EVO LUT IO
LU TIO N
Nº 28 Spring / Summer 2017
RE R VON I L T ION LU UT O I V O E R RE V
“The horses / The world fire burns for their sake / The horses are what the philosopher calls ideas� (Nikolaus Lenau)
A photo essay by Alexander Kluge
The word “revolution” is hard to get one’s tongue around. As we look ahead to the 100th anniversary of the two Russian revolutions of 1917 – the first in February (seldom mentioned) and the second in October (covered in propaganda material like lava), we have cause to redefine the “grammar of revolution” and its vocabulary. After Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel asked us to contribute an essay on the topic of revolution, Christoph Menke and I spontaneously arranged an interview in the cultural show “10vor11” on RTL. The title of the interview: “The Long Breath”. Its subtitle: “There are no good revolutions under 800 years old”. The film stills in the following photo series originated from this interview.
Revolutionary educational processes take time After his lord abandoned castle and country, the private tutor Etienne Dreux left the Ardennes for Paris in summer 1790. With money he borrowed from a bank in the Palais Royal, he founded a teaching enterprise. The aim was to teach revolutionaries about the initial reasons for the rise of Republicanism. Several schools of this kind were formed. The instructors knew little more about their subject than the students themselves. These were locations that attracted knowledge. When the Revolution turned bloody, Dreux succeeded in camouflaging his enterprises. After Thermidor, he said to himself, “Now I can continue my efforts in public and at full force.” The after-effects of education are long-lasting. The first generation of young teachers who supported Dreux in his work had all completed their training by 1802. By this time, the school had been forced underground again because the police administration under Minister Fouché distrusted learning in the form of independent association. Thus the products of free, Republican schools were only finished when contemporary history had no further desire or need for them. It was 1832 when society welcomed Republicans again, by which time Dreux was an old man. Never has a revolution on our planet kept its promises. Just recall the political excitement in the discussion forums in November 1989 (“We’ve never had so many beginnings!”) or the protests that erupted in summer 1967 in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and Berkeley. And let’s not forget the “Arab Spring”. In his impressive book, Wolf Lepenies describes the long history and almost-chance of a “Mediterranean Union” which would have been a sister to the EU. If such a stable, French-led structure existed in the Mediterranean region, would the “Arab Spring” have turned out differently? Would we still be facing the stream of refugees from the 4,000-year-old country of Syria and witnessing the misery of Aleppo? “The political art of the new beginning”. We humans have very little command of this art form. We muddle through. Yet we’re descendants of a human history (which the Humboldt Forum will hopefully describe in closer detail) and an evolution which is incredibly inventive and versatile when facing unexpected projects of progress, surprise and adaptation.
Industrial Revolution. We are now experiencing the fourth phase of this revolution – the digital phase. Not only is it churning up the external relationships of business and society. The furniture of our inner world, our subjectivity, is also changing in the process.
Israel’s march through the desert. This is one of the early STORIES OF NEW BEGINNINGS. The Israelites left Egypt and emigrated from bondage. Such an EXODUS is the classical example of a new beginning, of a revolutionisation. The Israelites marched through the desert for 40 years of Biblical time. The period of the Old Testament spans 6,000 years of historical and God-measured time, and if we add the actual time of evolution to that, it’s much longer. Those who set out on their journey didn’t live long enough to see the Promised Land. Christoph Menke reflects on the concept of revolution in terms of this exodus and the COVENANT that people make to preserve solidarity in times of mutual hardship.
Lenin and his wife Krupskaya. Short station break after a revolutionary day’s work. On the garden bench. Lenin in his revolutionary jacket, but not the vest and tie he wore in Zurich in October 1917. Mao would later adopt the same type of jacket. Note the white, freshly starched, loose-fitting dress worn by his wife, who was also a close friend of Clara Zetkin.
It was reliably reported that Lenin rode the tram to the Bolshevik headquarters on the eve of the October Revolution. The rickety streetcar broke down, however, two stations before reaching its destination. Sitting in his seat, Lenin had covered his face with a scarf, feigning a toothache. Now he had to walk. The transfer of power, which took place during the night, transpired rather unspectacularly. The old government in the Winter Palace had already ceased functioning. The picture marked 1917 (above) was created much later. With a cannon, larger-than-life armoured truck, uprising masses and the downfall of the class enemy. An archaeologist digging through the 100 years of the Russian Revolution would have to be very astute to distinguish between the geological-political layers in this world of images.
The summer of 1967 is commonly called the “Summer of Love�. And that despite the bullet that struck down the student Benno Ohnesorg. The student protest movement was awash in the songs of the Beatles.
“Scenes from the Great French Revolution”. Pewter figures storm the Bastille.
Condorcet plunges into the waves of the Revolution Condorcet, whom Jules Michelet called the “last great philosopher of the 18th century”, successor to d’Alembert as secretary of the Academy of the Sciences, pen friend with Voltaire, this serious man threw himself into the “waves of the Revolution”. Two years earlier, he had married his young wife Sophie. She, a member of the Grouchy family, was 22 years old, 21 years younger than her husband. She had gained renown through her essay Lettres sur la sympathie. When he proposed to her, she told him that “her heart was no longer free”. She was unhappily in love with a man who didn’t return her affection. And so the two Condorcets lived in chaste cohabitation for two years, both demonstrating deep respect for the feelings of the other. But then, on that fateful day in July when the Bastille fell, in a moment of intense emotional rapture, Madame Condorcet conceived her only child. It was born nine months later in April 1790. During this time, Condorcet began leading a third life of sorts. He had first lived the life of a mathematician (with d’Alembert), then a second as a public critic (with Voltaire), and now “he sailed upon the ocean of political life”. This serious man was full of élan. It was he who penned the insightful Letter from a Young Mechanic. He addressed the controversial matter of whether France should be a republic, a constitutional monarchy (and if so, how to install it?) or simply a reformation of royal ministries. In Condorcet’s letter, the young mechanic, in return for a small payment, agrees to manufacture a CONSTITUTIONAL KING who, when occasionally and diligently repaired, would even be “immortal”. With this flourish, Condorcet aroused the suspicion of the Jacobins and the ire of the royalists. He was clearly aware of the precarious nature of his situation. No one could say which force would gain the upper hand in the ongoing civil war. Later he feared repercussions for his wife and young child, the one created on that “sacred July day of Year 1”. He secretly searched for a port city from whence he could flee, and decided on Saint-Valéry.
Societal change takes the subjective side. Comrades seek their happiness in communes. In 1968, this phase produced flower children in California. Now the great-grandchildren of these flower children are building the digital world in Silicon Valley.
“Le Parole in Libertà.” This was the guiding principle of the futurists, propagated later by Dada. As a filmmaker, I also promote the “freedom of pictures”. Pictures are not beasts of burden for media, advertising, meaning or the so-called “story line”. They are autonomous living creatures. Like our eyes. The digital age has deluged us with images. In the same way Gutenberg sparked the flood of pamphlets and prints which incited hate and religious wars. Wherever there’s a lot of desert (a lot of silica in chips), there is a need for oases.
Odysseus in the green swells of the Mediterranean Sea. At the end of his odyssey, the hero finds his way back to the shores of his homeland. This Odysseus is the subject of Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s standard reference work on modernity, The Dialectic of Enlightenment.
11 Editorial Our culture is one that continually oscillates between remembering and commemorating the past, and visualising and updating the present. This is also reflected in the funding applications we receive. This year we have seen a surge of projects and events which address aspects of the Russian Revolution 100 years ago. What do cultural figures in general and artists in particular associate with the concept of revolution today? Alexander Kluge, one of the cultural protagonists of the revolutionary 68er generation in Germany, offers his own very distinctive interpretation in a photo essay. It gives us all the more reason to look forward to the comprehensive exhibition of his work at the Museum Folkwang in Essen (p. 30). The artist, filmmaker and universal scholar Kluge and the later-born philosopher Christoph Menke (p. 14) share the belief that revolutions are not characterised by an upheaval resulting in immediate change, but rather perseverance, enthusiasm and idealism, which they need in order to thrive. We were delighted to learn that both scholars mutually inspired each other after we asked them to contribute pieces to our Magazine. In collaboration they produced a film, the stills of which are featured on the following pages. Both writers arrive at the same conclusion, but from different perspectives; Menke claims that revolutions which are commonly perceived as events of the past are not revolutions at all, and Kluge concludes that to do their name justice, revolutions have to last at least 800 years. Even the re-enactment of the “Storming of the Winter Palace”, a photo which later became iconic for the Russian Revolution, can be interpreted as a symptom reaffirming the inconclusiveness of revolutions. The storming of the Winter Palace is no longer regarded as a mere moment in history, but rather an “idealised” image which captures the enthusiasm of change for a moment. Sylvia Sasse describes how a theatrical performance transformed the experience into an event that never actually happened, yet all the more strongly imprinted itself in our collective memory (p. 16). The fact that a re-enactment could become iconic long before the invention of social media, Photoshop and fake news seems rather astonishing from today’s point of view. Florian Ebner and Christin Müller offer their prediction of the future of photography in an age of virality and digital overexposure (p. 18). We asked the artist Milo Rau and the curator Claudia Banz why they talk of and even anticipate revolutions, and the role the concept of revolution plays in their projects (p. 20). The same questions, very different answers, and neither worried that revolutions would devour (their) children. Interestingly it seems that revolutions might be something we need or
should hope for in order to tackle imminent (environmental) catastrophes. And finally, three renowned stage directors of the international contemporary theatre scene offer their views on the relationship between democracy and tragedy. Do we need more or fewer emotions in theatre, in art, at a time when democratic politics and societies seem unable to escape the riptides of emotion? In their world premiered works at the FIND Festival at the Berlin Schaubühne (p. 39), the Spanish director Angélica Liddell, the Italian Romeo Castellucci and the Belgian AnneCécile Vandalem (p. 26) explain how they address the crisis of (European) democracies through the medium of tragic constellations and formats. Perhaps it is no coincidence that we are witnessing a revival of political poetry. However, German-language poets have produced little to no “revolutionary poetry” since Heiner Müller’s swan song (p. 23), and there is (still) no sign that anything like “democracy” has established itself as a poetic subject in Germany. Such poetry does exist in other regions of the world, however. We have included two examples from the African continent: Philippa Yaa de Villiers’ “The rain children” and Iain EWOK Robinson’s “the revolution will not be televised”. Hortensia Völckers, Alexander Farenholtz Executive Committee of the German Federal Cultural Foundation
12 Content
Revolutions demand an unequi vocal yes or no from us. Even the counter-revolutionary recognises revolution by fighting against it. Those who try taking both sides of a revolution are not doing it justice. This remains true even today, according to Christoph Menke.
p. 14
Theatre played an immensely important role following the October Revolution. No one so deftly applied the tools of theatre as Nikolai Evreinov whose mass re-enactment of the storming of Winter Palace contributed to repairing history. An essay by Sylvia Sasse.
p. 16
When the pictures of our lives go viral and assume a life of their own, when social bots decide elections, when our devices know which pictures we prefer, that’s when we are in the midst of a revolution, claim the curators Florian Ebner and Christin Müller.
p. 18
13 New Projects
In view of climate change, dwindling natural resources and globalised competition, ensuring the equitable distribution of goods and preventing “ecocide” have become more urgent than ever. We spoke with theatre director Milo Rau and exhibition curator Claudia Banz about the possibility of a “revolution” at a time when the contours of traditional revolutionary figures – slaves, peasants and the proletariat – have long faded.
p. 20
What crises are threatening our society today and what can we as individuals do to address them? What role do emotions play in overcoming conflicts? The stage directors Angélica Liddell (Spain), Anne-Cécile Vandalem (Belgium) and Romeo Castellucci (Italy) explain how they address the crises plaguing democratic societies in their latest productions.
