Dan Bodan was born in the Canadian prairies, grew up in Montreal, and then relocated to Berlin. So far so conventional—or so you might think. But what Bodan has released on four albums and a handful of EPs is hardly that: beginning with his first LP »Cashmere Sweater«, which reminded the Guardian of Bryan Ferry and de:bug of Suicide (the band), Bodan has been debunking pop tropes (love, desire, pain) into a sometimes-cosy, sometimes-deeply-eerie amalgam that was also channeled in its perfect (but by no means final) form into »Soft« (for the New York label DFA). During his residency in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Bodan was particularly interested in the issue of life under theocracy and the status of queer practices in a country where homosexual acts continue to be punishable by law.
Dan Bodan on Facebook »Border Movement«Pop culture thrives on cultural exchange, and Pop-Kultur has dedicated itself to that exchange. Every now and then, though, we still need a bit of help, and Border Movement is the ideal resource. The Berlin-based platform, supported by the Goethe Institut since 2012, sees itself as a »cultural catalyst« and, as such, values interactions—especially those between Germany and the South Asia region. At Club 23, on two different festival days, the activist and journalist Sarah Chawla (New Delhi, India) and the musician Mohammed Manal (Malé, Maldives) among others will represent the bandwidth of Border Movement’s work with concerts, DJ sets, and talks. The Berlin artists Anika, Andreas Spechtl, Dan Bodan, and most recently She's Drunk have all participated in the exchange programme, and now the Pakistani artist Natasha Humera Ejaz aka Stupid Happiness Theory will come to the German capital from Islamabad. We should and must mix things up!