Anna Zett

#0 Odradek Trump card, adapted from „The Fool“ Reference: Franz Kafka – The Cares of a Family Man, 1919 Interpretation aid: Here it is again, that fuzzy thing that keeps eluding your explanation. Are you happy to encounter Odradek, a living spool of entangled thread? Does it stress you out? Is this radically relationship-avoiding, unreliable creature a problem for you, or do you find the mysterious distance it creates between you two rather amusing? You might imagine Odradek to be an externalized, animated version of your inner worries. Although it repeatedly withdraws into the unconscious, it does not permanently disappear from the house. (…) * There are 78 cards in my modernist Tarot deck adaptation with historical ties to the Weimar Republic, that I have been working with since 2016. #0 Odradek was the first to be released as part of a limited edition of 50 prints per card at Volksbühne’s @sternschuppen in April 2026. Look out for the next ones, there are many more to come. Some might be released online, some accompanied by a live reading. It’s a work-in-progress, leading up to a book and to all kinds of gatherings yet to be planned. Feel free to get in touch. More info on the deck on my website. Next up: #1 Die Gestalt

Upcoming screenings & video installations in November 2023 ES GIBT KEINE ANGST AFRAID DOESN’T EXIST 9. Nov, 17:30 – Cottbus — Festival des Europäischen Films 10. - 16. Nov – Prag – Goethe Institut Tschechien with Berlinale Forum Expanded 14. Nov, 18:30 – Berlin – Knowledge Ties #7, @sinematranstopia , alongside SONNE UNTER TAGE (Alex Gerbaulet & Mareike Bernien, 2022), followed by a talk with Elske Rosenfeld und Suza Husse, hosted by @kuenstlerischeforschungberlin 15. Nov, 17:30 – Kassel – @kasselerdokfest 16. Nov, 19:00 & 17. Nov, 15:00 – Cologne – @kffkfestival Deutscher Wettbewerb 🤍 Es gibt keine Angst / Afraid doesn’t exist Anna Zett, 2023, 31 min Musical Collage: @matti_gajek Video and audio material: The GDR Opposition Archive Sound Mix: Jochen Jezussek Color Grading: Sebastian Bodirsky

Jule Flierl and Anna Zett co-lead the class for performative arts at HGB Leipzig for two years. We will focus on inter-vocality, body as medium and situational frame-shifting. The class is part of the media arts department. In order to apply directly (höheres Fachsemester), you need a bachelor degree or equivalent. Next deadline is 30.11.2025.

Public in Person: Assembly hochschuloffenes Versammlungslabor, gehosted von Anna Zett in der Klasse für performative Künste Dienstags 16-19 Uhr, alle 2 Wochen, Raum 2.08 19.5. Try-Out für Neues Forum der Feelings Eine dialogische Versammlung mit performativen Impulsen von aus der Klasse für Performative Künste: Heather Koen – Lesung aus „Illusions of Belonging“ Véra Marie Deubner & Luca Diebold – Musikperformance „Echo West – Chor der Zugezogenen“ Robin Becker – Partizipativer Vokalscore „What does the Future hold?“ final Showing @volksbuehne_berlin Ein künstlerisch-diskursiver Themenabend im Roten Salon, Sternfoyer und Grünen Salon, Mi 20. Mai 18-22 Uhr mit: Julia Boxler, Boris Buden, Čarna Brković, Marc Ferch, Anna Herms, Leonie Jenning, Sebastian Kaiser, Darja Klingenberg, Fatbardh Kqiku, Aleks Lewicki, Vedrana Madžar, Susanne Marian, Luise Meier, Ani Menua, Anna Mikheeva, Alicja Orlow, Zoran Terzić, Anna-Lena Wenzel, Anna Zett, Agathe Israel, Durak Kollektiv und X3 Kollektiv Klasse für Performative Künste (HGB Leipzig): Heather Koen, Véra Marie Deubner & Luca Diebold, Robin Becker