p. 26
POEMS Heiner Müller: MÜLLER IM HESSISCHEN HOF Iain EWOK Robinson: the revolution will not be televised Phillippa Yaa de Villiers: The rain children
pp. 23, 24, 29 Committees & Imprint
pp. 42–43
Jana Sterbak Life Size. Lebensgröße Duet with an Artist Participation as an artistic principle Alexander Kluge Pluriversum Karel Martens Solo exhibition Disintegration. Radical Jewish Cultural Days A Berlin “Autumn Salon” Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven What Would I Do in Orbit? FMP: The Living Music Exhibition, concerts, discussion Grand Narratives: 100 Years of Communism Kunstfest Weimar 2017 Suspended Territories Artists from the Middle East and North Africa Megalopolis # 1 - Voices from Kinshasa German-Congolese exhibition The Long Now MaerzMusik - Festival für Zeitfragen From That Point On Temporary re-opening of the Mönchengladbach Municipal Museum Hello, Robot Designing a relationship between humans and machines Babelspeak. International European German-language poetry Reading the Baltic Reading, presentation, conference EIGHT BRIDGES | Music for Cologne Tone. Movement. Sound Give Us Back Our Voice! Updating Asian democracies Cult! Legends, stars and iconic figures Matters of Heritage Literary-artistic meetings Tucholsky's Mirror World premiere Liz Magor Exhibition Shirin Neshat Women in society Oratorio Collective devotional on a well-kept secret Stargaze presents: spitting chamber music Spoken Words Cohn Bucky Levy - The Loss The story of a German family CLIFFDANCERS Or what contemporary dance can learn for young audiences from TV series Democracy and Tragedy Festival of International New Drama 2017 Collective Ma'louba Interdisciplinary collective for Arabic-speaking artists from both shores of the Mediterranean Searching for Clues: 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution Russian Cultural Festival in Freiburg Targeted Interventions Humanoid entities and rocket objects Miracle of the Prairie: Resonse Ability / Non-Native Establishment An experiment for the cultural organisation of the future Open Border Ensemble Expansion of the acting ensemble Disappearing Legacies The world as a forest
pp. 30–41
14
SO
CLOSE
YET SO FAR
AWAY THE PRESENCE OF REVOLUTION Christoph Menke
15 1. When it comes to revolution, there spectators “who themselves are not in- ing existing capabilities in order to satis- onist and the spectator (in whom the revis only one position that does it justice. volved in this game”. This is Kant’s deci- fy the most urgent needs. The involved olution exists), the action is riven in two. It is the position that Kant, citing the ex- sive insight which Judith Mohrmann (in participants in the revolution must serve Observing has the effect of splitting the ample of the French Revolution in The her study Affekt und Revolution) impres- as both soldiers and organisers. Lenin’s action. In the eyes of the spectator, revConflict of the Faculties, called “partisan- sively analyses. Yet revolution doesn’t ex- writings, published immediately after the olutionary action always has two sides: ship”. In matters of revolution, there is ist for those who are merely “involved” in successful October uprising at a time idealistic and pragmatic/strategic, enthuno such thing as neutrality. Regardless of it. Revolution only becomes present when it was necessary to safeguard their siastic and sober/calculating. how far away it is, be it the distance from when partisan participation divides in success, demonstrate this. Does the acKant’s Königsberg to Paris of the Revo- two: in one part consisting of those “in- tive participant even know that he is a 4. In 1930, Dziga Vertov made a film lution, or from 2017 to 1917 – one can volved” and the other comprised of “ob- revolutionary, or what it means to be a in which he portrayed the industrialisaonly say yes or no to it. One can only rec- serving” participants. The subject of rev- revolutionary? Indeed, the revolutionary tion and collectivisation efforts of the ognise events as revolutionary by taking olution is split in half between doesn’t know what a revolution is. The first Soviet five-year plan. Because the sides with them and in them, as “players protagonists and spectators, both of spectator, for his part, does know – Kant film score was largely comprised of on one side against those on the other” whom differ from one another and like- in Königsberg, Benjamin in Berlin, we to- sounds and noises of industrial life in the (Kant). Even the counter-revwise need each other. For day – participating from a distance with coal-producing region of eastern Ukraine, olutionary recognises the revboth bind strength with weak- a revolutionary wish bordering on enthu- the film received the subtitle “Symphony WHEN IT olution; he does so by fighting ness; both possess a strength siasm. of Donbass”. But its main title was EnthuCOMES it. A position that attempts to TO REVOLUTION, which is also a weakness, and siasm. The intent of the film was not only be fair and balanced to both a weakness which is likewise a 3. The participant, who is involved to arouse enthusiasm, but also to portray THERE IS NO SUCH sides in a revolution (for there strength. in the revolution, needs the spectator, as it (or rather, to arouse enthusiasm by porTHING AS are only two sides in every revAccording to Kant, the the latter witnesses and strengthens the traying it). The film depicts the enthusiNEUTRALITY. olution), however, does not do weakness – and also strength enthusiasm which is at risk of slipping asm of revolutionary change. It depicts ONE CAN ONLY it justice. Exercising impartial– of the spectators of the rev- away. Kant calls it “ideality” and defines the elation which is effective and present ity when considering both sides SAY YES OR NO olution lie in their “well-wish- it as the idea of a legal order which the in the change itself. The revolutionary TO IT actually dissolves revolution. In ing participation”. He who revolutionaries intend to establish be- change evokes enthusiasm because it is matters of revolution, a non-partisan po- reads, discusses and debates the Revolu- cause, to them, it “appears to be the right in itself enthusiastic. sition is unfair. tion in France in Königsberg is not doing thing”. The enthusiasm of the spectators Vertov understood revolutionary As there are only two parties in a rev- so through deeds which would have any of the revolution is their “emotional par- change in the same way Lenin had conolution, one can only assume one of two effect in the “game of great transforma- ticipation in the Good”, i.e. the declara- stantly described and promoted it, espepositions with regard to it. The one posi- tions” on the ground. He is doing it only tion of the virtue of the revolution. Does cially after October 1917 – not as the tion is that of Zhou Enlai, the prime min- out of desire; well-wishing participation the revolution, therefore, require enthu- spectacular coup marked by the storming ister of the People’s Republic of China is a participation in wishing. And the siastic spectators to remind the revolu- of the Winter Palace, which Eisenstein who, in response to Richard Nixon’s ques- same applies to those in Frankfurt and tionaries of the good to which they have had restaged on the occasion of its tenth tion regarding his opinion of the French Berlin in 1967, reading, discussing and pledged themselves and which they – in anniversary, but rather as a long-lasting, Revolution, allegedly answered “It is too debating, who participated in the revolu- their day-to-day battles and in the drudg- arduous effort to reorganise the status early to tell”. For Zhou Enlai, revolution tions in St. Petersburg in 1917/18, in ery of the long haul – appear to quo (most crucially, that of IN HIS is the conflict between parties which only Cuba in 1958, in China in 1949 and 1966. have forgotten? Are the specta- WELL-WISHING work). Both Lenin and Vertov exists in the now, the present. This con- Not only did they wish to participate; they tors the true idealists – a role PARTICIPATION, knew that the revolution is flict persists, we are still fighting. This is participated by wishing. the revolutionaries could no THE SPECTATOR not a one-time event. It is an the political position; it confirms the exBut this weakness of observing par- longer play? Does the spectator IS EXCITED BY enduring process (whether it THE istence of revolution by taking sides in it. ticipation is simultaneously its strength. have the privilege of taking an is a permanent process was the REVOLUTION It is always embedded in the revolution. The fact is that participation by wishing idealistic position which cannot point of contention with BECAUSE The other position on revolution was is the only way one can truly participate be held once acted upon? If this Trotsky). In a treatise titled perhaps best formulated by Alexis de in revolution. Wishing a revolution is by were the case, there would be SOMETHING IS The Immediate Tasks of the SoviACHIEVED Tocqueville. Fifty years after the Revolu- no means a deficient position which no revolution. The fact is that et Government, Lenin wrote in WITHIN IT THAT tion, he thought himself “far enough” could be overcome by transitioning to ac- revolution is an idealistic act – EXTENDS ABOVE April 1918 that in order to seaway to “recognise” in retrospect what it tual practice, vigorous intervention or ac- it does good (otherwise it is no cure “the speediest possible AND BEYOND had all been about: “the completion of tive involvement. Revolution could never revolution). economic revival”, it was necHIMSELF the most arduous task, the sudden and be realised if there were no wish for revRevolutionary action must essary to overcome the “bruviolent conclusion of a project which ten olution, the revolution in wishing, a rev- consist of both – the idealism of the ob- tality”, “savagery”, “despair” and “aimless generations had worked to achieve” – the olution of wishes. Making a revolution serving participant, and the realism of the bitterness” of the war and resulting revfounding event of a social order that be- happen is not a matter of fulfilling a wish active, involved participant. The specta- olution, and “bring about a complete came our own. While the Chinese com- and translating it into action, from shift- tors’ enthusiasm for the revolution is not change in the mood of the people and to munist lives in the revolutionary present, ing from the wish to the act. This is a a projection, not merely enthusiasm for bring them on to the proper path of the middle-class liberal always regards fetishism of practice. The partisan par- their own sake, i.e. excitement about be- steady and disciplined labour”. The first revolution in the past tense. The liberal ticipation in revolution, however, must ing excited. Rather, they discover some- task of the revolutionary government was position is: There once was a revolution. consist of participation in the form of thing in the actions of the revolutionar- to “discipline” – disciplining labour and The liberal looks back at the revolution wishing. ies, something of which they are not even the worker. as an event of the past. In so doing, all he Kant also explains why this is the case aware themselves, namely that revoluVertov’s film demonstrates how this is saying is that there is no revolution. – because “well-wishing participation” tionary acts are themselves “borne of en- happens. Or rather, it shows how the disWhile the Chinese communist visual- verges on “enthusiasm”. The well-wishing thusiasm” (Mohrmann). The spectators’ ciplining of labour is accomplished as a ises the revolution (and behaves accord- participation of the spectator, who is in- enthusiasm for the revolution is fuelled revolutionary process. While Lenin’s decingly in a political fashion), the position directly involved in the revolutionary by the enthusiasm of the agents of the laration remains little more than an asof the middle-class liberal consists of his- game, borders on enthusiasm. revolution: the enthusiasm sertion, i.e. the disciplining of labour by toricising it. To him, the revolution is Enthusiasm is the excitement PARTICIPATION without which their actions the Soviet government amounts to the part of history. In other words, he casts generated by something great, would not be revolutions, and liberating “break with the rotten past” BY revolutionary change as an evolutionary overriding – by an idea. In his which they inevitably have to – Vertov shows it and thus makes it real. WISHING IS occurrence which has been going on for well-wishing participation, the forget or even suppress. The promise of the revolution is that THE ONLY WAY ONE CAN a long time (“ten generations”!) and hap- spectator is excited by the revKant’s fundamental in- there is truly a difference between the TRULY pens on its own accord, i.e. nobody olution because something is sight implies that the actions old, capitalistic and the new, revolutionPARTICIPATE caused it. Liberalism even (and particu- achieved within it which exof the revolutionaries do not ary disciplining of labour. Lenin is not IN larly) defines revolution, which initiated tends above and beyond himcomprise a revolution. Rather, able to explain where it lies. Vertov, on REVOLUTION. the change, as a thing of the past, as self. Those directly involved in the revolution occurs in a the other hand, depicts this in the form something which vanished as soon as it the revolution, however, are in place between the protago- of training, learning and practising, was accomplished. From an historical danger of losing enthusiasm. They have nists and the spectators. It is not an event through which disciplining is achieved. point of view, the revolution dissipates, to fight. They have to calculate, unmask that can be dated and localised, but rath- In a key scene of the film, Komsomolets, for it only exists in the present. hidden intentions, anticipate risks, de- er an intermediate space, a relationship. untrained volunteers, receive training in velop strategies, come up with tactics and Only in this form, as a relationship, can the physically gruelling job of coal min2. The presence of revolution, how- implement them. And they have to build. there be revolution. Moreover, in this re- ing. Vertov shows the exercises in which ever, is not a matter of being simply, im- They have to create new orders, experi- lationship, the agent plays a double role. the trainees gain the necessary skills for mediately present. It only exists for the ment with new structures while mobilis- In the relationship between the protag- their future occupation – a ballet of re-
16 petitive movements, which in their endlessness seem to forget their purpose. The purely mechanical aspect of practising senseless discipline ultimately becomes a purpose-free game. There comes a moment when discipline and slapstick are indistinguishable (perhaps that’s why Chaplin liked this film so much). Vertov shows us what Kleist described, namely that mechanisation can be liberating. Revolution is not the act of upheaval, the moment of anarchy, in which the old order loses its head. Nor is it the effective establishment of a new order whose stability and validity can lead us to forget the terrors which established it in the first place. Revolution is rather a change of the aspect of life which is least free – life as disciplined action, as work. Revolution does not alter it by eliminating it. Without disciplining – training, practicing, testing – there can be no skills and therefore no action. Revolution changes the act of practising itself; it makes it an end in itself which delights one because it’s playful. REVOLUTIONS Or lively (for excitement, enWHICH thusiasm is enlivening, ani- HAVE PASSED, mating). WHICH ARE The existence of past revMERELY A olutions depends, therefore, RESULT OF THE PAST, ARE on us, who – and how – we NOT remember them. For revolutions which have passed, REVOLUTIONS. which are merely a result of the past, are not revolutions. In order to have been revolutions, they require spectators in the present whose well-wishing participation verges on enthusiasm. This enthusiasm is not a blind, dumb excess of emotion. It is, or defines, a “mode of thought” (Kant). The wish to participate in revolution corresponds to practising a different way of thinking. It is a change of life in thinking – in thinking, at least in thinking, in attitude. Immanuel Kant, The Conflict of the Faculties, chapter II.6 Judith Mohrmann, Affekt und Revolution. Politisches Handeln nach Arendt und Kant, Frankfurt am Main/New York 2015
The philosopher and German Studies scholar Christoph Menke (*1958) has been a professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt/Main since 2009 where he now heads the research project “Normativity and Subjectivity”. His publications include Recht und Gewalt (Berlin 2011) and Kraft der Kunst (Berlin 2013), and most recently Kritik der Rechte (2015), published by the Suhrkamp Verlag. Menke also published an article on “The Possibility of Revolution”, featured in issue no. 794 (2015) of the journal Merkur.
RETOUCH = ATTACK OR HOW THEATRE REPAIRED HISTORY Sylvia Sasse Sylvia Sasse In the years that followed the October Revolution, theatre played perhaps the most important political role in the art world. As theatre for the masses, its task was to rewrite history. With the “Storming of the Winter Palace”, the theatre practitioner, dramatist and director Nikolai Evreinov succeeded in doing just that in a unique way.
SImagine you stage a revolution and no one takes a picture. This pretty much sums up the dilemma facing the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution of 1917. The importance of photographs documenting the beginning of a new political era, the founding narrative of a nation or a presidency was evident at the beginning of this year by the absurd debate surrounding the photos of Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington. Trump would have
likely been all the happier had no one taken photos – as was the case during the October Revolution. For these only showed that fewer people had attended his inauguration compared with the crowds of previous inaugurations. Trump declared after the fact that the photos were faked because they documented what he didn’t want to see. Interestingly, there is only one photo which exists today that captured the outbreak of the October Revolution. And indeed, it is a faked photo which many had claimed to be an authentic document for an incredibly long time. Since around 1922, it has been duplicated thousands of times. It was reprinted in Soviet history books, in Vietnamese, Czech and Yugoslavian school books, was featured on postage stamps and book covers, and was even depicted on a plate of Meissner porcelain in 1947.
