Amir Saifullin is a researcher and organiser based in Berlin and Rome, where he is working as a Ph.D. fellow at Bibliotheca Hertziana. Having obtained his MA from the Warburg Institute, his main interest lies in the correlation between theories of vision, politics, visual culture and hidden epistemologies. Portal is a format collaboratively organised by Johanna Klingler and Amir Saifullin, focussing on a cultural exchange between Russia and Germany. It started as an event (Portal – A Visual Research) hosted by Lothringer13_Florida Munich in 2018, in which they tried to challenge habits of perception in art by taking into consideration conditions of production and by inviting artists from institutional as well as self-organised educational backgrounds. This happened together with curator Ilya Samorukov and a range of young artists from Samara, Russia. Since then, they have developed different formats, such as bilingual publications and a domestic residency in order to elaborate on tools within the art sphere that are involved in developing emancipatory structures.They operate flexibly, considering their own circumstances. For K2020 Portal organised a dinner, during which they reflected on the interrelations between the concepts of the host and the guest within their own practice as well as within K’s invitation. Their publication is part of the library and available to visitors.
Amir Saifullin
K2020 collaborator