THIS UNWIELDLY OBJECT in DISMANTLE THE ANTHROPOCENE ANNA ZETT Anna Zett is an artist, writer, and filmmaker with a background in cultural anthropology, philosophy and gender studies. In THIS UNWIELDLY OBJECT, they take the viewer on a road trip through the mountain states formerly known as "Wild West" in the United States. Here, they meet with scientists, fossil traders, sculptors, and film makers who are trying to appropriate extinct animals and animate petrified history. Zett’s film shows how in the U.S. natural history is prioritised over Indigenous histories because it provides the immigrant nation with a material past to discover and appropriate—it provides an opportunity to turn attention away from the theft of land. Photography by Sander van Wettum and Joris van den Einden. Visit DISMANTLE THE ANTHROPOCENE at RADIUS (Tu-Sun, 11-17) ⌀⌀⌀⌀⌀ Anna Zett is een kunstenaar, schrijver en filmmaker met een achtergrond in culturele antropologie, filosofie en genderstudies. In THIS UNWIELDLY OBJECT neemt hen de kijker mee op een roadtrip door de bergstaten die voorheen bekend stonden als de "Wild West" van de Verenigde Staten. Hier ontmoet hen wetenschappers, fossielenhandelaren, beeldhouwers en en filmmakers die zich uitgestorven dieren proberen toe te eigenen en een versteende geschiedenis tot leven proberen te wekken. Zetts film laat zien hoe in de VS natuurhistorische kennis voorrang krijgt op Inheemse geschiedenissen omdat het een materieel verleden biedt om te ontdekken en toe te eigenen—het biedt de kans om de aandacht af te leiden van de diefstal van land. Fotografie door Sander van Wettum en Joris van den Einden. Bezoek ONTMANTEL HET ANTROPOCEEN bij RADIUS (di-zon, 11-17)

Modern Tarot: #0 Odradek Serial card deck launch by Anna Zett Join me for the release of the first card of the Modern Tarot I’ve been working on since 2016. Originally designed for a radio play based on vocal improvisation, the deck is now entering a new stage of publication, in the form of a limited-edition print series presented step by step in various contexts. The series opens with the trump card #0 Odradek, named after a literary figure by Franz Kafka. Adapted from the traditional tarot card “The Fool,” this new version introduces us to an abstract trickster without any public mission. Odradek is an entangled, indeterminate being that is usually encountered at home. At Volksbühne’s @sternschuppen on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin the card #0 Odradek appears alongside a variety of themed poker decks from China (where paper playing cards were first invented in the 11th century). Sunday April 12 3-7 p.m. Opening Reception 5 p.m. – Reading: Trump Card #0 Odradek by Anna Zett (in German, with written English translation) Monday April 13 3-7 p.m. Closing event, with card games 5 p.m. – Radio play: Industry and Fortune: My Voice Wanders Through a Holistic System (Anna Zett, BR 2017), in German The limited-edition card print #0 Odradek will only be sold on-site at this and subsequent live events. // Anna Zett’s tarot adaptation translates the late-medieval symbolism inscribed in European playing and divination cards in the 15th century into a more recent era of social upheaval: classical modernism. The specific historical frame of reference here is the Weimar Republic, which, as a phase of radical innovation in art, science, and social structure has become a sort of mythical era – not just in Berlin. The post-religious cosmology of democratic modernity - by now widely criticized, declared dead, yet far from abandoned, and still effective - took shape at that time, before fascism responded with brutal destruction. The deck offers symbolic tools to ask: where do I rely on modern narratives today, me personally? Is something missing?

Beaches are just more or less finely ground rubble anyway. For some years I kind of refused to write, just like I kind of refused to produce images. Since 2020 I’ve been doing mostly undocumented work between person and person, body and body, world and world. Fear of death, or the omnipresence of violent collapse, or the growing weight of unpublished work, or the need for more clarity have now brought me back to writing, and I’m happy to be home (visiting). If you zoom into the sea you can glimpse the megacity of Istanbul. I’m here for two weeks. Is there someone I could connect with at the other side of the ferry? Danke für diesen Ort @carolin_wuerfel Und da heute ein besonderer Tag ist: Danke für das Leben, das Du mir geschenkt hast Agnes, auch 16 Jahre nach deinem Tod lebst du in mir fort.