17 The photo does not, however, depict the storming of the Winter Place in Petersburg, but actually its dramatic re-enactment in 1920 on the third anniversary of the October Revolution in Petrograd at the original location. The head of the stage directors’ collective was Nikolai Evreinov, a theatre practitioner, dramatist and director, who had written books like The Theatre for Oneself (1915) and The Theatre as Such (1912) prior to the revolution and whose revolutionary ambitions were limited at best. Together with his co-directors, Evreinov put together a re-enactment within three months, comprised of 10,000 participants and 100,000 onlookers and performed on two stages – one red and one white – designed by Yuri Annenkov. The scene depicts the moments leading to the victorious revolution, the formation of a revolutionary collective from the disorderly masses of workers and the disintegrating ranks of Kerensky’s provisional government. It was pure pageantry, absent of revolutionary aesthetics. The only thing revolutionary about it was that Evreinov recognised the theatrical-political significance of turning spectators into actors. In a speech he gave at the rehearsal, he addressed the masses by saying, “The time of being extras is over.” While the events leading up to the revolution between February and October were theatrically depicted on stage, the decisive scene, the storming of the Winter Palace, was staged as a realistic re-enactment, albeit a false one without an original. For it was Evreinov’s largescale scene that created the legend of the storming of the Winter Palace as an enormous spectacle and provided the corresponding images for it. Unfortunately nobody had taken any pictures of the real storming, and apparently it wasn’t especially spectacular to begin with. Today we know that the defenders of the Winter Palace had put up little resistance: only a dozen officer cadets, several kosaks and a troop of armed women, the so-called “death battalion”, were standing guard on the evening of 7 November. The provisional government in the Winter Palace was represented by a few remaining ministers and had already surrendered power. When a handful of Red Guards and sailors marched through the main entrance on the eve of 8 November, they were met by a smattering of gunfire. And the ministers were awaiting their arrest in a room on the second floor. For the Soviet history books in years to come, the photos of the spectacle served as a document of the historic event itself. In 1922, the photo of the storming appeared in the book Five Years of Soviet Power with the subtitle Attack on the Winter Palace. The photo had already been altered. The spectators standing at the right had been erased. A short time later, another detail in the centre of the photo was removed and sloppily retouched. Based on Evreinov’s notes, we know that this was where the directors’ command centre had stood: “a towering booth (as high as a one-storey building), equipped with a series of telephones and signal horns”. In the Russian archives, the photo is sometimes catalogued under the key word “revolution” and sometimes under “Evreinov”. It is always the same retouched photo, labelled as the original, while the true original is nowhere to be found in any archive from St. Petersburg to Moscow to Minsk. The unretouched photo depicting the spectators and the directors’ command centre was only printed once in 1926 in a book by the American sociologist René Fülöp-Miller, who had observed the events in 1920 in Petrograd. The photo was presented as an historic document in an especially clever way in a 1971 photo book with the self-revealing title History is Written with the Lens (Istorija pišetsja ob''ektivom), edited by the well-known Soviet journalist Leonid Volkov-Lannit. In the book, a photographer allegedly named Ivan Kobozev recalls how he captured the scene in the early morning hours of 8 November. Whether Evreinov was aware that his mass spectacle would be used to burnish the history of the Soviet Union is impossible to verify. But it is not likely. In his memoirs about the mass spectacle, he repeatedly mentioned that it was a historical reconstruction of the storming. He writes that many of those involved in the re-enactment were the same who participated in the actual storming
of the Winter Palace in 1917 or had worked as staff members in Kerensky’s government in the Winter Palace. These few eye-witnesses of the revolution served an important function: by lending credibility to the theatrical scene, they made all of those who witnessed it also witnesses of the historical event. In this way, the theatrical event could serve as a substitute for the historical event. If we consider Evreinov’s theory on theatre, it could well be that such substitution could play a conceptual role as well. In 1920, Evreinov wrote a manifesto of sorts in the journal Žizn’ iskusstva (The Life of Art), which he programmatically titled “Theatre Therapy” (“Teatroterapija”). In his description of theatre therapy, Evreinov claims that play-acting can draw people out of their customary routines and allow them to experience a transformation which has a therapeutic effect. Theatre can thus serve as an ersatz for situations people could not otherwise experience in real life. On this premise, Evreinov developed a therapy based on substitution rather than repetition as advocated by Freud. While Freud favoured what he called the “talking cure” to enable patients to fulfil “one of man’s deepest desires”, namely, the ability “to do something twice”, in other words, a therapeutic imaginary re-enactment, Evreinov’s concept of theatre therapy would provide the patient the chance to transform through surrendering to their instinct to play-act. Evreinovian theatre therapy is not targeted at satisfying a desire to do something twice, as was Freudian therapy, but rather at perhaps an even deeper desire of experiencing something at all, even if one’s action is the result of acting. This, in turn, also means that Evreinov didn’t require a real event to which the “reconstruction” made reference. From his perspective, theatre was capable of creating the experiences connected to such an event. Therefore, Evreinov’s Storming of the Winter Palace had both a collective and individual substitutive function. For the actors, it created the historical event for the collective memory of the future, which, in turn, corrected that of the individual. It was in this sense that Evreinov claimed in his memoires that it was about “translating” that “sublime moment” of history into an “authentic and sublime performance” and which, in contrast to a repeated event, was itself unrepeatable. Evreinov wanted the theatrical performance to surpass the historical event. And in so doing, contemporary witnesses would remember the event as was expected of them by historians. The witnesses of the theatrical performance were thus recast as eye-witnesses of the historical event. Theatre enabled those who were familiar with the historical event through written accounts to experience the historical non-event first-hand. And for those who did experience it, theatre repaired history. 1 Nikolaj Evreinov, “Vzjatie Zimnego Dvorca”, o.D., p. 11. 2 Ibid., p. 11. 3 Sigmund Freud, “On the Psychical Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena” in: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. II (1893-1895): Studies on Hysteria. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1955. 4 Evreinov, “Vzjatie”, p. 1.
Sylvia Sasse studied Slavic and German Studies at the Universities of Konstanz and St. Petersburg. Following research projects and teaching assignments at various institutes, she was appointed Chair of Slavic Literature at the University of Zurich in 2009. She is currently researching the interference of literature and law, concepts of escape and performance art in Eastern Europe.
The Storming of the Winter Palace Forensic investigation of a photo
In 2017 we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. The exhibition at the Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) will mark the occasion by investigating the photograph which came to symbolise the Revolution like no other: the “Storming of the Winter Palace”. The photo, however, was not taken in 1917, but three years later – and doesn’t document the historical event, but is actually a scene from a theatrical re-enactment, for which the stage director Nikolai Evreinov was commissioned in 1920. On the third anniversary of the Revolution, the Soviet regime wished to stage a public re-enactment of the storming of the Winter Palace, even though it had never taken place and therefore could not have been photographed. The project by the HMKV aims to conduct a “forensic investigation of the photo”. It presents approximately 100 photos and two films which still exist of the 1920 re-enactment, illustrating how the staged photo was made out to be a historical document by Soviet historians in photo books, newspaper reports and school books. At the same time, the project reconstructs the photographed scene in an animated 3D model which reveals its artifice. Using Oculus Rift glasses, the visitors will be able to experience the re-enactment in virtual reality and get a sense of where the cameras were located and what the stage directions were. The director and re-enactment specialist Milo Rau, the Russian artist group Chto Delat and the American appropriation artist “Walter Benjamin” have been asked to produce new pieces on the topics of history, memory, re-enactment and repetition. The exhibition will be supplemented by the staged performance of the October Revolution from 1988 by the Polish artist group Orange Alternative, along with works by the artist Christina Lucas and film director Peter Watkins. Curators: Inke Arns, Sylvia Sasse (CH) Artists: Walter Benjamin (US), Chto Delat (RU), Nikolai Evreinov (RU), Waldemar Fydrych (PL), Cristina Lucas (ES), Milo Rau (CH), Peter Watkins (UK) Gessnerallee, Zürich: 1 Sep. – 31 Oct. 2017; Dortmunder U, Level 6, Dortmund: 25 Nov. 2017 – 8 Apr. 2018; Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz: 30 Nov. 2017 – 28 Jan. 2018 www.hmkv.de
18 When the pictures of our lives go viral and assume a life of their own, when social bots tip the scales of elections, when deleting images becomes more important than uploading them, when we can only bear the fault lines of our times as memes, and when our devices know which pictures we prefer, that’s when we know that our lives are in the midst of a revolution.
Sharing, liking, filtering and sampling have become ordinary acts that are automatically linked to photographing. We no longer merely record the impressions of our holidays and family get-togethers. We take pictures of everything, everywhere and at all times. We use pictures to search for partners, houses, pieces of clothing, and with the tap of a finger, we rate news images and political photo-ops. With another click, we send them around the world, and in response we receive a different picture (which is sometimes easier to take or find than formulating a sentence, and which can result in an entirely different level of impact). While an almost unchecked barrage of images has conquered the private sphere, the tools for monitoring political images and public data streams have become ever more sophisticated. These are fragments of a new language whose forms of communication are being developed and negotiated as we speak. Revolutions have always been accompanied by new images and codes. The iconic images of the old order are toppled from their pedestals and the portraits of future rulers are carried through the streets and, more recently, digital channels. And quite often, they spark revolutions themselves. “The Revolution will be Flickr ized”, wrote the Egyptian activist Hossam el-Hamalawy in May 2008 in his blog arabawy, who called on his readers to disseminate pictures of demonstrations and social unrest on digital platforms and social networks. He was referring to the uprising in Mahalla al-Kubra in pre-revolutionary Egypt three years before the outbreak of the “Arab Spring”, which had yet to arouse the attention of Western media. Today the euphoria of freedom which these digital channels inspired is long gone. Now the focus is on the dark side of the Internet and its pictures, the outbreaks of violence it causes, its instrumentalisation as propaganda, its endless commercialisation and excessive storage of user data. We live in a dialectic flux between democratic articulation and surveillance, self-determination and exhibitionism. What has been happening to pictures in the process of creeping digitalisation? In the 1990s, in reaction to the possibilities of digital photo processing, people were already lamenting the “death of photography”, caused by the direct manipulation of the “photo DNA”. Today more photos are being taken than ever before, but the photographic process has fundamentally changed inside the camera itself. Software developers have enhanced the photo quality of smartphone cameras far beyond improving the physical lens. Pressing the shutter release – the classic snapshot – is just the beginning of further algorithmic processes which calculate and render the final image. The photos are synchronised with the image data stored on our smartphones, our clouds and social networks, all of which are directly connected to us. By synchronising the image data, the algorithm generates a new picture. The camera, based on a numerical, algorithm-driven imaging process – “computational photography” – is no longer a recording apparatus. As Hito Steyerl describes it, photography generated in this way serves as a “social projector” which makes visual desire and commercial interests visible. Perhaps “computational photography” represents the radical conclusion in a technological process which had always been inherent in the creation of photos and our use of images. In this sense, it’s worth considering Alfredo Jaar’s postulate of 2013, in which he diagnosed the medium with an old play on words: “You do not take a photograph, you make it”. In a poster, he reminds us to what extent photography – as a reflection of reality – is a construct. If technical recording processes, public photo streams and our
own relationship with photographic media are so construed, does it mean that photography has also become post-factual? Or have photos belonged to the post-factual realm for a long time, in that the “making” of them has always depended on how they are used and the contexts in which they are viewed? Now is an especially good time to survey the field of photography in order to make its fractures and continuities visible. Farewell Photography is the title of the first Biennial of Current Photography in a long line of Mannheim-Ludwigshafen-Heidelberg Fotofestivals. Yet how can one envision a “farewell to photography” as “current photography”? This contradiction serves as a starting point once we understand what forms and ideas of photography we’re bidding farewell to and what precursors and future developments in current image practices we hope to examine. Indeed, the term “photography” alone is the centre of countless definitions and interpretations. For example, it refers to those specific qualities and perspectives which signify more than the medium itself and have revolutionised our perception, news reporting and modern art. It is the trace that bears significance, the gesture on the projection screen, or light on paper, or the testimony of an occurrence, the visual archivability of the world, and not least of all, the way in which individual and collective memory constitutes itself through images. What remains behind? What will follow photography in times of total digital overexposure? We borrowed the title of the biennial – Farewell Photography – from Daido Moriamay’s now legendary book of 1972. His photos broke with the conventions of photography and the narrative strategies of photo books of that time. His photos appear to allude to nothing but themselves, a kind of degré zéro, the final stage of photography – and yet it continued. This reference back in time characterises our methodical approach – with contemporary works and singularly placed historical images, we hope to stimulate present discourse about the medium and inquire into the images that interest us at the moment. It is the dialectic figure of analysis and empathy that ties the different sections together. In this sense, the biennial sees its task as one of taking inventory of today’s photographic stock, unaffected by nostalgia, yet borne by a certain fondness for photography. We must view this period of upheaval as an opportunity to critically review the current state of photography. If we fail in this, the revolution will devour its children.
Florian Ebner has managed the Photographic Collection at the Museum Folkwang in Essen since 2012. Christin Müller works as a freelance curator and author for photography in Leipzig. In addition to serving as the artistic directors of the first biennial of current photography in 2017, they have jointly curated the exhibition and publication series with/against the flow. Contemporary photographic interventions since 2015.
T INSA
APP F PICT Florian
19
THE ATIABLE
PETITE FOR TURES Ebner und Christin Müller
Farewell hotography P Biennale of Contemporary Photography
The upcoming biennale will address the major upheavals and changes in contemporary image culture. At seven exhibition venues in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg and in public space, the curators and artists wish to explore issues of materiality and composition, forms of usage and appearance, and not least of all, the current social potential of photography. The title “Farewell Photography” alludes to the passing analogue era, for we now live in the age of “networked or algorithmic images” in which algorithms and computer programs organise and influence the appearance, location and dissemination of photography. The seven participating institutions will stage presentations that contrast young, contemporary and often digital image productions with historical positions. More than sixty international artists have been invited to show their works, some of which are being specially developed for the biennale. Artistic interventions and performative formats will be presented at public venues in the cities. The project will also create an extensive website on which the debates and project results will be accessible to the public. Artistic directors: Florian Ebner, Christin Müller Curators: Fabian Knierim, Boaz Levin (IL), Kerstin Meincke, Kathrin Schönegg Artists: Rosa Barba (IT), Natalie Bookchin (US), Kilian Breier, Harun Farocki (CZ), Arno Gisinger (AT), Simon Gush (ZA), Alfredo Jaar (CL), Sven Johne (DE), Katia Kameli (FR), Eva und Franco Mattes (US/IT), Arwed Messmer, Peter Miller (US), Naeem Mohaiemen (BD/US), Pétrel I Roumagnac (duo) (FR), Willem de Rooij (NL), Belit Sağ (NL/TR), Andrzej Steinbach (DE/PL), Wolfgang Tillmans and others Participating institutions: Kunsthalle Mannheim, Zephyr – Raum für Fotografie, Port 25 Mannheim, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Sammlung Prinzhorn, Kunstverein Heidelberg: 9 Sep. – 2 Nov. 2017 ↗ www.biennalefotografie.de
20
EVERYONE’S
TALKING ABOUT THE
WEATHER Fragen an Milo Rau und Claudia Banz
“Everyone’s talking about the weather. We aren’t,” was one of the slogans the Deutsche Bahn borrowed from the 68er movement – those who talk about the weather couldn’t possibly be talking politics, or so the assumption went. Revolutionary-minded students, however, preferred to talk about Marx, Engels and Lenin instead of the banalities of the weather. Nowadays there’s no need to choose be-
tween them, because both the weather and climate have become political hot-button issues that demand a radical rethink. In view of climate change, dwindling natural resources and globalised competition, issues related to the equitable distribution of goods and the prevention of “ecocide” have become more pressing than ever. We asked theatre director Milo Rau and exhibition curator Claudia Banz, both
of whom are currently heading projects funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation, about how they imagine a “revolution” at a time when the contours of traditional revolutionary figures – slaves, peasants, the proletariat – have become faded. Who are the new revolutionaries of today?
