Anna Ehrenstein's 'Tools for Conviviality' at C/O Berlin

Anna Ehrenstein (1993), an Albanian-origin artist raised in Germany, explores the intersections of technology and migration in her first solo exhibition 'Tools for Conviviality' at C/O Berlin, running until September 29, 2021. Winner of the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2020, she rethinks postcolonialism and multiculturalism through an open-source, relational approach developed during stays in Dakar. Collaborating with local artists such as Saliou Ba, Donkafele (Mandé Mory Bah and Thibault Houssou), Nyamwathi Gichau, Lydia Likibi, and Awa Seck, she produced collective works in fashion, design, and writing. The exhibition features an installation with gadgets, furniture, and video on a 360-degree circular screen, using fisheye footage, glitch effects, and recurring motifs like a rain of golden bitcoins and a pool with youths in batik. The theoretical framework draws from Ivan Illich's 1973 book 'Tools for Conviviality', critiquing Western technological progress. Ehrenstein employs glitch as a 'productive error' to disrupt linear narratives, incorporating visual turbulence and ironic system failures. The show is supported by Emily Watlington.