Trump card #9 The Ego was initially titled The Individual. I recently decided to change it, alongside #19 The Creature which is now titled The Id. If psychoanalytical theory is not just implicitly included by way of the authors worldview, but explicitly through names and concepts, the deck becomes more accessible to others. Some of you might know that I have used this deck for readings and performances since its first version being printed in 2017. To publish it as a functional deck of tarot/ playing cards is a whole other process, taking its time. But next year “Gestalt & Stimme” will most probably make its way out there in print. ♥️ 🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏 The deck draws from the German-speaking discourse in post-authoritarian, pre-fascist central Europe in the 1920s. It treats modernism as a local cosmology of the past, that we still use to orient ourselves today, even though it’s not objective, nor coherent, or universal. To me, this deck is both a project of cultural analysis and a playful, at times powerful art work. Personally I have little interest in the occult, I’d rather associate this work with a wider process that Vanessa Machado de Oliveira has called “Hospicing Modernity”. Slide 1 & 2 refer to “Das Ich und Das Es” - a text by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, first published in 1923. In traditional decks these cards are titled The Hermit” and “The Sun”. Slide 3 shows the “Director of Nerves” aka King of Cups, depicting the doctor/ psychoanalyist/ hypnotist as a patriarchal authority figure with manipulative potential.

Demnächst in Wurzen im Rahmen von @politikimfreientheater Anna Zett & Hermann Heisig mit Patrice Lipeb (Musik) Montag, 20.10. 17-20 Uhr und Dienstag, 21.10. 17-20 Uhr Workshop -mit Anmeldung- Mittwoch, 22.10. 18-21 Uhr Versammlung -offen für alle- Ein Echo der choreographischen, partizipativen und dialogischen Forschung ‘Resonanz - Postsozialistische Gruppenimprovisation’ von Anna Zett @zwerran und @hermannheisig 2020-21 im Rahmen von @kuenstlerischeforschungberlin

Link in bio It’s a text initially written in 2018 when I embarked on a research journey into the hidden depositories of gdr history in my own body mind. This journey lead to a series of art works and films, some of which are woven into this new version of the text, now published in english by socialist anthropocene research group @uclpact @artmargins_printandonline 🙏🏼

Last year I created some cushions in memory of the 🫟writer I didn’t become as a teen, in support of the film „Afraid doesn’t exist“ that I was about to install, and in honor of the horrible feeling I used to reject and repress. May the fear be with you. It’s good to know it closely, and handle it with care. Just like all the other feelings, it helps you not only to survive, but to stay alive. Thanks again to @marei_loellmann for sewing, and making these with me. next to last slide: Memory is not only past, AdKdW Köln, 2024 Foto: Alwin Lay last slide: Neues Forum der Töne, ImpulseFestival Köln, 2025, Foto: Robin Junicke

Neues Forum der Töne Hosts: Anna Zett, Joshua Wicke @swissbanking666 Stimmen & Töne: Tamara Antonijevic, Waltraud Blischke @c.c._herman , Anna Bromley @___anna_bromley___ Jule Flierl @jule.flierl Matti Gajek @matti_gajek , Agathe Israel, Elske Rosenfeld, Manuel Sékou @luxxuryvibelivewire Günter Baby Sommer, Joshua Wicke, Anna Zett Videos: Dana Kavelina @dana.kavelina , Shelly Silver @shellyasilver Gabriele Stötzer, Anna Zett Rauminstallation: Anna Zett @zwerran @impulse__festival @tanzfaktur Köln 26.-28.6. de Wie lässt sich ein sprachlich definierter und politisch polarisierter Diskursraum um sinnliche Wahrnehmung und emotionales Bewusstsein erweitern? Im der performativen Installation & Versammlung „Neues Forum der Töne“ kommen an drei Tagen künstlerische, musikalische, soziale und politische Praktiken zusammen , inspiriert von basisdemokratischen DDR-Erfahrungen, Gegenkulturen der Selbstorganisation, Gruppenanalyse & Deep Listening. en How to expand a discursive space defined by language and political polarisation, to integrate sensory perception and emotional awareness? Within the performative installation & assembly „New Forum of Sound“ over three days artistic, musical, social and political practices converge, inspired by Eastgerman experiences of radical democracy, subcultures of self-organisation, group analysis & deep listening.