21 IS AN AVANT-GARDE OF ARTISTS AND SCHOLARS NECESSARY TO SPARK A REVOLUTION BEFORE THE MASSES WILL SUPPORT IT? Milo Rau: That’s an old problem. And I’m afraid it’s unavoidable. The precondition of every revolution in society is that it develops a new awareness of itself. Revolutionaries are the visionaries of this alternative reality, they raise an awareness of what is lacking. They can only do this by leaving the inner confines of society. The extent to which this departure succeeds or fails, whether one can justifiably call it an avant-garde or not, can only be gauged by its impact. Such imaginations seldom attract followers in societies which recognise the here and now as reality in the full sense. But if reality of the here and now is perceived as flawed or empty, then their impact is strong – provided they address the most important political, economic and social problems. Or in other words, the decisive factor is what thoughts, symbols, images, forms of organisation etc. are available for expressing the discontent in mass protests and are recognised by a movement as their own.
Claudia Banz: In the place of the avant-garde, we now have a generation of doers who see themselves as pioneers and protagonists of revolutionary trends. The masses have mutated into what we now call the “crowd”. For its part, the crowd is formed through communication via new media channels, addresses certain issues, gets involved or protests, and then disperses again until it reforms to take issue with a new development. The doers are part of the crowd in which the boundaries of social class or background are just as irrelevant as different levels of education. The concept of the intellectual elite being the primary motor of revolu tionary movements has lost significance as a result.
WHO IS THE REVOLUTIONARY SUBJECT AND HOW SHOULD ONE IMAGINE A GLOBAL CLASS ENEMY? Milo Rau: The revolutionary subject is always the Third Estate. It consists of those who are not represented, who are not allowed to participate, who are underrepresented in the prevailing order or who are one of the countless many. But in order to designate a large number of them as a revolutionary subject, they have to shift from an externally driven, generally self-centred mass to a self-determined, interest-centred unit. Only such an alliance can make the ‘countless many’ a majority which can penetrate the centre of power. The orientation toward such a centre is a second constitutive element of the revolutionary subject. That’s why it always struggles with the paradox that it must defend the same political system which it rejects. For it is this system that is increasingly being undermined and deprived of power by the “global class enemy”, by those influential entrepreneurs, managers, politicians, millionaires and criminals whose goals and interests are so contrary to those of the Third Estate in so many ways. Whereas the revolutionary subject strives for more visibility, inclusion and responsibility, the “global class enemy” does everything to be invisible, detached and unaccountable. Thirdly, a revolutionary subject can only exist as an aesthetic subject because it requires a better image of itself and the world than that provided by reality. And only this image of being something better prevents the revolutionary subject from acting out of envy or prejudice.
Claudia Banz: The revolutionary subject sees the world as a malleable project and seeks constructive strategies to improve or repair it. “Do it yourself”, “do it with others”, commoning and open source are among some of the current practices that work to counteract the self-logic and dynamics of the neoliberal economy and its power and value systems. What’s crucial here is that the revolutionary subject of today does not seek to achieve a utopian future, but rather concrete solutions for the here and now. New forms of political action are derived from the guiding principles of self-organisation, self-empowerment and self-initiative. No longer do we see the solution to the prevailing crisis in the individual, but rather in “the social”. The critique of class-based society and the resulting definition of a global class enemy are simply not on the agenda.
General Assembly Generalversammlung / Assemblée Générale
One hundred years since the October Revolution, the project General Assembly asks: In this age of globalisation, who are today’s “citizens and peasants” of the French Revolution and “proletariat” of the Russian Revolution? The General Assembly invites delegates from around the world who represent those who are impacted by German politics, yet are unable to voice their political opinion. In the tradition of the “Assemblée Générale” of the French Revolution, the General Assembly lends a voice to the global “Third State”. The project by Milo Rau and the International Institute of Political Murder envisions a world parliament representing a universally conceived democratic movement which can counteract the power of global investors, corporations and supranational organisations. In three plenary sessions, the 120 representatives will ask where we, the world community, stand and what we aim to achieve – socially, environmentally, technologically and politically. What does political sovereignty mean in the age of globalism? To what extent do the interests of the global population correspond to the democratic principles of nation states? Whose demands for independence, dignity and happiness are suitable for representing those of humanity? The General Assembly wishes to voice the concerns of refugees, work migrants, textile workers and miners, small farmers, children, and even non-human entities like animals, plants and objects. The gathering of the world parliament will culminate in the adoption of a “21st-century charter”. The project will publish a volume of essays in preparation for the General Assembly. A website will accompany the six-day event, featuring a live-stream broadcast, analyses, and statements by the representatives in German and English. Following the event, the website will serve as a future archive. During the weekend of the General Assembly, all of the statements will be broadcast at various theatres, universities and political institutions in Germany and around the world as a video installation. Concept and direction: Milo Rau (CH) Research and dramaturgy: Eva-Maria Bertschy (CH), Stefan Bläske, Rolf Bossart (CH), Mirjam Knapp Staging and technical design: Anton Lukas Production directors: Mascha Euchner-Martinez, Eva-Karen Tittmann Participants: Armen Avanessian (AT), John Holloway (IE), Wolfgang Kaleck, Robert Misik (AT), Chantal Mouffe (BE), Harald Welzer, Jean Ziegler (CH) Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin: 2–5 Nov. 2017 www.international-institute.de
22 Food Revolution 5.0 The Future of Nutrition
Food is a socially universal phenomenon. It signifies life, promotes identity and influences social codes and values. Cooking was one of the first activities of human culture. Food and its preparation have since moved beyond the realm of nutrition and become centrally important to our modern lifestyle. At the same time, the agricultural sector and industrial food production are among the leading drivers of climate change. What does the future of our nutrition look like in view of dwindling resources and globalised food production? How can we feed the rapidly growing human population and preserve the Earth’s ecosystem at the same time? What does ethical consumption mean? These are just some of the questions addressed in the exhibition “Food Revolution 5.0” at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg which will present visionary solutions by international designers, scholars and architects. Developed in cooperation with the Dutch design studio Makkink & Bey, the exhibition is conceived as a multidisciplinary laboratory which investigates the future of food from a global perspective. Its dramaturgical concept consists of four stations – Farm, Supermarket, Kitchen and Table – representing the food cycle from resource to consumption. Photographers will highlight the practices of industrial agriculture, while designers will work on developing new variants of urban and indoor farming or edible packaging. Martí Guixé will present food as the only real thing in a digitalised world, and Itamar Gilboa will depict a year’s worth of his personal food consumption in porcelain form. Werner Aisslinger will design a kitchen as a biotope in which food is not just cooked, but also grown. Chloé Rutzerveld will produce “healthy snacks” with a 3D printer, and Martin Parr will present close-ups of ordinary, industrially produced meals as they’ve been served around the world for the past twenty years. A fifth room will present a compilation of the research findings and serve as a participative venue for workshops, lectures, performances and film screenings. Artistic director: Claudia Banz Exhibition design: Studio Makkink & Bey (NL) Artists: Werner Aisslinger, Arabeschi di Latte (IT), Dunne & Raby (GB), Faltazi (FR), Itamar Gilboa (IL/NL), Martí Guixé (ES), Paul Gong (US), Honey & Bunny (AU), Martin Parr (GB), Chloé Rutzerveld (NL), Andrea Staudacher (CH), Marjie Vogelzang (NL) Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg: 19 May – 8 Oct. 2017 www.mkg-hamburg.de
CAN THE REVOLUTION OF THE 21ST CENTURY STILL INVOKE AN (IDEAL) IMAGE OF THE NEW MAN LIKE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION DID? Milo Rau: The word ‘revolution’ emphatically refers to people as needy beings who strive for recognition and freedom. Without this old concept of man, it doesn’t make sense to talk about revolutions. In this regard, revolutions which aspire to improve one’s lot in life, which aim to give people back their dignity, their position as subject, are in fact always social revolutions. Predictions of the socio-revolutionary effects of technical innovation regularly vanish into thin air. Because even though technology increasingly influences our daily lives in society, it can only promote social progress to a limited degree because social progress is primarily driven by the equitable distribution of goods, the capacity to love and the existence of checks and balances. Five-year plans weren’t enough to improve the situation in the Soviet Union, and today, neither masses of data nor logistics will do the trick. What we need more than anything is social vision and ideals and the collective power of the imagination in order to jumpstart social programmes in terms of a “New Man”. Revolutions always start with symbolic acts re-establish ing a state of coexistence.
Claudia Banz: There is neither the one great revolution, nor the ideal image of man. In the face of climate change, dwindling resources, the negative effects of the agricultural industry and consumer society, future revolutions will have to embrace a far more holistic world view which not only focuses on humans, but also on nature and animals, and ascribes new value to objects produced by human hands.
HOW MIGHT WE ENVISION A REVOLUTION WHICH AIMS TO PREVENT AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE? Milo Rau: The unchecked desire for capital gain compounded by a society driven by globalised competition will ultimately result in the end of the world as we know it. Saving the earth while squeezing a profit out of it is just as futile as the so-called “energy shift” (Energiewende), which predominantly relies on technical innovations instead of revolutionising human lifestyles and economic behaviour. Of course it makes sense to build electric cars and desalination plants and solar cells, but there’s a limit to everything and wherever you gain something, you lose something somewhere else. If the richer half of humanity doesn’t create economic structures that radically restrain the power of corporations and end the powerlessness of the impoverished, there will be no way to avoid ecocide. Like social injustice, the environment is a simple matter of power, or perhaps violence and mercy. Power has always existed and has conquered as much as it could, a destructive power. Only power that restrains itself and foregoes its full extent can preserve life. Good is the mother who doesn’t demand everything, money that doesn’t buy everything, technology that doesn’t appropriate everything, government that doesn’t exploit everything. We don’t need any wildlife preserves for nature or for humans, we need preserves for capitalism.
Claudia Banz: Such a revolution would comprise a large number of partial revolutions. It would entail withdrawing from the spirals of continuous growth and increasing productivity, it would promote the exploration and sustainable use of alternative resources, it would aim to establish a new value system and new consumer behaviour, it would result in a new appreciation of things, it would make the vision of a postgrowth society and the ideals of a world of commons a reality. Above all, this revolution would end up radically transforming our current food production (which includes industrial agriculture) as well as our eating habits. The questions were posed by Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel and Therese Teutsch
The stage director and author Milo Rau is the artistic director of the theatre and film production company IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder, which he founded in 2007. Claudia Banz is the director of the Art & Design Collection at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg.
23 Heiner Müller MÜLLER IM HESSISCHEN HOF Im Hotelrestaurant die Unschuld der Reichen Der gelassene Blick auf den Hunger der Welt Mein Platz ist zwischen den Stühlen Mein Traum Die faltige Kehle der Witwe vom Nebentisch Aufzuschneiden mit dem Messer des Kellners Der ihr den Lammrücken vorschneidet Ich Werde auch diese Kehle nicht aufschneiden Mein Leben lang werd ich nichts dergleichen tun Ich bin nicht Jesus Der das Schwert bringt Ich Träume von Schwertern Wissend länger als ich Wird die Ausbeutung dauern an der ich teilhabe Länger als ich der Hunger der mich ernährt Der Schrecken der Gewalt ist ihre Blindheit Und die Dichter ich weiß es lügen zu viel Villon konnte das Maul noch aufreißen Gegen Adel und Klerus er hatte kein Bett keinen Stuhl Und kannte die Gefängnisse von innen Brecht schickte Ruth Berlau nach Spanien und schrieb In Dänemark DIE GEWEHRE DER FRAU CARRAR Gorki während er zweispännig durch Moskau fuhr Haßte die Armut WEIL SIE ERNIEDRIGT Warum Nur die Armen Majakowski hatte sich schon Mit dem Revolver zum Schweigen gebracht Die Lügen der Dichter sind aufgebraucht Vom Grauen des Jahrhunderts An den Schaltern der Weltbank Riecht das getrocknete Blut wie kalte Schminke Der schlafende Penner vor ESSO SNACK&SHOP Widerlegt die Lyrik der Revolution Ich fahre im Taxi vorbei Ich kann es mir Leisten Benn hatte gut reden Er hat Mit seinen Gedichten kein Geld verdient und wäre Krepiert ohne Haut- und Geschlechtskrankheiten In der Nacht im Hotel ist meine Bühne Nicht mehr aufgeschlagen Ungereimt Kommen die Texte die Sprache verweigert den Blankvers Vor dem Spiegel zerbrechen die Masken Kein Schauspieler nimmt mir den Text ab Ich bin das Drama MÜLLER SIE SIND KEIN POETISCHER GEGENSTAND SCHREIBEN SIE PROSA Meine Scham braucht mein Gedicht Frankfurt, 3.10.1992
Heiner Müller (*1929 in Eppendorf, Saxony) was one of the most influential German-language playwrights of the second half of the 20th century. He was also well-known for his poetry, prose and essays. Müller shared his views on contemporary events in numerous interviews, and starting in 1989, regularly discussed various topics of interest with Alexander Kluge which were broadcast on German television. Heiner Müller passed away in Berlin on 30 December 1995. The poem reprinted here was taken from Heiner Müller, Werke. Edited by Frank Hörnigk, vol. 1, Die Gedichte © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main, 1998
24 Iain EWOK Robinson THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED the revolution will not be televised the revolution will not be televised the revolution will not be televised coz it’s going straight to DVD the revolution will not be televised BUT you can access a slice of the truth with any device that has Bluetooth or download a sound byte off the website the revolution will not be televised BUT the enemy can be faced on MySpace after the plan is concocted and cooked on Facebook COZ the problem is plain to see an we have the means to fix it yeah the power is available to you an me I can break it down for you on mxit No, the revolution will not be televised BUT you can buy a ticket to preview the people’s right to picket it ain’t going to be televised it’s going straight to cinema screen to be seen and heard in surround sound the revolution is so pivotal that it deserved Dolby Digital the facts are big enough for Imax No, the revolution will not be televised it’s going straight to the big screen to leave you free to flee the screen if the surrounding sound is too profound and you are forced to sign up with the bowel movement the revolution will not be televised unless you are ready to pay per view all you are getting is the preview a mini revolution to entice you a sneak peak in case it’s weak all you are getting is a sub version of the subversion never gonna see revolutionary TV but you can win the war on ye Playstation 3 with the enhanced option for the advanced player: if ye tired of the fight you can save it and battle later not gonna televise the revolution but you can buy the mini series in a 36 part box set each episode will be 10 degrees of the full 360 so you can select a segment of the revolution so you can skip scenes if a scene leaves you displeased or ill at ease you can skip straight to the resolution of the revolution
25 and if you want someone to blame coz you just didn’t get it then watch the ending again and examine the credits the revolution will not be televised it will be published online so you can download future episodes and still run it in Realtime not gonna televise the revolution but program it to provide performances at special parties or on the pavement outside the market of the niche then slip it back on the leash before it acquires the gift of speech the revolution won’t be televised without the appropriate merchandise first being advertised as the prize that you get when you upsize ye burger and fries that pretty picture they played your eyes will not be the revolution being televised it will be a version of the revolution adequately plagiarized to be suitably subsidized and promptly publicized it cannot be televised will not be televised until it has been correctly commercialized or available in a version that can be customized the revolution will not be televised while it is live instead the revolution will be televised when it is dead Iain EWOK Robinson (*1981 in Durban, South Africa) is a spoken-word poet, graffiti artist, musician and activist. In his stage performances, he combines hip hop, poetry and elements of classical theatre. He has co-produced several music albums and published two volumes of poetry, most recently Pimp My Poetry (Echoing Green Press, 2010). The poem reprinted here first appeared in Word: Customized Hype (Echoing Green Press, 2007).
