2020
2020
2020
East African Soul Train
2019
International, interdisciplinary residency for artists on a Train from Mwanza to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
EAST is a residency on Tanzania's historic train tracks, a creative exploration of the (un)known exploring histories, narratives and temporalities through interdisciplinary creative process.
The residency enables a phenomenological examination of the (un)known, taking into account the historical dimension of the train route. At the same time it is an exploration of interdisciplinary artistic work and a questioning of the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation for the community. Experience and its phenomenological investigation are at the centre of the project and determine how artists work together, give each other feedback and get to know each other, their work and respective disciplines. As a result there is an honest and deep exchange among the artists and with the audience of the final performance at TaSUBa Arts College in Bagamoyo, as well as surprising works which emerge from collaborations among the artists.
SIGNALS, RESONATING REVOLUTIONS
An experimental counter-monument
Opening Performance for "100 Years of Revolution 1918/19" by Kulturprojekte Berlin
_______________
Signals Resonating Revolutions celebrates the joy of participation.
In 1918/19 the Novemberrevolution lead to the first democracy in germany and the establishment of basic rights, like the right to assemble, freedom of opinion and votes for women.
For the centenary of this revolution the artist group Tools for Action developed red, inflatable light-sculptures, in order to widen the space of resonance of the revolution, to highlight the multilayeredness of histories and to experiment with new forms of collective remembrance.
Sarah Drain is a visual artist. She completed her training with an MA in Social Sculpture at Oxford Brookes University in 2016. For her thesis Presence(s) she was awarded the MA Programs Interdisciplinary Arts Practice Prize: Social Sculpture. Presence(s) enables an experience of the fluidity of past, present and future – a recurring theme in her work. Sarah Drain creates experiences which enable a perception of how the past is intertwined with and permeates into the present and thus the future. She creates spaces for the experiences, memories and stories of those participating.
Sarah Drain’s works have been shown in Hamburg, Berlin, Oxford, Bath and Jena. In 2016 and 2017 Sarah was a guest lecturer for the MA Social Sculpture and research assistant at the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University. In 2018 she co-created the opening performance for the project 100 Years of Revolution 1917|18 by Kulturprojekte Berlin. Since 2019 Sarah Drain has supported artistic, interdisciplinary processes as the co-artistic director of the interdisciplinary residency East African Soul Train (2019) and as a dramaturg.
In January 2020, during a residency at Kloster Dornach (Switzerland), she began her research for her new project on the witch-hunts at the advent of capitalism and their contemporary repercussions for (self)images of women* .
This page is currently under construction.
Please refer to the German version in the meantime. Thanks.
sarah drain
EDUCATION
M.A. Social Sculpture, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, 2016
Thesis: Presence(s)
B.Sc. Psychology, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, 2013
Thesis: Aus der Übereinstimmung mit den Anderen heraustreten - Zum Umgang mit Scham in der Moderation
von egalitären politischen Gruppen
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Byam Shaw School of Art, Central Saint Martins,
University of the the Arts, London, 2009
PROJECTS | EXHIBITIONS
2020 05.11.-05.12.: Neukölln Stories - group exhibition,
LiTE-HAUS Galerie + Projektraum, Nomadic Art, Berlin
18.09. - 17.10.: DA SIND WIR - PUBLIC WOMEN, installation| workshop | walk
in cooperation with Jana Beckmann (flex) and Janna Nikoleit (flex), LOCALIZE Festival 2020, Potsdam
16.08. (posponed): Oh, das stresst mich wahnsinnig!- performance
with and by: Vera Jessen, Guy Marsan, VillArte-Festival, Villatalla, Italy (Dramaturgy)
23.07.-26.07.: Gebettet - installation in public space
Sarah Drain, Mariam Frick in cooperation with: Gemeinde Hausen im Wiesental, Kunstverein Schopfheim,
supported by: Gemeinde Hausen i. W., LBBW-Stiftung, Sparkasse Wiesental, VR-Bank Schopfheim-Maulburg
19.06.- 21.06.: Online participation 48 Stunden Neukölln in the framework of Neukölln Stories, LiTE-HAUS
Galerie + Projektraum, Nomadic Art, Berlin
2019 Oh, das stresst mich wahnsinnig! - performance
with and by: Vera Jessen, Guy Marsan, Fleetstreet Theater Hamburg (Dramaturgy)
Lisilo-julikana | The Unknown - performance
in the framework of the interdisciplinary residency East African Soul Train, TaSUBa Arts College, Bagamoyo,
Tanzania (co-artistic direction together with Adam Chienjo)
The Mirror - installation in public space
Jana Beckmann, Sarah Drain, Janna Nikoleit, Sophia Müller, Anja Cambria, Kilian Peters, Vasylysa
Shchogoleva, Zahi Asa, Gassan Ali, Liron Monitz, Alex Rosenfeld, 72 Hours Urban Action, Jena Lobeda
2018 Signals, Resonating Revolutions - exhibition
Artúr van Balen, Sarah Drain, Tomas Espinosa, Freya Schmidt as Tools for Action, Revolutionszentrum im
Podewil, in the framework of: 100 Years of Revolution – Berlin 1918/19, Kulturprojekte Berlin, Berlin
Signals, Resonating Revolutions - participatory performance for the opening of: 100 Jahre Revolution – Berlin
1918/19, Kulturprojekte Berlin
