A friend of mine once told me that there is no greater fortune than being in an institution like this one when the storm comes. Togetherness that weaves itself so tightly that you will never see yourself as a single unit again.
-Miriam Stoney

“Remain Calm” is a three-day performative exhibition produced by artist Nile Koetting for, and commissioned by Kunstverein Göttingen. It invites audiences to an ever-morphing narrative space consisting of installation, performance, sound, light, scents, as well as texts written by author and researcher Miriam Stoney.

The project is inspired by the nationwide fire and evacuation drills held every year in Japan, where Koetting was born and raised, in preparation for the occurrence of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunami as well as military attacks. The artist links these experiences to contemporary sci-fi-like high-security technologies and risk-hedging developments that promise a comfort zone. These silencing strategies are currently visible in both the physical and virtual worlds, whereupon Koetting poses the question, how we should navigate and render shared space in a world where disaster and risk are constantly being rehearsed?

Using the art institution as the basis for a scenography and referencing its role as a space for reflection and discourse, the project by Koetting fathoms the relations between evacuation drills, security, accessible and alleged safe space. “Remain Calm” asks how the condition of, and connection between things, individual bodies and the community, can be redefined in both hyper-secured and unsecured time and space.

Curator: Tomke Braun

Team “Remain Calm”
Script and text: Miriam Stoney
Sound: Nozomu Matsumoto
Video: Yoshihiro Inada
Performed with by: Avrina Jos, Djibril Sall, Miriam Stoney, Nile Koetting, Simone Gisela Weber, Vreneli Harborth
Performance collaboration: Felipe Amaya Gonzalez, Djibril Sall, Simone Gisela Weber
Program: Kanai Tomomitsu

Nile Koetting (*1989, Japan), lives and works between Tokyo and Berlin. He works with a diverse range of media, including performance, sound, and installation. His projects explore a new perception of interchange between material – immaterial, living – non living beings in a landscape of technological time and space. His work has been presented at Somerset House, London (2018), Moscow Biennale, Tretyakov Gallery, Russia (2017), Kunstverein Hannover (2017), ZKM Karlsruhe (2016), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2016), Maison Hermès, Tokyo, Japan (2016) and 3hd Festival, Berlin (2016). He is currently resident at Cité des Internationale Paris and has been awarded the Overseas Study Program for Artists by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government.

“Remain Calm” will be shown in April in a modified form at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. The artist is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.