26
DEMO CRACY AND
TRAGEDY
27 This year’s edition of the Festival of International New Drama (FIND) at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin (30 March – 9 April 2017) examined the topic of “Democracy and Tragedy”. Tragedy, an ancient dramatic form, proposed that man could face a dilemma that would force him to act and thereby make himself culpable. The compassion, fear and terror which the performance evoked were intended to liberate the citizens and viewers from their own, suppressed emotions. But what is the situation today? What conflicts are afflicting democratic societies and what can we as individuals do to address them? What role do emotions play in overcoming conflicts, which ones do artists instrumentalise and to what end? In terms of form and aesthetics, the invited directors of the festival – each with their own personal directing style – reflect the diversity of international contemporary theatre. We asked three of them – Angélica Liddell (Spain), Romeo Castellucci (Italy) and Anne-Cécile Vandalem (Belgium) – how they address the crises of democratic societies in the medium of their plays and performances.
ANGÉLICA LIDDELL Democracy in the classical sense represents a promise of happiness for the greatest possible number of individuals. Rousseau’s “Social Contract” which you cite in detail in your work “Dead Dog at Dry Cleaner’s: The Strong”, is considered to be an expression of the common will of the people. Its purpose is to promote “public benefit” and the “common good”. It must be supported by and apply to all citizens. At the same time, democracy systematically fosters exclusion. Is the current crisis of democracy a result of a “rebellion of the excluded”? Liddell: The crisis of democracy is not a direct result of a rebellion of the excluded, but is a consequence of indifference of the majority toward the rebellion of the excluded. For that is exactly the problem of all democracies – the majorities which do not consider the “benefit of all”. And here is the critical point: What is
meant by the “common good” nowadays? In a way, democracy has betrayed the common good in favour of the numerical majority without any moral quality. The danger can come from the majorities, which directly contradicts the democratic ideals, but it’s a contradiction which also has its origin in free action. This means that in order to ensure that majorities do not become a danger or threat, democracies must invest in solid education. Education should be the basis of a healthy democracy. Your piece contains various historical references, for example, Diderot’s philosophy and as we mentioned before, Rousseau’s. Yet the play and its characters are set in a dystopian, science-fiction-like world which could someday come to pass. Why did you decide on a scenario combining the past and the future, and avoid the concrete present, or a realistic, contemporary world? Liddell: This “political fiction” (política ficción) is driven by a “prophetic” intention. We need prophecies, and the futuristic genre is ideally suited for predicting the catastrophes of humanity. Setting political fiction in the future allows you to push situations to the extreme, or predict the extreme consequences of the present. The works you refer to in your piece were all written by protagonists of the Enlightenment – an era in which the pursuit of truth was the primary focus of human reason. What is happening to the political ideas and visions of these writers in our time, the “post-factual” era, as many are now calling it? Liddell: The truth must not be subjugated to the dictates of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment subjugated the spirit to a system of schemata which completely eradicated transcendental life – to the point that we found ourselves shackled to a purely political definition of humankind: isolated from spiritual experience, isolated from the irrational side, which is also part of it, and detached from its passions. The Enlightenment ultimately established a dominion of propriety, which even Foucault and other contemporary poets had no alternative but to resist. In the end, the Enlightenment confused propriety with expression. How important are emotions in theatre in these “post-factual” times? Should these emotions be expressed through “compassion and fear” as was done in Greek tragedy? Or should we liberate ourselves from them (both readings are possible depending on the translation of the famous passage in Aristotle’s Poetics)? Do we need fewer or more emotions? Liddell: I think we have to even go beyond feelings. We have to get in contact with our true nature, with what we don’t know, which defines our inner experience, our tragic being, our mythical, pre-rational being. The only things that are interesting in the realm of explanations are the things we don’t understand: God, love, death – and that connects us to the core of our being. In the face of the
incomprehensible, there’s nothing we can do but skid into crisis – in a moment of anxiety, of personal revelation, of the admission and acknowledgement of violence in us. For us cultured, civilised beings, resistance against barbarism is so great that the most natural consequence seems to be to suppress our mythical “being”, our violent “being”. But without our mythical being, we stop being human. That’s why the characters in “Dead Dog” need violence in the world I portray – a world completely wiped out. They need violence to recognise that they’re human. And we need poetry to recognise ourselves in this violence, in a world that needs no poetic people, but only political and economic people. That is a catastrophe. Michel Foucault, whose ideas are also very present in your play, once said in his lecture titled “Society Must Be Defended” that “sovereignty is always shaped from below, and by those who are afraid”. Fear pervades all the characters of your play, the first act is even titled “Fear”. What is the political dimension of this fear? Have we not paid it enough attention in our so-called Western democracies? Liddell: Foucault’s mark on the play is obvious. Arousing suspicion is reason enough to deserve a bit of punishment, as Foucault says. That eventually leads us to the point when indecent behaviour becomes a punishable offence. Fear determines who the enemy is. The social contract combines the idea of the enemy with the idea of defence. Politically speaking, the ERADICATION of the enemy is the extreme consequence in “Dead Dog”. The spiritual consequence is the ERADICATION of emotions in favour of apparent freedom in which repression continues to shape politics and the private sphere.
ROMEO CASTELLUCCI We are accustomed to depicting democracy as something positive. For some time now, though, we have been seeing an unprecedented polemic against the concept and substance of democracy. One could argue that democracy has begun to cast a shadow. But what kind of shadow is it?
Castellucci: The first form of democracy originated in a country dominated by slavery. Yet we regard Athens as being the first rights-based civilisation. From there we can deduce that the model of democracy is by no means as clear and bright as a cloudless sky. In his prophetic analysis of a young America, de Tocqueville unexpectedly offered his impression of the dark side of democracy, calling it the “tyranny of the majority”. “When my head is trampled not by one boot, but by a thousand, my oppression is no easier to bear.“ Nowadays, such sentences take on a sinister tone. In your play there are two historical points of reference: Attic democracy of the 5th century BC and American democracy of 1835 from the point of view of the European Alexis de Tocqueville. Why did you choose these particular historical models instead of contemporary viewpoints and settings? What do they reveal about the world today? Castellucci: Actually I’d been working on the project “Democracy in America” a few years before the recent election in the United States. I’m aware that this event will influence how people interpret the play. That could be confusing. Against this background, the idea of democracy in this play initially refers back to Greece and then later, to the democracy in America that sprouted “in the North American wilderness”, as Tocqueville described in his book of the same name. Prior to the birth of Greek democracy and politics, there was a celebration at which the gods convened. Prior to the arrival of the Puritans with their settlements, there was also a celebration in America to which the gods came. What interested me was the space in between: the end of the celebration and the beginning of politics, or rather the span of time between the end of the celebration and the beginning of politics. You could say that this piece sheds light on the end of the celebration and the “disaster” of politics. You might say it’s a play about the longing for this celebration, the longing for folklore. In our Western democracy, we have gotten into the habit (or use the commonplace) of invoking the tradition of Attic democracy: a political model which is closely tied to Attic tragedy. Citizens assembling on the Agora and coming together in the amphitheatre are two complementary aspects of social life. In your piece on democracy in America, you point out that the experience of tragedy “as a political awareness and an understanding of being, has been expunged from modern democracy”. In what way do you mean – and what are the consequences? Castellucci: Let’s take this basic understanding as a starting point – the Attic tragedy portrays the dysfunction of being. The power of the polis (the city) which it depicts, is a sick body. The Greeks envisioned the existence of a negative foundation of politics, a laboratory in which the mimetic violence and dysfunction were investigated “in vitro”. In a sense, it
28 produced a homeopathic cure. You could say that the roots of Western democracy – the Attic tragedy – are a political antidote to the city. American democracy, on the other hand, grew like a flower in the desert. It was reinvented from scratch. Compared with the Greek model, the American form lacks a relationship to aesthetics, to the spiritual aspect of the dysfunction of tragedy. The beginnings of American democracy were based on principles taken from the Old Testament, on what de Tocqueville called the “Puritan foundation”. A key element of Greek tragedy is the truth – its civilisational aspect (which possesses more truth – the written or unwritten law?), but also its destructive aspect, as exemplified in Oedipus. What will happen to tragedy in the “post-truth” era? Castellucci: Tragedy was a powerful, “anti-phrasic” instrument which served to kindle the political awareness of the citizenry. This occurred through the joy of listening, of viewing, and of conscious deception. Politics, which were in the midst of emerging, was driven into crisis by its own negative underpinnings, its “injustice”. The theatre duplicated life of the individual and the collective. The flaw was tangible, you could practically touch it. The amazing thing about it was that the flaw was presented with beauty, the flaw was beauty. According to Gorgias, when it came to tragedy, conscious deception represented the highest form of understanding. This deception had nothing in common with the deception and lies of the present. Post-truth is merely a form of lying for purposes of gaining profit. What role do emotions play in these times of “post-truth” – especially in theatre? Should – and can – theatre still evoke emotions, fear and pity? Or (in an alternative reading of the famous line in Aristotle’s Poetics) should it liberate us from these emotions? Do we need more or fewer emotions? Castellucci: Let’s assume that theatre exists outside of the realm of communication. The sentimentality aroused by the portrayal of the “pain of others” is the reverse side of the coin of cynicism. Theatre always and only portrays my pain. I, the viewer, see myself in the dark reflection of the stage. Paradoxically I can say that the pain on stage is never an act, but completely a matter of the viewer’s perception.
ANNE- CÉCILE VANDALEM Your play is set on a Danish island called “Tristesses” (“Sadnesses”) and explores right-wing populism and a crazed media landscape. Why did you choose this name and this fictitious location to address a current issue and offer commentary about the present day? Anne-Cécile Vandalem: Because I needed the distance. I needed the metaphor to talk about reality. When I first began writing “Tristesses”, I was overwhelmed by the fear of what would become of Europe with all of its xenophobic and anti-European discourse by such figures as Nigel Farage, Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen. And there came a point when I felt completely powerless, incapable of doing anything to stop them, that I couldn’t help imagining the naive and brutal possibility that they would disappear by being killed by someone. A friend of mine gave me a text by Gilles Deleuze about sadness. In it, he writes, “sadness diminishes our ability to act, exerted on us by the pressure of a foreign body. Hatred is everything that one does to make the object of this sadness disappear.” On the basis of this concept I wanted to devise a story in which a community is literally rendered incapable of action, a community which practically drowns in its sadness. A morose community that inhabits an island named “Tristesses” in the middle of the ocean. As the name of the island implies, emotions play a central role in your piece, as they do in current political discourse. Now we’re even talking about the “post-factual age” in which feelings shape facts and are at risk of being instrumentalised by politicians. What role do emotions play in theatre, and specifically in “Tristesses”? Should theatre be used to evoke sympathy or shock in the viewers, or rather the opposite, rid them of these emotions? Vandalem: That’s a difficult question … I have my doubts concerning the efficacy of theatre today. Sometimes I think it should enable us to mutually feel emotions so that, as Georges Didi-Hubermann would say, these emotions might develop an impact, perhaps even in a political sense. But on the other hand, I strongly distrust emotions which are used in the media, in current political communication strategies, because they have this power to get people to back an issue. Emotions are necessary, but they’re also dangerous.
It’s important to be able to use them, but sensitively, and it’s especially important to prevent populist voices from monopolising on emotions. We have to relearn how to put our emotions to use, but for purposes of resistance, of protest. At the moment we’re witnessing how populist movements are systematically twisting our values and trying to blur the distinction between victims and perpetrators. Right-wing populists present themselves and their followers as “victims of a dictatorship of political correctness”, as a “people betrayed by corrupt politicians and the dishonest press”, as awash with “foreign infiltrators” and “terrorised by the minorities”. Like the fateful turn of tragedy, this alternative view seems to produce an irreversible dynamic. Is there a connection between freedom and tragic fate? And even if so, you decided to write a comedy. Why? Vandalem: First of all, it’s because I’m really afraid of what’s happening to us right now. I’m afraid of what I see spreading, and for certain, I’m totally afraid of the fate that awaits us. And laughter creates the distance that allows me to address this topic. If I fall down, if I fail or lose something, I have to be able to laugh about it. I’m a woman, but that’s something we’ve had to learn as a (faux) minority – ridicule. But only up to a certain point. “Tristesses” is not only a comedy, but also a tragedy and drama. I think the populist movements are increasingly dividing our societies into opposing factions. And their power rests in their ability to exacerbate this division and further sharpen its contours. Once you recognise and understand this, it’s not very hard to imagine where it will lead us ... and so maybe in this sense, we’re seeing the approach of a tragic fate without being able to really do anything to prevent it. Democracy has long promised happiness, freedom, equality and solidarity to the largest group of people possible. Yet what we’re seeing today is that our Western democracies are systematically fostering a culture of exclusion. Are these outsiders the reason for the crisis of modern-day democracies? And is theatre able to represent them? Vandalem: These outsiders are probably the first victims of social division. They’re both victims and witnesses. I wouldn’t know how to represent them except maybe by trying to understand the mechanisms that produce outsiders. In “Tristesses” there’s the character of the pastor who is an outsider, a scapegoat. Even when he was a boy, the kids humiliated him in the school yard because he was different. He grew up in this dynamic of exclusion. And inevitably, he takes revenge on the community which had constantly ostracised him. He’s the one who ultimately betrays them. Everywhere you look, our society produces scapegoats who eventually turn against it when the time comes. This is probably what we’re experiencing right now. The interviews were conducted by Florian Borchmeyer, Nils Haarmann and Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel.
