MATTER. MAKE SPACE FOR ITS PRECARIOUS EXPOSURE. OPEN
SPACES BEFORE ACTIONS. LET THE VOID OPEN. LET THE VOID BLEED.
LEAVE THE LACK. LET IT LEAK. MAKE IT INCONVENIENT FOR YOURSELF
FIRST. IF YOU’RE NOT IN RISK, PUT YOURSELF AT RISK. VENTURE INTO
POLITICS AND POSSIBILITY. DON’T ASK WHAT FOR OR ABOUT, ASK WHAT’S
AT STAKE. PUT YOURSELF AT STAKE. DON’T FEAR TO BE MIS-TAKEN. AT
STAKE YOU CANNOT BE MIS-STAKEN. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME IRONING
OUT CONTRADICTIONS, WASTE YOUR TIME IN CONTRADICTION. IMMERSE
INTO PARADOX. EXPLORE THE DEPTH IN-BETWEEN. ENTER THE DIALOGUE
WITH THE VOID. DON’T CHOoSE THE DARKNESS OF CLOSED EYES IN
OBLIVIOUSNESS. CHOoSE THE DARKNESS OF OBSCURITY. STAND IN FOR
BRAVERY TO LEAK VULNERABILITY IN THE FACE OF EXPOSURE. DON’T
GIVE A SHIT ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST, GIVE A SHIT ABOUT BEING IN AWE.
IT IS URGENT, SO TAKE THE TIME. TAKE THE TIME IT NEEDS. TAKE TIME
TO FIND OUT. PUSH AGAINST THE TIME OF THE CASH CLOCK. TAKE TIME
TO BE WITH, TO BE TAKEN WITH TO BE WAITING-WITH. MAKE SURE
YOU CARE. MAKING ART MEANS MAKING TIME. THE FUTURE, LIKE THE
PAST, IS DARK. THE PAST, LIKE THE FUTURE, IS IN DRAG. DON’T FORGET
ASKING YOURSELF WHAT YOU DESIRE. YOUR BEST INTEREST IS NOT ONLY
IN YOUR BEST INTEREST.

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation
to Britta
Dear Britta, choose something or someone and consciously develop an
obsession with it or them. Fantasy is always a possibility. Write one
sentence a day for 1 week on this evolving relationship.
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
3 )
Admiring enlists a slight gazing upwards, or towards, it has a clear direction and orientation.
With this sort of looking often a haze around that thing or person is present; in which own
projections, histories could be stored. Admiration in this sense asks you to out yourself, to give
it out to a public. With this we try to avoid the pedestal effect, yet still an elevation of some
sort is a given. It may also be a celebration of their life to say you are important. It is a
personal choice; your personal attraction made public.

how documentation works on our imagination
26 27
I wonder why I was hesitating to google you as if it was something
forbidden.
Now I’m not sure what to make of you or what you will make of me.
Will you think of me as just another of your “all-time favourite ‘feminists’
whose specialty is talking over muslim women”? I adore people who can
draw, especially who can draw comics like yours catching atmospheres
and facial expression with a few lines. And even more I’m fascinated by
your humour and your superhero’s wit. “Women’s lives are NOT for you to
prove a point!” I wish Qahera could be my superhero too, could she?
http: / /qaherathesuperhero.com /
Response
from Britta

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation
to Tabea
Dear Tabea, using the orifices of your body, could be anus, ear, etc. draw
two corresponding images, that relate, to ‘whole’ and ‘hole’. Title each
drawing with a dedication to a favourite part of your body and include the
orifice used.
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
4 )
In the clapping choir during the workshop, it was known as the shame hole. In earlier times
referred to as fundament, coming from Latin foundation. Often used in put downs, arsehole,
pain in the ass etc. It is located at the backside of the body and found at the other end of the
mouth. It is the last exit point of the body and for some it is never a point of entrance. We all
have one. Tight, red, and circular it’s a sensuous point, filled with nerve endings so tender, so
humiliating so deviant. In dedication to the ANUS.

how documentation works on our imagination
28 29

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation to
Magdalena
Dear Magdalena, the artist you chose to work with during Who’s the
party now, sister? was Senga Nengudi. Using the mode of artistic
response, focus on one of her works to create a score. It should be notated
so that others could perform it. Include the title and year of the piece.
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
5 )
Does doing it again make it more real than the first time? What must one take into account in
order to do it again? What has happened between now and then? Is what you do a copy of an
original? Is it just for preservation sake or does it have a critical stance to the here and now?
What role does memory, fiction or imagination have? Is the context important? And why now?

how documentation works on our imagination
30 31
on a day with high gravity
and low blood pressure
Response
from
Magdalena
we find a space where our bodies
can be soft
we turn over and back
we watch a fly on the window
we turn over
we turn over
we count our inhalations exhalations
and fall asleep
we turn over
a score responding to “R.S.V.P.” by Senga Nengudi, 1977

