Federal Foreign Office
Each year, three artists are given the opportunity to work and exhibit in what is perhaps Berlin’s highest studio: the rooftop studio and surrounding terraces atop the Federal Foreign Office. The Artist in Residence program – founded in 2015 by the Federal Foreign Office in close cooperation with the Landesverband Berliner Galerien – is aimed at artists who come from abroad or who deal intensively with global issues in their work. The program creates a space for cross-border art at the hub of German foreign policy at the Federal Foreign Office. On the occasion of his residency, artist Isaac Chong Wai, who lives and works in Hong Kong and Berlin, created the video performance Falling Reversely. Throughout history and most recently in the Corona pandemic, many Asian people have been victims of racist attacks in public spaces – as has the artist himself. For the video performance, Isaac Chong Wai collaborated with Asian performers based in Berlin to practice solidarity through collective body movements. Falling Reversely, which was directed against institutional violence and assaults against Asian people, reverses the movements of falling. As if practicing a ritual, the performers shared the collective pain of violation and reclaim the autonomy of their own bodies.