29
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers THE RAIN CHILDREN They permeate, the poor, their eyes and knees as thin as rain, these children staring, as democracy parades through the streets. Glue substitutes for blankets and teats, the streetmother grey concrete skirt uncaring: they permeate, the poor, their eyes and knees and hands reproach, demand, confront, entreat: tightly walleted, my conscience, and unsparing as democracy parades through the streets. Rain fills my well-fed stomach. All my feats are washed away with soul’s comparing: they permeate, the poor, their eyes and knees as cold as sorrow. Presidents decree but rain soaks paper promises, tearing, as democracy parades through the streets. Like driving drops or drizzle, paring warmth from skin, dissolving, wearing: they permeate, the poor, their eyes and knees, as democracy parades through the streets.
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers (*1966 Halfway House, near Johannesburg, South Africa) is a poet and performance artist. De Villiers works in theatre, but also teaches and writes for film and television. She recently produced an autobiographical one-woman show titled Original Skin, which she took on tour through South Africa. Her most recent book, The Everyday Wife, was published in 2010 by Modjaji Books.
30
Neue Projekte Jana Sterbak Life Size – Lebensgröße
The human body plays a central role in the artworks by the Czech-Canadian artist Jana Sterbak. It is not surprising, therefore, that the body is the focus of the exhibition “Life Size – Lebensgröße”. In Sterbak’s controversial piece “Vanitas. Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic” from 1987, which is also the centrepiece of this exhibition, the artist sewed together scraps of raw meat to form a dress which she then had herself photographed wearing. Stylistically, the work refers to art-historical traditions of Vanitas still-life paintings, while at the same time critically addressing the problems of psychosomatic disorders and desires for a different body. The artist also uses perishable food in her installation “Bread Bed” from 1996 which will be reconstructed for the exhibition. In this piece, she establishes a connection between bread as a staple food and the bed as place of sleep, love, birth and death. The piece “Mask” from 2015 doubles as both a decorative body veil and – at the centre of recent public debate – a
Artistic director: Michael Krajewski Artist: Jana Sterbak (CA) Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg: 11 Mar. – 11 Jun. 2017 www.lehmbruckmuseum.de
Duet with an Artist Participation as an artistic principle
How does one shape collective action and social participation? What forms of social life are not dictated by economic criteria? These and similar questions about “participation” form the basis of an exhibition on participative art at the Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen. The exhibition presents artworks which require the visitors to engage in interaction, cooperation and occasionally collaboration – from choreographic instructions to interplay with other visitors. In the piece “The title is your name” by Christian Falsnaes, the viewer creates the work himself by following the artist’s instructions, or alternatively, by choosing not to. The works by the Korean artist Haegue Yang produce sounds when visitors set them in motion. In Jürgen Staack’s piece, the visitor becomes the artwork himself from the point of view of the others. And the artists’ group Opavivarà uses objects to create spaces and moments of togetherness. The exhibition is working closely with associations and local institutions (film club, music school, theatre for young people) in order to attract a younger audience. With this exhibition, the museum hopes to establish itself as a central venue of participation for the urban community. Artistic director: Stefanie Kreuzer Artists: Davide Balula (FR), Pierre Huyghe (FR), Yoko Ono (JP), Opavivarà (BR), Haegue Yang (KR), Jeppe Hein (DK), Roman Ondak (SK), Erwin Wurm (AT), Gabriel Sierra (CO), Christian Falsnaes (DK), Christian Jankowski, Mischa Kuball and others Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen: 21 May – 3 Sep. 2017 www.museum-morsbroich.de
Alexander Kluge – Pluriversum
Jana Sterbak – Vanitas. Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, 1987
Alexander Kluge is a filmmaker, literary scholar, philosopher and artist. In his texts, cinematic works, TV movies, video collages and numerous hybrid formats, he addresses the major issues of our times and constantly reveals astonishing associative and poetic relationships between various themes and eras. On the occasion of his 85th birthday, the Museum Folkwang is developing a
MNAM – Centre Pompidou, Paris
In autumn 2016, the interdisciplinary jury of the Federal Cultural Foundation recommended funding for 37 new projects with a total volume of 5.7 million euros. You can find detailed information about the individual projects on our website www.kulturstiftung-bund.de or on the websites of the respective projects. The submission deadline for the next round of applications to General Project Funding is 31 July 2017. The members of the jury (30th jury session) are: Joachim Gerstmeier, director of the performing arts department at the Siemens Foundation / Dr. Angelika Nollert, director of the Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich, Pinakothek der Moderne / Dr. Andreas Rötzer, publisher and managing director of Matthes & Seitz Berlin publishing house / Dr. Eva Schmidt, director of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen / Albert Schmitt, managing director of the German Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Bremen / Gisela Staupe, deputy director of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden / Karsten Wiegand, general theatre director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt
chador-like uniform. The exhibition offers an overview of the artist’s sculptural, performative, photographic and cinematic work. Sterbak’s pieces explore the increasingly blurred boundaries dividing intimacy and publicity in our society. The project hopes to encourage discussion on the subject in the context of a feminist avant-garde which has devised new ways to highlight female stereotypes and projections. In cooperation with the artist, the curators will develop an exhibition consisting of some 40 artworks. The exhibitions at the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg and the Taxispalais in Innsbruck represent the first retrospective of Sterbak’s diverse range of works in the German-speaking region since 2002. An extensive bilingual catalogue will document the exhibition.
31 the topicality of Martens’ work today. The exhibition is being developed in cooperation with students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. It will be accompanied by a series of discussion events staged in Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Vilnius and New York. The Kunstverein Munich will also produce an accompanying publication about Karel Martens in collaboration with the artist himself. Artistic director: Christopher Fitzpatrick Curator: Matthew Post Artist: Karel Martens (NL) Kunstverein Munich: 4 Feb. – 2 Apr. 2017
Courtesy the artist and P!
www.kunstverein-muenchen.de
Disintegration. Radical Jewish Cultural Days
Courtesy the artist and P!
Karel Martens — Untitled, 2016, Letterpress monoprint on found card
A Berlin “Autumn Salon”
In times of flight and migration, “integration” is frequently invoked like a magic word. Due to an insurgence of nationalistic tendencies, there is growing uneasiness as to what lies behind the wish of the majority society for cultural assimilation. On the other hand, there are many who recognise that coexistence in diversity is a central challenge of the present day. The “Radical Jewish Cultural Days” – an event which takes place at the “Autumn Salon” (Herbstsalon) at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin every two years – is based on the motto of “Disintegration”. The festival provides an example of disintegration which, though not fully applicable to all minorities because of the specific historical foil of European Judaism, can serve as the starting point for a critical debate about the concept of integration. The participants of the “Autumn Salon” aim to continue developing the idea of disintegration as a social concept in collaboration with European artists and multipliers. The objective is to challenge the expectations and demands of the respective majority society, regain control of one’s history and build new networks. Such are the goals of the Radical Jewish Cultural Days at the Gorki Theater, a twoKarel Martens — Untitled, 2016, Letterpress mono print on catalogue card from the Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech week festival featuring plays, readings, lecRepublic ture performances, concerts, films and artistic actions. The “Young Council”, a comprehensive exhibition focusing on his Universe and Evolution”. In addition to a Karel Martens think-tank founded by Esra Kücük and masterful cinematic collages. It will intro- number of smaller works, Alexander Kluge comprised of 24 young adults from Berlin, duce visitors to Kluge’s distinctive methods, is developing a monumental five-channel Solo exhibition will draft and present the Berlin Internathemes and ways of thinking, and present projection which draws on the tradition of tional Post-Migrant Manifesto at the conhis artistic “Pluriversum”. expanded cinema. Both the exhibition and The Kunstverein Munich is planning clusion of the Autumn Salon. The exhibition examines Kluge’s refer- the accompanying event programme are be- the largest retrospective exhibition of ences to filmmakers and philosophers such ing developed in close collaboration with the works by the Dutch artist, graphic design- Artistic director: Shermin Langhoff as Sergei Eisenstein, Fritz Lang and Walter artist and his team. er and professor Karl Martens. Martens Curators: Max Czollek, Sasha Marianna Benjamin, all of whom significantly influmade a name for himself as a pioneer of Salzmann, Aljoscha Begrich, Cağla Ilk enced his own work. On the basis of numer- Artist: Alexander Kluge the overprinting technique and gained (TR), Erden Kosova (TR) ous examples, the exhibition presents the recognition for his systematic techniques Artists: Banu Cennetoğlu (TR), Sapir principle of collaboration which plays such Museum Folkwang, Essen: 15 Sep. 2017 in colour, format and typography. Togeth- Heller (IL), Tobias Herzberg, Sven a central role in his works. It illustrates his – 7 Jan. 2018; 21er Haus, Vienna: er with Wigger Bierma, he founded the in- Johne, Daniel Kahn (US), Adi Keissar method of “thinking together” with aca- February – April 2018 ternationally renowned University of (IL), Grada Kilomba (PT), Delaine & demics and artists, and his elaborate inter- www.museum-folkwang.de Graphic Art, Design and Typography in Damian Le Bas (GB), Johannes Paul view technique as demonstrated in his colthe Dutch city of Arnheim in 1998, for Raether, Wermke/Leinkauf, Sivan Ben laboration with the social philosopher Oskar which he developed a unique interdisci- Yishai (IL) Negt, or his interaction with fine artists like plinary teaching method. Thomas Demand and Gerhard Richter or This exhibition presents a selection of Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin: Christoph Schlingensief. The thematic forepresentative works from Martens’ ex- 11 – 27 Nov. 2017 cuses of the exhibition range from “History tensive oeuvre. It explicitly focuses on his www.gorki.de and Philosophy” to “Love and War” to “the most recent pieces in order to illustrate
32 Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven What Would I Do in Orbit?
Photo: Dagmar Gebers, Copyright: Dagmar Gebers/FMP-Publishing
The Kunstverein Hannover is developing a solo exhibition devoted to the Belgian artist Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (*1951). During her studies in Graphic Design, van Kerckhoven explored a diverse range of philosophical and scientific theories. Today she is a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Her early interest in artificial intelligence and the constant shift between analogue and digital media in her works has made her an internationally recognised expert in the field. Van Kerkhoven’s work is biographically rooted in the counter-culture of punk, feminism and the anti-academicism typical of her generation. Her works are characterised by an interweave of motifs and abstraction, of references to underground art and high culture. The complex themes in her works correspond to her preferred techniques of collage and sampling – with sketches, texts, illustrations, and even cinematic and musical pieces. She discovered the computer as a drawing tool at an early stage which has made her working method especially influential among today’s younger generation of artists. The exhibition will be accompanied by discussions, lectures, workshops and a film programme. It will mainly comprise van Kerckhoven’s experimental pieces, presented in the exhibition rooms in displays, designed especially for this purpose by the artist. The project also plans to produce an international publication on the artist’s early site- and media-specific projects. Artist: Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (BE) Kunstverein Hannover: 18 Mar. – 14 May 2017 www.kunstverein-hannover.de
FMP: The Living Music Exhibition, concerts, discussions
Founded by a group of musicians in 1969, FMP (Free Music Production) was a Berlin-based platform for the production, presentation and documentation of free music until 2010. The group considered itself an alternative to the Berlin Jazz Days (now Berlin Jazz Festival) and strived to improve the working conditions for young jazz improvisers, most of whom had been excluded from the international festivals. The leading members of FMP, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Peter Brötzmann, were influenced by Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Nam Jun Paik, in other words, by New Music and contemporary fine arts. FMP expanded its activities to include African music at an early stage, and established cooperative ventures with dancers such as Pina Bausch, Min Tanaka and Kazuo Ohno. This exhibition presents printed documents, interviews, films and videos highlighting various FMP formats and features the entire
FMP: The Living Music — Sven Åke Johansson, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Berlin 1976
production of audio material consisting of almost 500 recordings. The exhibition will be accompanied by lectures, public rehearsals and concerts featuring several generations of international musicians. The cooperative partnership with the Goethe-Institut and the Academy of the Arts in Berlin, which served as the venue for the FMP Free Music Workshop for many years, will provide the basis for a comprehensive overview of current international positions and ensure that the exhibition can go on tour to numerous locations outside of Germany in 2018. Artistic director: Ulrich Wilmes Curator: Markus Müller Participants: Peter Brötzmann, Rüdiger Carl, Jost Gebers, Nele Hertling, Sven Åke Johansson (SE), Joëlle Léandre (FR), George E. Lewis (US), Jason
Moran (US), Alexander von Schlippenbach, Splitter Orchester and others Exhibition and concerts: Haus der Kunst, Munich: 9 Mar. – 20 Aug. 2017; public rehearsals, concerts, workshops and discussions: Haus der Kunst, Munich: 31 Mar. – 2 Apr. 2017; 5 – 7 May 2017; 19 – 21 May 2017; 9 – 11 Jun. 2017 www.hausderkunst.de
Grand Narratives – 100 Years of Communism Kunstfest Weimar 2017
Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the political theory of communism was put into practice for the first time. Its expansion as a societal model far be-
yond the borders of Russia and the resulting friction between competing political systems shaped the history of the 20th century. The world polarised into two halves – capitalist and communist – each touting its ability to provide true freedom to the people. With the collapse of Soviet communism in 1990, many were quick to declare the “end of history”, confirmation that democracy founded on the principle of market economy offered the best of all possible worlds. Today, however, it appears that cracks have formed in this world order as well, and the combination of “freedom” and market economy is itself a great story. In spite of everything, communist practice – in the working world, art, media, the school system – has influenced several generations throughout the world and continues to do so today.