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation
to Britta
Dear Britta, create 3 short poems. Each poem must contain let’s dance
together.
1 romantic, 1 tragic, 1 humorous
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
6 )
I imagine her shopping for pacifiers, I imagine her at home preparing the mask and sewing
the t-shirt at a table, I imagine the conversations she has about the work. I imagine she has not
rehearsed. People gather. I imagine the absurdity of the invite. I imagine her appearing, in a
cloud of smoke, loud music. I imagine her movements, low, inviting, swinging, approaching.
She leaves. Left with ourselves, the music playing, we wait a time until someone starts dancing,
the space moving from theatre to party, etched in my eyes the words, let’s dance together.

how documentation works on our imagination
32 33
1.
The gallery’s fainting light is but a sliver
If not my fears, its dampness makes me quiver
Fake friendly faces, greetings, greedy grins
Against my ear hot mellow breathing sins
Alas, enough, the door! I’m almost out
And here the circle breaks, a silent shout
Your caoutchouc buds abiding by my eyes
As far away a solemn widow cries
Let’s dance together
Response
from Britta
2.
Scattered tears on ice
Tomorrow’s trash still stinking
Let’s dance together
3.
A hammock and a horse are seldom but the same
But pacifiers do resemble nipples
Catch flies and looks and keep them in my name
Delete the rain but watch a puddle’s ripples
Let’s dance together

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation
to d.a.
Dear d.a., write a personification of the return of the political. You could
do this through an untold or invisible life story, this is just one option.
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
7 )
The fear of her return
‘they’ fear her coming again,
this time stronger, better, more threatening than before
this time plural, shape shifting and governing.
Her return caught up in different waves
1, 2, 3, 4, now five, six.
Times all mixed, futures open and unpredicted.
Maybe to comes
Yet unimaginables
And
Already nots
No longer “expelled to a retirement home in an unfashionable rundown holiday resort”
— Angela McRobbie

how documentation works on our imagination
34 35
ballerina / felon / muse
Response
from d.a.
Setting: Pops’ basement, surrounded by records, model cars, and a
Frankensteined stereo system that lingers in the background of many
childhood memories.
Between sips of Hennessy, Pops shares a memory with me. A memory of
a dancer performing at an Isaac Hayes concert in the 70s.
The auditorium is pitch black. A spotlight hits centre stage, revealing an
oversized music box. As the lid slowly lifts, a candy cane striped pole rises
into view. A figure emerges with the pole, a tall, lean, bald, statuesque
black woman. Her body performs a soulful arabesque as it rotates before
thousands of peering eyes. She is a ballerina in a soul concert. On her
second rotation, she bends backward, gracefully, intentionally, her head
and torso swan-like, sankofic, seeking return to a home that exists beyond
the music box, the stage, and the audience. She descends into the music box.
The lid closes, and the lights dim. She’s gone.
Pops never mentions Hayes’ performance, just the power of the nameless,
mesmerising, ballerina.
I learn later that her name is Helen, that she was one of Hayes’ best friends,
that she was a thief, that she was a mother, that she was a convict. I learn
that she survived an attempted murder-suicide. I learned that journalists
don’t pay her for her story and often leave her out of history.
Helen’s documented life consists of arrest records, autopsy reports, and
gossip columns. So returning to her requires messiness, a reimagining of
“criminal,” and a reconsideration of whose story gets told and on what terms.

ook 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
book 1 part 2
Sheena McGrandles with guest contributors
Invitation
to Joy
Dear Joy, in what way do you understand the work you do to be political?
Could you describe one of your performances through a series of images?
Number them from 1 to …
a poem
Entering, cleaning, bending, crouching, walking, standing
( 1
i am either leaking or lacking
( 2
Is it giving someone public recognition?
( 3
Yes internalised shame, hygiene, sexual orientation
( 4
It’s reproduced in order to exist
( 5
how documentation works on our imagination
( 6
re-shape our understanding of the political
( 7
How does your bad self look? ( 8
8 )
Referring to Renate Bertlmann’s “let’s dance together” (1979), “in what way is your work
political in relation to the performance and presentation of the female body?”
All I know of this work is a series of photographs:
1. Bertlmann is wearing a mask, a crown of pacifiers and a t-shirt saying
“lets dance together”, she is fumbling with a radio in a gallery.
2. She is tied to a wheelchair with rope and seems to be trying to move
through the crowed room, no mask or crown of pacifiers.
3. She is pictured dancing with the audience without the wheelchair.

