THE SOUL STATION

From 12 JULY — 13 OCTOBER 2024 LAS Art Foundation presents Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: THE SOUL STATION at Halle am Berghain, Berlin - the artist’s first solo presentation in Germany.

THE SOUL STATION will feature a newly commissioned work and a survey of video games made by Brathwaite-Shirley over the past five years. Through game-based installations and fictional universes, visitors are invited to explore their ethical, political and moral decision-making, and consider the broader structures and histories of marginalisation. The newly commissioned work, entitled YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING, is presented in two episodes; the second episode has been revealed on 12 September 2024 during Berlin Art Week.

At Halle am Berghain, YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING is presented at the centre of an immersive, haunting environment created by the artist. Its architecture evokes ‘low poly PlayStation 2’ aesthetics and alludes to uncanny beings that appear throughout the course of the game. The work tells the story of a cataclysmic event in a society parallel to ours, where a revolution has been led against globalised slavery and overthrown the enslavers. Played using a voting system, it features a central gamer’s chair and circle of player-spectators who, together, define the story’s final outcome.

YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING builds on the artist’s work with the audience-as-medium and is the culmination of a journey visitors will take through the space. On arrival, each visitor receives a ‘SOUL CARD’, a token enabling them to track their progress and choices throughout the games. This can be done by accessing ‘SOUL STATIONS’ – functioning similarly to video game checkpoints – which are available throughout the presentation as well as online. The journey invites visitors to contend with their own experiences, choices and biases.

The artist states: you are entering a space / this space will show you your soul / allowing you to / reflect on your past, present and future / you may not like what you see / you may feel uncomfortable / you may not be able to hold yourself together / but that is where the real work is done right? / none of you are perfect / all of you can do better / be honest about your failures / be honest about your regrets / be honest about where you are / bring your despair, fear, hopes, depression, excitement, tears, intolerance, joy, desperation, utopia, mistakes, anger, pain, pleasure / just bring yourself

Offering a comprehensive survey of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s oeuvre, THE SOUL STATION includes key works from the past five years. Together they trace the artist’s practice, which combines lived experience with speculative fiction in order to shed light on positions and histories that are often simplified or disregarded. Highlights include Into the Storm (2021), Invasion Pride (2022), and THE REBIRTHING ROOM (2024).

Curated by Mawena Yehouessi at the artist's invitation, THE SOUL STATION's public programme included an artist and curator's talk, two evenings of performances and youth workshops:

22 August + 13 September 2024

On two evenings, four artists and their collaborators were invited to perform within the exhibition and exemplified the plurality of both individual and collaborative means for communal healing and restorative justice, ingrained in non-hegemonic practices.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (pronouns Danielle/they) is a Berlin-based artist who graduated from Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2019. Working predominantly in animation, sound, performance and video game development, the artist explores voices that (en)counter miss-representation, exclusion and mainstream erasure, with a focus on Black and Trans communities. Through this approach, the artist both archives and anticipates narratives outside of the mainstream, so as to overcome the harms of tokenisation and erasure. By engaging the visitor-player through most of their installations, Brathwaite-Shirley examines how individual choices are as critical as collective, political responsibility in the context of marginalisation.

Brathwaite-Shirley’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions and performances at Studio Voltaire, London, UK (2024); SCAD, Savannah, USA (2023); Art Night Dundee, UK (2023); Villa Arson, Nice, France (2023); FACT, Liverpool, UK(2022); David Kordansky, Los Angeles, USA (2022); Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland (2022); Skånes konstförening, Malmö, Sweden (2022); arebyte Gallery, London, UK (2021); QUAD, Derby, UK (2021); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA (2021); Tate Modern, London, UK (2020); Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK (2020); Science Gallery, London, UK (2020); and MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2020). Brathwaite-Shirley’s works have also been represented in group exhibitions at the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, Switzerland (2024); Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin, Germany (2022); Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich, Germany (2019); Les Urbaines, Lausanne, Suisse (2019); and Barbican, London, UK (2018).

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: THE SOUL STATION is co-curated by Boris Magrini, Senior Curator at LAS Art Foundation and Mawena Yehouessi, with Agnessa Schmudke, Assistant Curator at LAS Art Foundation.

12 July — 13 October 2024

Halle am Berghain

Am Wriezener Bahnhof

10243 Berlin

Installation views:

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, THE SOUL STATION, 2024. installation view of the Halle am Berghain, Berlin. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation. Courtesy of the artist; LAS Art Foundation. Photo: Alwin Lay