33 Artistic director: Roland Nachtigäller Artists: Arwa Abouon (LY), Mounira Al-Solh ( LB), Morehshin Allahyari (IR), Sama Alshaibi (IQ ), Moufida Fedhila (TN), Saba Innab (JO), Ala Jounis (JO), Lamia Joreige (LB), Amina Menia (DZ) Marta Herford: 24 Jun. – 24 Sep. 2017 www.marta-herford.de
Megalopolis # 1 – Voices from Kinshasa
Design: Peter Brötzmann
German-Congolese exhibition
FMP: The Living Music — Poster: Total Music Meeting 1972
In the project “100 Years of Communism”, the Kunstfest Weimar not only commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, but also examines the legacy and relevance of this social system today. Together with partner organisations in Weimar and international guests from former and self-described communist countries, the project investigates everyday life, the disappearance and legacies of communism, and the meaning and necessity of grand narratives. Film screenings, dance and theatre performances, an opera world premiere and a discussion programme will ask: What is left of the idea and practice of communism? Might it be worth taking a closer look at this ideology that so many have dismissed as outdated? And what narratives can explain the world to us today? Artistic director: Christian Holtzhauer Composer: WANG Lin (CN) Stage direction: Andrea Moses Curator: Konstantin Bayer Dramaturgy: Anja Goette Musical director: Kirill Karabits (UA) Artists: Dai Hua (CN), WEN Hui (CN), Sanja Mitrović (RS/NL) and others Deutsches Nationaltheater and other venues, Weimar: 18 Aug. – 3 Sep. 2017 www.kunstfest-weimar.de
Suspended Territories Artists from the Middle East and North Africa
Few people in Germany are familiar with contemporary art from the Arab region and even fewer with works by female Arab and Persian artists. That is why the Museum Marta Herford is developing an exhibition featuring nine renowned women artists from the Middle East and North Africa whose works provide insights into this aesthetic cosmos, its formats and narrative styles. The selected artworks reflect on and present the current socio-cultural zones of conflict between the Arab and Western world, but also document very personal experiences in one’s country or in exile. For example, the videos, photos and installations by Moufida Fedhila (Tunisia), Lamia Joreige (Lebanon) and Ala Jounis (Jordan), explore the themes of homeland and the loss thereof, the experience of being a foreigner, and hybrid identities. Their works address the political situation in the Middle East and revolve around the depictability of borders, territory and stages of transition. They question the validity of body images and cultural attributions, and confront established artistic systems of production and distribution with new images and interpretations. An extensive accompanying programme with multilingual formats of encounter, lectures and workshops will enable visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the work and background of these female Arab artists.
Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a megacity with more than twelve million inhabitants. The metropolis is a global economic and cultural hub, and is home to over 450 ethnic groups. The city is slowly recovering from the ravages of civil war; however, its public sector has been in shambles for years. In light of this situation, the city’s residents have developed creative solutions to address the social and economic problems in their neighbourhoods. If one wants to survive in Kinshasa, one has to decipher and understand social and communicative codes, messages and symbols. Daily life is largely defined by the principle of “mayele”, which is the Kinoi word for “local knowledge” and is based on sharing and trading. In the exhibition at the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig, a Congolese artists’ collective explores these informal and imaginative ideas and codes. Works by fine artists, fashion designers, filmmakers and other figures from Kinshasa reflect the complex reality of the metropolis and enable visitors to experience its dynamics. The exhibition also casts a view on the very different cities of Kinshasa and Leipzig. What do their inhabitants have in common, what distinguishes them from one another? How do people in Kinshasa imagine Leipzig and Europe? What preconceptions do residents of Leipzig have of the Congolese megacity? This is the first time in the history of European ethnographic museums that an exhibition is being entirely developed by a non-European curator and co-curator. It offers artists from Kinshasa an artistic platform to convey non-European perspectives and discourse. A modified version of the exhibition will be presented at the ArtLab & Musée d’Art Contemporain et Multimédia in Kinshasa with which the GRASSI Museum is cooperating. The project will be accompanied by a website and various apps. Artistic director: Nanette Snoep Curators: Freddy Tsimba (CD), Eddy Ekete (CD) Artists: Wyllis Kezy (CD), Iviart Izamba (CD), Cherry Muhima (CD), Jean Kamba (CD), Toto Kisaku (CD), Loison Mbeya (CD), Géraldine Tobe (CD), Djo Bolankoko Belondjo (CD), Bebson de la Rue (CD), Jupiter Bokondji (CD) GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde, Leipzig: 1 Dec. 2018 – 28 Feb. 2019; ArtLab & Musée d’Art Contemporain, Kinshasa: 1 Jun. – 31 Jul. 2019 www.skd.museum
The Long Now MaerzMusik – Festival für Zeitfragen
The music project “The Long Now” represents the big finale of the international Festival für Zeitfragen “MaerzMusik” at the Berlin Festspiele – an interdisciplinary platform which probes our relationship to the phenomenon of time from an artistic, scientific, philosophical and political perspective. Featuring 30 hours of continuously performed live music, “The Long Now” creates an extraordinary, boundless space of perception which focuses on listening as an introspective, mental and physical experience. It invites audiences to mutually experience music and experiment with various perceptions of time. The project purposely exceeds the scope of conventional event formats. It strives to create a space of experience in which the artistic measure of time in music, performance and film resonates with that of each and every visitor. Featuring concerts, performances, electronic live acts, sound installations and DJ sets, the project merges various artistic-musical worlds into one composition – from the musical avant-garde to experimental sound art to current trends in club music. Performed at the Berlin Kraftwerk Mitte, whose monumental dimensions represent the spatial equivalent of this chronosphere, the artistic experience of “The Long Now” incorporates states of waking and sleeping. Concentrated listening and contemplation are as much a part of the performance as free movement and personal encounter. By highlighting problematic issues of modern life such as temporal fragmentation and social acceleration, the project creates a time-space which resists the clock-based measurement of time, offering instead an alternative temporality. Artistic director: Berno Odo Polzer Composers: Alvin Lucier (US), Catherine Christer Hennix (SE), William Basinski (US), Morton Feldman (US) and others Musicians: graindelovoix (BE), Alvin Lucier (US), Catherine Christer Hennix (SE), Juliet Fraser (GB), Thomas Ankersmit (NL), Kobe Van Cauwenberghe (BE) and others Kraftwerk Berlin & other venue, Berlin: 25 – 26 Mar. 2017 www.berlinerfestspiele.de
© Philipp Schmitt, Jonas Voigt, Stephen Bogner, HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd
34
Hello, Robot — Stephan Bogner, Philipp Schmitt, Jonas Voigt: Raising Robotic Natives, 2015, installation with industrial robot
From That Point On Temporary Re-Opening of the Mönchengladbach Municipal Museum
In September 1967, the new director of the Städtisches Museum in Mönchen gladbach, Johannes Cladders, kicked off his trendsetting programme with a major exhibition on Joseph Beuys. Beuys’ artworks had a puzzling and even disturbing effect on exhibition-goers at the time – in any case, they were not recognised as art. Random objects and items were strewn haphazardly on the floor, leaning against the walls or stacked in piles in display cases. And suddenly, the old rooms of the museum became the scene of a new, completely altered understanding of what art could be. Cladders continued presenting exhibitions of artists who later gained widespread acclaim, e.g. Carl Andre, Hans Hollein, Blinky Palermo and Gerhard Richter, many of whom are now considered among the most influential contemporary artists in recent history. In 1968, Cladders coined the term “anti-museum”, on the basis of which a structural concept would evolve and take form in the newly constructed Städt isches Museum Abteiberg in 1982, designed by Hans Hollein. Fifty years later, the Museum Abteiberg is developing an exhibition dedicated to the history of the museum between 1967 and 1978 at the original location. The original exhibits will be presented at the historic venue –
in the rooms of the old museum – along with documentation and reconstructions of their presentation conditions. The project wants to introduce today’s audiences to the radically critical museum concepts of that time, illustrate the phenomenological and structuralistic shift in the fine arts and portray the resulting vision of a new type of museum. The question of whether the curators can reconstruct the exhibition scenes and atmosphere of that period largely depends on the availability of the works exhibited at the time. The project possesses a strongly experimental character which speaks to the interest of the international community of museum professionals, but also confronts the general public with key questions on the self-image of art museums today. Curators: Susanne Titz, Susanne Rennert, Olivier Foulon (BE), Antony Hudek (CH/BE) Artists: Joseph Beuys, Carl Andre (US), Hanne Darboven, George Brecht (US), Robert Filliou (FR), Stanley Brouwn (Surinam/NL), Daniel Buren (F), Marcel Broodthaers (BE), Gerhard Richter, Kate Davis (NZ), Olivier Foulon (BE) and others Altes Museum, Mönchengladbach: 13 Sep. – 10 Dec. 2017 www.museum-abteiberg.de
Hello, Robot Designing a relationship between humans and machines
Be it drones, health-care robots, self-driving cars, smart cities or the Internet of Things – the ubiquity of robotics and artificial intelligence in today’s world was hardly imaginable just a few decades ago. The exhibition “Hello, Robot” investigates how robotics has infiltrated our everyday lives, and how we deal with the increasingly intelligent, autonomous and self-learning world of objects and infrastructure. At the centre of the exhibition is the issue of design and in what crucial way it influences interaction between humans and machines. The displayed items comprise everyday objects, works of art, films, and examples of web design and interactive design. The exhibition begins with modernity’s enthusiasm for artificial humanoids. This is followed by an overview about robotics in industry and the working world, as well as the dangers apparently inherent to it. Another part of the exhibition addresses the everyday “Friends and Helpers”, and robots with which we interact very closely – in the household, in health care and cybersex. Another theme is the complete convergence or fusion of human and machine, for example, when intelligent sensors are implanted in our bodies or when we live in self-learning buildings. Like the exhibition, the accompanying event programme also highlights cul-
tural, social and ethical considerations which have arisen from these developments. The exhibition is a cooperative project by three design museums and will be shown in Weil am Rhein, Vienna, Ghent and other cities. Artistic director: Amelie Klein Curators: Thomas Geisler (AT), Marlies Wirth (AT), Fredo de Smet (BE) Participants: Gesche Joost, Paul Feigelfeld, Automato.farm, Philip Beesley (GB), Wafaa Bilal (IQ ), Sander Burger (CI), Dan Chen, Dunne & Raby, Flower Robotics, Foster+Partners / Afrotech EPFL (GB), Sabine Himmelsbach (CH), Carlo Ratti (IT), Bruce Sterling (US) and others Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein: 11 Feb. – 14 May 2017; MAK – Österrei chisches Museum für angewandte Kunst/Gegenwartskunst, Vienna: 21 Jun. – 1 Oct. 2017; Design Museum Ghent: 27 Oct. 2017 – 15 Apr. 2018; Gewerbemuseum, Winterthur: 12 May – 4 Nov. 2018; MIT Museum, Cambridge: January – April 2019 www.design-museum.de
35 Babelspeak. International European German-language poetry
Poetry is enjoying renewed attention in the German-speaking world. This is due in part to the project “Babelspeak. Young German-Speaking Poetry”, initiated by the Federal Cultural Foundation in 2013. The aim of the project was to specifically strengthen the young poetry scene through network-building. Its success in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein has encouraged poets to expand their networks internationally. At a time of resurgent nationalist tendencies, young poets (seldom older than 30) are finding it all the more urgent to create a common cultural and artistic space of European reference in which focus is also placed on the translation of poetry and its contextual requirements. In addition to workshops in Ukraine and Slovenia conducted with local partner institutions, the project plans to hold international conferences in Salzburg (2016), Berlin (2017) and Liechtenstein (2018). During the course of the three-year project, numerous readings will be staged in the six participating countries, at which writers from German-speaking countries will read their works alongside international guests in a public demonstration of exchange and collaboration.
complex Europe. Does a mutual regional identity exist beyond historical and current conflict and national boundaries? How are literature, identity and nationalism related? The project will produce a conference transcript, titled “Die Ostsee” (The Baltic Sea), consisting of an anthology of representative texts from all nine countries around the Baltic Sea and in thirteen languages which will serve as the basis of discussion and an attempt at self-reflection. Other texts, translations and lectures will be added to a virtual library called “balticsealibrary” which will preserve the literary heritage of the Baltic region and provide open access to the texts in various languages. Joint projects and local meetings will serve to strengthen and expand the network of international partners with interests and activities related to the Baltic region. In 2018, public literary events will take place in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Germany. In addition to public readings, the project organisers are planning performances and events at schools.
EIGHT BRIDGES | Music for Cologne: Tone. Movement. Sound. Portrait of the composer Unsuk Chin
Contemporary music lies at the heart of the festival EIGHT BRIDGES | Music for Cologne, established in 2011. Although the focus of the programme changes every year, audiences can always look forward to discovering New Music and its protagonists. Based on the motto “Tone. Movement. Sound”, the 2017 edition explores the relationship between music and language. The programme features the South Korean artist Unsuk Chin, one of the most influential woman composers of our time. A resident of Berlin since 1988, Unsuk Chin studied under György Ligeti and has won numerous prizes. She has worked together with famous conductors like Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel and Neeme Järvi, and
Project director: Literarisches Colloquium Berlin e.V. Curators: Max Czollek, Michelle Steinbeck (CH), Simone Lappert (CH), Robert Prosser (AT) Writers: Daniela Chana (AT), Sirka Elspaß, Moritz Gause, Raphaela Grolimund (CH), Pablo Haller (CH), Ianina Ilitcheva (UZ), Jopa Jotakin (AT), Judith Keller, Niklas Lemniskate, Enis Maci and others
© ArenaPAL/Eric Richmond
Literarisches Colloquium Berlin: December 2016 – December 2018; Thuringia, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Basel, Salzburg, Vaduz, Ljubljana, Vienna and other cities www.lcb.de
Reading the Baltic Reading, presentation, conference
Two world wars and 45 years of Cold War have severed many ties which had united the Baltic region for centuries; today the region only plays a marginal role in public perception. Despite – or perhaps because of – current tensions, the Baltic Sea and its neighbouring states form a cultural space which deserves consideration with regard to their mutual ties. On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the Hanseatic city of Rostock, this project wishes to reintroduce the public to the Baltic region. In readings, an international conference, an anthology and a multilingual online library, the project will produce, present and discuss an intercultural Baltic literary canon comprised of 2,000 years of texts. The project “Reading the Baltic” will bring writers, translators, literature teachers and audience members together to discuss the significance of the region and its cohesion in an increasingly
EIGHT BRIDGES — Unsuk Chin
Artistic director: Klaus-Jürgen Liedtke Artists: Annette Lindegaard (DK), Polina Lisovskaja (RU), Hans Peter Neureuter, Michael North, Tor Eystein Øverås (NO), Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Bernd Roling, Göran Rosenberg (SE), Ingrid Velbaum Staub (EE), Clas Zilliacus (FI) Conference at the Rostock city hall: 13 – 16 Sep. 2018; reading festival and local conference: Swedish Writers’ Association, Stockholm: 1 Sep. – 30 Nov. 2018; Literaturhaus Rostock: 13 – 15 Sep. 2018, LiteraturHaus Copenhagen: 1 Oct. – 25 Nov. 2018; Estonian Writers’ Association, Tallinn: 1 Oct. – 30 Nov. 2018 www.literaturhaus-rostock.de
her music has been performed by the world‘s top international ensembles and orchestras. Unsuk Chin’s compositions are distinguished by virtuosity and eagerness to experiment. Her musical language is characterised by great intellectuality, fascinating brilliance and sensuality. The festival will showcase works which reflect Unsuk Chin’s extensive oeuvre and the diversity of her compositional approaches and themes. Several participating ensembles will be performing two “portrait concerts” featuring “Allegro ma non troppo” for solo percussion and tape (1994/98), the concerto for piano and orchestra (1996–97) and the double concerto for piano, percussion and ensemble (2002). The composition “snagS&Snarls II”, which contains references to Unsuk Chin’s new opera, will be performed for the first time in Cologne.