how documentation works on our imagination
36 37
How can you tell that my work is political? At a certain point, when we
learn to analyse art works, and look at them critically, we are learning
how to project certain things onto them. As a non-white body on a stage,
is just being on stage a political act? Does this political act change if my
audience is in a white supremacist mindset, or if my audience is living
within systems of oppression? Does my body on stage already come with a
narrative? Can this perceived narrative eclipse my own goals for the work?
Like many constructs, the ‘political’ shifts depending on the context. My
interest is in the shifts more than the politics. I do not understand my work
to be political. That frame is not how I devise/process my work. Having a
voice, being visible, not assimilating, being proud of my heritage, having
no shame, breathing, making eye contact, being vulnerable, maintaining
my integrity, surviving, these can be political acts.
Response
from Joy
1. black: walls, marly floor
2. black: body covered in black oil back to the audience, black matte
latex hotpants
3. black: body with face in profile, black lipstick, blacked out teeth,
black painted finger and toe nails. a knowing smile
4. black: body moving between grotesque painful, clenched, to a pin up
girl on a beach blanket …
5. black: body bearing black teeth laying on the floor in ecstasy

ook 1 part 1
Britta Wirthmüller with guest contributors
Sources
Book One Part One
Kirsten Justesen and Jytte Rex, Tornerose var et vakkert barn, 1971
Bob Dylan, Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore, 1976
Book One Part Two
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Manifesto For Maintenance Art 1969!, 1969
Faith Wilding, Wait-With, cited in Bettina Knaup Telling stories differently, 2014
Deena Mohamed, Qahera, 2015
Manuel Maples Arce, A Strident Prescription, 1921
Senga Nengudi, R.S.V.P., 1977
Angela McRobbie, cited in Claire Hemmings Why Stories Matter: The Political
Grammar of Feminist Theory, 2011
Workshop
description
Who’s the party now, sister?
In January 2016 Britta Wirthmüller, Sheena McGrandles and a group of
second and third year BA HZT students worked off-campus in three spaces
of the gallery secondhome projects in Berlin Wedding. The emphasis was
to research and re-perform invisible, peripheral, forgotten and censored
works, artists and practices from the feminist art movement in the 1960s
and 70s. The workshop tied together, investigative-style research, storytelling,
feminist practices and archive building; visual, performative and
audio. Individual and collective modes of re-doing, re-appropriating,
re-enacting, tribute acts and artistic responses engaged the politics of
redoing the already done, through asking, What gets remembered, what
gets forgotten, by whom and how? The workshop culminated in a public
event, presenting re-tellings and re-doings that emerged from the research.

HZT teaching staff
Josephine Findeisen
Alistair Watts
Authors
–
Florian Feigl
Judith Förster
Juan Felipe Amaya Gonzalez
Simone Gisela Weber
1
book one
part one
Sheena McGrandles 1,2
Litó Walkey
Renen Itzhaki
Camille Jemelen
guest writers
–
2
book one
part two
Britta Wirthmüller 1,2
Suvi Kemppainen
Katerina Bakatsaki
Julek Kreutzer 1
Derrais (d.a.) Carter 2
HZT student & alumni
Katrine Staub Larsen
Jeanine Durning
guest writers
Anna Lena Lehr
Arnold Dreyblatt
–
Myriam Lucas
Essi Kausalainen
Johanna Ackva 1
Liina Mariudottir
Johannes Lothar Schröder
Asaf Aharonson
Magdalena Meindl 2
Joy Mariama Smith 2
Cécile Bally
Johanne Merke
Rhys Martin 1
Sandhya Daemgen
Josefine Mühle
Helen Mirra
Katerina Delakoura
Lyllie Rouvière
Anne Schuh
Xenia Taniko Dwertmann 2
Zhenya Salinschi
William Wheeler
Ewa Dziarnowska
Sunayana Shetty
Rosemarie Eberl
Grėtė Šmitaitė
all drawings
Ivan Ekemark
Julia Keren Turbahn
–
Forough Fami 1
Aabshaar Wakhloo
Tabea Xenia Magyar
project editor : Litó Walkey copy editor : Karen Christopher publisher : HZT, UdK
Berlin graphic design : Milchhof Atelier: Andreas Töpfer, Carsten Stabenow
printing : Steinmeier, Deiningen
Imprint
Special thanks to Tabea Xenia Magyar and all guest writers for their contributions to
this publication. Thanks to Chrysa Parkinson and DOCH for inspiration from the format
of The Dancer as Agent Collection publication. Thanks to Matthew Goulish and Lin
Hixson for inspiration from their assignment for reading essays, recounted in the
introduction by Jane Blocker for Matthew Goulish’s publication The Brightest Thing
in the World.
HZT — Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin is the joint responsibility of the Berlin
University of the Arts (UdK) and the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch”
(HfS) in cooperation with TanzRaumBerlin, a network for the professional dance scene.
Weblink : www.hzt-berlin.de ISBN : 978-3-00-055501-5