REAL CHARACTERS brings together eleven artists engaged in self-publishing and self-organized practices. Conceived as both a reunion of friends and a convergence of their creative practices, the project loosely revolves around themes of everyday role-playing, collaboration and productive paranoia. Through a two-part process – an exhibition in France and an event in Berlin – the group will produce a collective edition composed of fragmented, multi-voiced perspectives. Developed through a shared writing process, the project explores the boundaries between documentation and fiction, inviting participants to invent roles, stage dialogues, and re-enact collaboration. Poetry readings and sound performance will accompany the launch.
Website: paulineperplexe.com/expositions/real-characters
Program
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Readings
Owen Fortunato Brakspear,
Imaginary friends (selected extracts of the eu- project)
Willie Brisco,
selected poems
Cole Denyer,
selected poems
Eleni Poulou
Kessire effect seeker
Tim Wolf,
Gone Fishin’
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Music Performance
Organza Ray (Eleni Poulou & Hillary Jeffery)
1:00 pm – 4 pm Book table
slub press selection
Real characters edition
4.30pm – 6.30pm Performance on the way to Café Tiergarten & Reading at Café Tiergarten
Nat Kochan
Columns
Nat Kochan
Voiceover anti concept Gil J Wolman – a reading
PARTICIPANTS / BIOS
Kelly Ballett is an artist based in London. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. Her practice explores linguistic grammars and the morphology of visual language, and confronts the role of images in circulation, particularly how they reinforce current forms of power. Recent shows include the ENTER DEER PARK group show and a solo show at Piccalilli Gallery in London.
www.kellyballett.com
Willie Brisco was born in December 1981. As an artist, Brisco has built a position that is fluid among many disciplines. Previous experiences in Germany include Unitednationsplaza (2007-2008) and some semesters at Staedelschule (2010 – 2012). A complete bibliographic chronology of exhibitions, pieces, interventions, performances, bookworks, lectures, screenings, texts, musical performances and discography may one day be available upon request.
Christel Conchon is an artist based in Paris. She co-runs the art space Pauline Perplexe and collaborates with Dimension Emotionnelle, a shifting fictive entity since 2012. Engaged in publishing, she has produced two issues of Homebody Magazine. Her work as recently been shown at Systema (Palais Carli, Marseille), Scatological Rites Of All Nations (Wendover House, London) and Paris Internationale. Projects with Dimension Émotionnelle have appeared at Kunsthalle Basel, Glassbox (Paris), HEK (House of Electronic Arts) and Austellungsräum Klingental (Basel), among others.
Cole Denyer is a poet and artist. His work has been published in TEFLON, Ludd Gang, DATABLEED, slubpress, VEER2 & 87 press. Recent shows include J€B at Superdeals in Brussels & HELPING PEOPLE at classwaroom in London. He is currently based in London where he co-organises scatological rites of all nations, an artist run space inside the City of London.
www.littlehammers.co.uk
Owen Fortunato Brakspear writes, and edits and runs the small poetry press slub press whilst completing a doctorate on the poetry of César Vallejo. He runs the slub press event series, which he also hosts. In 2025 he will be producing the poetry and poetics magazine Coronach with Cole Denyer.
slubpress.cargo.site
Hilary Jeffery plays, composes and teaches music, his main instrument is the trombone and he also plays trumpet, euphonium, tuba, piano and electronics. He is currently based in Berlin where he works with Eleni Poulou at Berlintune Studio and plays in many groups including Etude (Ensemble Treffen Um Die Ecke), Mullet, Organza Ray and The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.
Nath Kochan (b.1990) studied Anthropology BA at Sussex University before further studies in painting and film. Much of his work considers the ephemera of public spaces and the real and imaginary residue present in these environments. With a strong interest in ‘Architecture’, as a language of looking, he seeks to figure out ways in which experience is intrinsic to spaces, finding ways to exercise technological thinking to deconstruct the feelings of being a human subject. His paintings, sculpture and video works have been exhibited internationally in artist run spaces and galleries.
www.instagram.com/technoship_fire
Eleni Poulou has recorded and toured worldwide with many groups including The Fall and Shizuo, and is currently working with Wolfgang Seidel, Bomb Sniffing Dogs, and as ULR with James «Jeanette» Main. She hosts regular radio shows such as “Elope” on Cashmere Radio and “Kastra” on Stegi Radio, and has appeared on Montezpress Radio, Rinse France, RTM FM, Noods Radio and NTS with Ono Tesla. Eleni also DJs, writes poetry, creates sound collages, composes music and makes zines with like minded artists such as Theresa Patzschke. She is one half of NOHE NOSHE together with Petr Step Kišur and is part of the Berlin art collective Honey Suckle Company. She formed Organza Ray with Hilary Jeffery in 2022, her most recent solo album is “Karta” which merges Greek Pontic music with other sounds and beats. In 2024 she organised the concert series «Kantione» at Haus am Waldsee.
elenipoulou.bandcamp.com
rayanza.org
Tim Wolf is an artist and poet based in London. Recently his work has been shown as part of the group show ENTER DEER PARK, and he had a solo show, ‘Ambergris’, at Danny Profit in early 2025. His poetry has been published by slub press and Gong Farm. He co-runs scatalogical rites of all nations with Cole Denyer.
www.instagram.com/scatologicalritesofallnation_s
ORGANIZERS
SLUBPRESS
Slubpress is a small-press & reading series situated between Paris & London, run by Owen Fortunato Brakspear. Since 2021 it has published the likes of Verity Spott, JH Prynne, William Rowe, Kat Addis, Joseph Minden & more.
HOSTS
PAULINE PERPLEXE
Pauline Perplexe is an non profit Artist-run Space located in Arcueil, in the southern suburbs of Paris. Created in 2014, the association is established in two former houses, both chartered by the Arcueil City Hall. Pauline Perplexe currently houses fourteen artist studios and organizes around ten exhibitions a year ; its curatorial programme benefits from a regional fund by DRAC Île-de-France. Working upon an invitational structure, Pauline Perplexe’s programme takes on multiple forms such as exhibitions, concerts, performances, workshops, readings. As a collectivity Pauline Perplexe have been engaged in off-site projects, among others at AAAAHHH Paris Internationale Art Fair in 2020, Betonsalon, glassbox, Treize, and Paris Ass Book Fair at Palais de Tokyo. Pauline Perplexe aims to promote the swarming of a parallel art scene opened and expanded to the maximal autonomy of artists.
GROTTO GALLERY & Hansabibliothek/Offen für Kultur
GROTTO is a space for contemporary art and culture in the Hansaviertel in Berlin, in cooperation with the Bürgerverein Hansaviertel e.V., curated by Leonie Herweg.
GROTTO is a member of the Gallery Climate Coalition
FUNDERS
BAV
Supported by the PERSPEKTIVE Fund for Contemporary Art & Architecture of the Office for Visual Arts of the Institut français Germany, sponsored by the French Ministry of Culture, the Institut français Paris and the Goethe-Institut.
bav-ifa.de/fr/programmes/fonds-perspektive/arts-visuels/prospective-congregation