Artistic research and performance: Asya Ashman and Therese Bendjus
Supported by: CROSS project, Institut Francais, ada Studio, Play!Berlin e.V.
Showing: Atelier Casa Ceretti, Verbania, Italy

Initiated in early 2023, the first research phase in Berlin focused on the emotional and physical impact of destruction as both an act of rage and empowerment, as well as a space of loss and grief. The second phase in Verbania (2024) expanded into an exploration of extractivism, tracing the violent transformation of marble from quarry to monument. By situating destruction within different contexts, the project seeks to unravel its implications — both material and symbolic — while questioning how histories of pain and power are inscribed in space.

Kick-off: Destroying the Potentiality is a research project by Asya Ashman and Therese Bendjus that challenges the capitalistic logic of efficiency and linear progress by embracing a non-linear, site-responsive approach. It examines the entanglement between destruction and regeneration, questioning how we can embody both the collapse and the potential for renewal — not as opposites, but as interdependent forces.

Kick-off: Destroying the Potentiality, 2023 — now