Lito Kattou

District 17

Kraupa - Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin
Jan 20 - Feb 23, 2018

In Neo-Tokyo’s District 17, raging cyberpunk bikers dissolve their hopeless subjectivities in the increasing speed and violence of their motorbikes. In the animation Akira, the city’s crumbling infrastructure is inhabited by orphaned lives. Ceaseless protests take over the streets, while governmental dodges are performed in the shadow. This is the site of an encounter of the protagonist’s gang and Takashi – a childlike figure with turquoise skin. Generated by government-operated chemical experiments, Takashi’s psychic power spreads like a virus, mutates its host and grows out of control, unleashing questions about social formations and their agency.

Reminiscent of this seminal encounter, in District 17, objects of different nature intersect in the exhibition space. Amorphous bodies, assembled from fragments of civilisational objects sit alongside skin-tight forms, empty shells remaining from a happening. Pipes creep along the walls – one cannot know whether they carry fuel or secretions. What one knows for sure is that some form of life lies in these structures. Next door, an abandoned arena made of cellulose awaits other encounters still to come.

As the post-urban architectures of District 17 are navigated with motorbikes, the organizational and spiritual mazes in the exhibition are traversed by many-headed, pluralistic organisms. District 17 is the scenario of encounters for collective bodies yet to be shaped.

Lithia, 2018 by Lito Kattou
20.01.2018, 7 pm
performers: Nelly Hakkaraien and Leah Katz