Watch our film about ‘The Drop Out: Tell Them I Said No’!
On Friday 3 and Saturday 4 May 2024, E-WERK presented a weekend of day and night time events. Inspired by author and art critic Martin Herbert's collection of essays Tell Them I Said No (2016, Sternberg Press), the programme considered the implications of resistance, what radical models of self-sufficiency look like, the political connotations of counterculture (or cancel culture), who has the privilege to say no, and artistic vulnerability. The event took place across E-WERK’s 25,000 metre square site, including the historic Turbine Hall, the adjacent Bauhaus Stadtbad and E-WERK’s outdoor geodesic dome, and included concerts, performances, panel discussions, karaoke, and sauna sessions. A global list of artists, thinkers, performers, and cultural commentators who contributed included Lamis Ammar, Sascia Bailer, Mirthe Berentsen, Candice Breitz, Eglė Budvytytė in collaboration with Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome, JJJJJerome Ellis, Hettie Judah, Prem Krishnamurthy, Zoe Claire Miller, Eve Stainton & Florence Peake, Nástio Mosquito, Asad Raza, Lauryn Youden, Abbas Zahedi, SERAFINE1369, Pussy Riot, Fatoş Üstek, and Melanie Jame Wolf. Many of the contributors shared their work in Brandenburg for the first time.
Tell Them I Said No Artistic Director: Helen Turner, Co-curated by Katharina Worf and Helen Turner, Programme Support: Florine Lindner & Alison Midgley, Technical Coordination: Moritz Schmolke & Sebastian Reinicke and Communications support: Nicola Jeffs & Carolin Kralapp
The Drop Out: Tell Them I Said No is funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation), funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media), and we acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Luckenwalde. Programme partners for The Drop Out. Tell Them I Said No include FRANK - Fair Artist Pay and Gallery Climate Coalition. The presentation of Riot Days by Pussy Riot is possible in collaboration with Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf and the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und und Kultur Brandenburg.