Artúr van Balen, Sarah Drain, Tomas Espinosa, Freya Schmidt als Tools for Action, im Auftrag von Kulturprojekte
Berlin, in collaboration with Tänzer ohne Grenzen e.V., Berlin
Home | Unknown - a dialogue - interactive experience / performance
in the framework of: The Compass // EAST : NORTH, Werkhalle Wiesenburg, Berlin (co-artistic direction
together with Adam Chienjo)
2017 Presence(s) - installation and participatory social sculpture process
Social Sculpture Research Platform, Konferenz, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
Presence(s) - installation and participatory social sculpture process
Fringe Arts Bath, Bath
2016 Presence(s) - installation and participatory social sculpture process
inside[OUTSIDE] MA Interdisciplinary Arts Festival, Fusion Arts, Oxford
Chairs - participatory intervention
inside[OUTSIDE] MA Interdisciplinary Arts Festival, Fusion Arts, Oxford
Stick Apart - performance in public space
Maria Plotnikova, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (artistic advice, performance)
Stick Apart - performance in public space
Maria Plotnikova, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath (artistic advice, performance)
Stick Apart - performance in public space
Maria Plotnikova, OVADA Gallery, Oxford (artistic advice, performance)
2015 The Cupcake Escape - installation and conversation
Sona Dobajova, Sarah Drain, Contemporary Arts Research Conference, CARU, Oxford Brookes University
Doesn’t really Mattress - installation in public space
Jana Beckmann, Sarah Drain, Sigita Simona Paplauskaite, Martin Abbott, Sophia Müller, Shabby Shabby
Apartments, Raumlabor Berlin, Kammerspiele München, Munich
Risk the Shit Show - participatory event and video-installation as part of the thematic residency on artistic
collaboration
invited artists: Marco Berardi Nicole Cataldo-Davies, Hannes Hellstrom, Keith Lim, Katherine McBride, Kari
Robertson, Gelegenheiten, Berlin (concept, organisation, direction: Sarah Drain and Heather Purcell)
2014 Fictional State. Trilogie des Zusammenlebens Vol. 3. - performance-clubbing
Direction: Franz von Strolchen, Fleetstreet Theater, Hamburg (directors assistant
Darkroom-Performance - participatory performance
Part*perform, Butendiek-Festival, Ateliergemeinschaft Fährstieg 6, Hamburg
2013 Cough for Coal - campaign against fossil fuels, inflatable lung sculpture, Atúr van Balen, Sarah Drain, Matthies
Stetter, Tools for Action, Berlin (co-design and construction of the sculpture)
2012 Darkroom-Performance - participatory performance
in the framework of: Part*perform, Gängeviertel, Hamburg
2010 El Martillo Project - inflatable sculpture
im Rahmen eines partizipativen Workshops, Electric Eclectic Collective (jetzt: Tools for Action), Galerie OKK,
Berlin (co-design and construction of the sculpture)
2009 In-Dividuality, foto- and videoinstallation
Graduation Exhibition, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Byam Shaw School of Arts, London
GRANTS | COMPETITIONS | AWARD
2020 Project funding: Gemeinde Hausen im Wiesental
Project funding: LBBW-Stiftung
Research residency 'Aussteigen-auf-Zeit', Kloster Dornach
Dornach, Switzerland
2019 72 Hours Urban Action, Competition, Jena
2017 MA Programs in Interdisciplinary Arts Practice Prize: Social Sculpture for Presence(s), Oxford Brookes
University, Oxford
2016 Residency, Fusion Arts, Oxford
2015 Project funding: Quartiersmanagement Neukölln
2015 Shabby Shabby Apartments, Competition, Raumlabor Berlin, Kammerspiele München
ARTISTIC DIRECTION
2019 EAST19. East African Soul Train - interdisciplinary residency
creative direction: Geraldine Hepp, production: Poppy Spowage, cooperation with: CDEA, TaSUBa Arts
College, BASATA, supported by: Burning Man, Techne, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Mwanza,
Bagamoyo, Tansania (co-artistic direction with Adam Chienjo)
2018 The Compass // EAST : NORTH - 2018 - thematic residency on Berlin’s colonial history
Werkhalle Wiesenburg, Berlin (artistic co-direction with Adam Chienjo)
2015 Risk the Shit Show - thematic residency on artistic, non-hierarchical collaboration,
invited artists : Marco Berardi Nicole Cataldo-Davies, Hannes Hellstrom, Keith Lim, Katherine McBride, Kari
Robertson, supported by: Quartiersmanagement Neukölln
Gelegenheiten, Berlin (concept, organisation, direction in collaboration with Heather Purcell)
TEACHING | ACADEMIC WORK
2017 Qualifikation as ‘Associate Lecturer’, Centre for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Oxford Brookes
University, Oxford
2016|17 Guest Lecturer, MA Social Sculpture, School of Arts, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
Research Assistant, Social Sculpture Research Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
Internship Social Sculpture Research Unit bei Prof. Shelley Sacks, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
WORKSHOPS
2015- Workshops for different groups (children, young adults, adults)
PUBLICATIONS
2020 Martina Becker, Sarah Drain, Jeremy Knowles, Marta Medvesek, Karl Ingar Røys, Pablo Santacana, Jun
Suzuki. (2020) "Artist Questions" Neukölln Stories. Zine 1. Ed. Nomadic Art and LiTE HAUS Gallery. Berlin:
nomadicArt Press. self-publishing.
Sarah Drain (2020) weil ich fand es reicht, nomadicRadio Session N13 8th December 2020 from 8:30pm-
9:00pm ColaboRadio, as part of Neukölln Stories, Artists: Sarah Drain, Marta Medvesek und Jun Suzuki
(https://www.nomadicart.org/NOMADIC-RADIO-1)
2012 Drain, Sarah (2012) How to make a Hammer. In: The El Martillo Project, Artúr van Balen, Jakub Simcik, Kristin
Gertz, Paul Pistorius, Wivenhoe, New York, Port Watson: Minor Compositions