The portrait concerts will be presented by a number of well-known ensembles including the Ensemble Musikfabrik, the Neues Ensemble, the SWR Experimentalstudio and the Ensemble intercontemporain. Artistic director: Louwrens Langevoort Musicians: Ensemble intercontemporain (FR), SWR Symphony Orchestra, Das Neue Ensemble, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra – Bavarian State Philharmonic Orchestra, Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz and others Cologne: 30 Apr. – 7 May 2017 www.achtbruecken.de
Give Us Back Our Voice! Updating Asian Democracies
The programme “Give Us Back Our Voice!”, hosted by the SPIELART Festival in Munich, presents artistic works from Eastern Asian countries which take alternative approaches to addressing the political realities and narratives in their respective societies. The project focuses on the colonial past of selected nations, the official memory of the Korean War, current concepts for the future and political issues of our times, such as the resurgence of rightist movements, methods for dealing with censorship and self-censorship, and the investigation of one’s traditions. “Give Us Back Our Voice!” wishes to sharpen our view of how our understanding of history and politics is culturally conditioned, as well as stimulate dialogue between Western and inner-Asian parti cipants on democratic concepts and alternatives. In theatre projects, lecture performances, installations, films and a discussion programme, East Asian artists will present their perspective on the political disposition of their countries. A central aspect will examine whether the democratic deficits in Asia are due to a particular historical heritage, or whether their current political problems are symptomatic of parallel developments elsewhere in the world. In the spirit of transcultural dialogue, the curatorial team responsible for developing the programme will include members of both the Asian network “Scene/Asia” and the artistic directors of the SPIELART Festival. Artistic director: Tilmann Broszat Participants: Chiaki Soma (JP), Kyoko Iwaki (JP), You Mi (JP), Mark Teh (MY), Aichatpong “Jo” Weeresethakul (TH), Tsuyoshi Ozawa (JP), Hansol Yoon (KR), Ho Rui An (SG), Akira Takayama (JP), Minouk Lim (KR) and others Gasteig, Muffathalle, Einstein, Munich: 27 Oct. – 11 Nov. 2017 www.spielart.org
36 Cult! Legends, stars and iconic figures
ing of cultic venues, rituals and objects of fetish. The exhibition also highlights the “Zeppelin” legend, and features a new blog titled #zeppcontent which investigates and discusses the Internet cult. The exhibition will be accompanied by a conference titled “Cultic Objects and Legends in the Museum”, a film programme, lectures and cooperative projects.
Anger (UM), Julius von Bismarck, Candice Breitz (ZA), Aleksandra Domanovic (CS), Josh Kline (UM), Aby Warburg Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen: 2 Jun. – 15 Oct. 2017 www.zeppelin-museum.de
Curators: Jürgen Bleibler, Claudia Emmert, Friederica Ihling, Sabine Mücke, Ina Neddermeyer Artists: Halil Altindere (TR), Kenneth
© Candice Breitz
Cults are an expression of the human desire to belong. Through rituals of worship they engender a sense of community and identity. Cultic venerations of individuals, objects and places are ubiquitous – and cults become even more prevalent in times of crisis. There is no rational explanation for cults. As complex structures of emotion and reason, cults always possess something inherently mysterious.
The interdisciplinary exhibition at the Zeppelin Museum analyses the various forms and strategies of cultic worship. International artists like Halil Altindere, Julius von Bismarck and Josh Kline reflect on the role of cults in contemporary art. They explore the mechanisms of cults in society, politics and pop culture, and investigate their social relevance. How do they arise, what is their effect? What continuities and ruptures do we find in them? What kind of subversive forces can they develop? The artworks investigate the cultic worship of political leaders, subcultures and stars, the stag-
© Kenneth Anger / Courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers
Cult! — Candice Breitz: Stills from King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson), 2005, Shot at UFO Sound Studios, Berlin, Germany, July 2005, 16-Channel Installation
Cult! — Kenneth Anger: Airship 1, 2, 3, 2010–2012, video still
37 Matters of Heritage
Courtesy of Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver. Foto: SITE Photography
Literary-artistic meetings
The Literaturhaus Stuttgart is dedicating its upcoming international literary congress to the thematic complex of heritage. Applying artistic and academic methods, it aims to provide an interdisciplinary, multi-perspective view of “matters of heritage” which interweave social layers, cultural and ethnic markers, gender classifications and age structures. How can we make routine and often stereotypical systems of classification more flexible? How can we redefine diversity from vastly different backgrounds as a positively connoted heterogeneity? How do we create communities despite distinctive differences? In discourse-based and performative formats, the participants will explore what functions art and culture can serve and what instruments they possess which could challenge populist labelling and simplification with inclusive visions of the future. The project wishes to cast an unbiased view on “matters of heritage”, convinced that a language of hatred and violence can be countered by different language – a language of art – which possesses sufficient potential for a redesign. Artistic directors: Stefanie Stegmann, Kateryna Stetsevych (UA), Katarina Berg (CS) Participants: Mutherem Aras (TR), Björn Bicker, Sighard Neckel, Ulrich Peltzer, Philipp Schönthaler Literaturhaus and public space, Stuttgart: 1 Feb. – 31 Dec. 2017 www.literaturhaus-stuttgart.de
Tucholsky’s Mirror
Courtesy of Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver. Foto: SITE Photography
World premiere
The personality and works of Kurt Tucholsky serve as the starting point for an opera at the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg about this prophetic writer and scathing critic – the poet/playboy who spent an amorous weekend in Rheinsberg in 1912, immortalised in his “Storybook for Lovers”. As the publisher of Weltbühne, Kurt Tucholsky’s texts were as multifaceted and varied as the pseudonyms he used – such as Benno Büffel and Ignaz Wrobel. Tucholsky’s writings oscillated between emotionality and keen intellect, between humour and despair at the political developments in the Weimar Republic. In 1929, he moved to Sweden where he remained permanently. In 1933, the National Socialists banned Weltbühne and revoked the Jewish émigré’s citizenship. In their contemporary opera, the writer Christoph Klimke and composer James Reynolds focus on Kurt Tucholsky and four of his alter egos: Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger, Kaspar Hauser and Ignaz Wrobel. Like the writer Tucholsky, who very much aimed to entertain readers with his texts, the Tucholsky opera makes no distinction between “entertainment” and “serious music” as is the convention, and reflects on the facets of Tucholsky’s personality in a variety of musical styles. Ac-
cordingly, the orchestra is comprised of an equally multifaceted complement, including a string ensemble, jazz combo, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Twelve vocalists will be selected in an international singing competition. The world premiere of the opera will take place during the 2017 festival season at the Schlosstheater Rheinsberg. Additional performances are planned in the United States in cooperation with the University of California. Artistic director: Frank Matthus Composer: James Reynolds (US) Librettist: Christoph Klimke Stage director: Robert Nemack Research advisor: Peter Böthig Symposium director: Clarence Barlow Orchestra: Kammerakademie Potsdam Schlosstheater Rheinsberg: 21 – 29 Jul. 2017 www.musikakademie-rheinsberg.de
Liz Magor Exhibition, symposium, lecture series, publication
In cooperation with the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich, the Kunstverein in Hamburg will present the first German solo exhibition of the Canadian sculptor Liz Magor (*1949) in 2017. Magor is one of today’s most influential female artists in Canada, and her works play a central role in the contemporary debate Liz Magor — Formal I, 2012, platinum-cure silicone rubber, chair on materialism. In her readymades and replicas, she instils an aura into ordinary objects and familiar areas of life. The viewer is confronted with the by-products and residues of society: moth-eaten fabrics and cigarette butts, beer cans and everyday household items. Her sculptures highlight the social sideshows in our performance-driven society and emphasise the fragility of a modern lifestyle based on success, wealth, fitness and productivity. The exhibition is the first to present Liz Magor’s extensive oeuvre to European audiences. With shows planned in Zurich and Hamburg, it will focus on Magor’s sculptures and installative works. Supplemented by a multifaceted educational programme, the project will emphasise the relevance of Magor’s works especially for the younger generation of artists. Artistic director: Bettina Steinbrügge Artist: Liz Magor (CA) Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich: 18 Feb. – 7 May 2017; Kunst verein Hamburg: 1 Jul. – 3 Sep. 2017 www.kunstverein.de
Liz Magor — Formal II, 2012, platinum-cure silicone rubber, chair
38 Shirin Neshat Women in society
Kunsthalle Tübingen: 1 Jul. – 29 Oct. 2017 www.kunsthalle-tuebingen.de
Oratorio Collective devotional on a well- kept secret
Hardly anything so aptly defines capitalist society, nor has such a divisive influence as the inequitable distribution of property. Property confers power, creates barriers and reduces participation. When discussing the subject of property, one must take private, familial, social, local and global aspects into account. Even art production is by no means detached from economic conditions and matters of property. In the background, there is always self-exploitation, subsidisation, cultivation of privileges and old-age poverty. Who can afford to be an artist? The performance collective She She Pop plans to address the subject of property in collaboration with a chorus of artists, formed on location at co-producing theatres in various German and European cities. At each theatre, She She Pop will create a unique production in which they perform together with the chorus of the hosting institution. In the lead-up to each performance, She She Pop will develop a series of questions, as well as musical, scenic and choreographic approaches. As they tour from venue to venue, they will present these questions and respective answers,
thereby allowing people to speak to one another, though they have never actually met. Each venue decides on the content. In former socialistic cities like Leipzig, Lublin or Sofia, the direction may strongly differ from that held by the apparent winners of capitalism, e.g. Munich, Stuttgart or Basel. “Oratorio” will be presented as a work-in-progress for the first time in Hannover in June 2017. Comprised of interweaving choral and solo performances, the production’s improvised structure will ensure its continued development on a permanent basis – a polyphonic devotional with an unknown outcome. Artistic director: She She Pop Artistic support: Ruschka Steininger Musical director: Max Knoth Costume design: Lea Søvsø Set design: Sandra Fox Technical Director/light design: Sven Nichterlein Management / dramaturgy: Elke Weber Production manager: Anne Brammen Tour organisation: Tina Ebert Festival Theaterformen, Hannover: 9 – 11 Jun. 2017; Konfrontacje Festival: Oct. 2017; ACT Festival, Sofia: Nov. 2017; HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin: Spring 2018; Kaserne Basel: 24 – 26 May 2018; Schauspiel Stuttgart: 18 – 25 June 2018 www.sheshepop.de
Stargaze presents: spitting chamber music Spoken Words
Stargaze is a musicians’ collective headed by the Berlin conductor André de Ridder which sees itself as both a band and orchestral ensemble. It initiates new musical collaborations and has been active in past years as a pioneer and idea driver for musical projects combining contemporary music, pop and electronic music. For its latest project “Spitting Chamber Music”, stargaze has invited four spoken-word artists to jointly develop new pieces: the French-Arab female rapper Malikah, the German writer Robert Gwisdek alias “Käptn Peng”, the Californian rapper Lil B and the Scottish-Liberian band Young Fathers. These artists also represent the various rap and spoken-word performance genres which are anchored in the much older traditions of oral and literary poetry. During the development phase of the project, the organisers will hold workshops in which the artists will collaborate with stargaze to develop so-called “Tracks”. In terms of form and composition, the works will venture into new territory, e.g. by engaging in collaborative composition for classical music, or producing sounds for Hip Hop with classical instruments in real-time. The working methods used in DJing and Hip Hop will be combined with those of classical composition and experimental arrangements. With this approach, stargaze is building on a trend introduced by the legendary Hip Hop collective Wu Tang Clan and ap-
© Shirin Neshat / Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels
Shirin Neshat has gained prominence in recent years as one of the most influential female artists to probe the tense relationship between Islam and Western culture. The main theme in her early photo and video works was the role of women in Iran and Islamic societies. In her later works, her focus shifted to life in exile, the diaspora, and the experience of losing one’s homeland. The Kunsthalle Tübingen is planning a major exhibition of works by this important artist who grew up in Iran and now lives in the United States. The exhibition will feature a compilation of her most significant pieces from every artistic phase – from her famous calligraphic photos of the 1990s to her video installations and most recent productions from 2016/17. The central theme of the exhibition is the current role of women in patriarchal societies. On the basis of Neshat’s artistic positions, the exhibition will shed light on the role models of Muslim women in Western societies and Islamic-oriented countries. The project coordinators plan to include a programme on current feminist film and video art, developed in cooperation with the Arabic Film Festival Tübingen. The Kunsthalle Tübingen will hold an international conference on art in Iran and organise a lecture series about the “UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” in cooperation with research centres and the University of Tübingen.
Artistic director: Holger Kube Ventura Artist: Shirin Neshat (IR)
Shirin Neshat — Rapture Series, 1999 (photo: Larry Barns)
39 Democracy and Tragedy
plying it to the field of New Music. Joint live performances will take place during the EIGHT BRIDGES Festival in Cologne, the XJazz festival in Berlin and the Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen.
Festival of International New Drama 2017
Artistic director: André de Ridder / stargaze Composer: Mica Levi (GB), stargaze Singers: Robert Gwisdek, Brandon ‚Lil B‘ McCartney (US), Malikah (LB) Co-arrangements and musicians: stargaze Philharmonic Orchestra, Cologne: 5 May 2017; XJazz, Berlin: 6 May 2017; Capitol, Hannover: 7 May 2017 www.we-are-stargaze.com
Cohn Bucky Levy – The Loss
Photo: Sammlung Christian Repkewitz
The story of a German family
In 1890, three Jewish sisters arrived in the Thuringian town of Altenburg where they soon opened up their own shop. Several years later, “M. & S. Cohn” had become the largest department store in the region. Marianne Cohn headed the company together with her husband Sally Bucky, and later their son-in-law Albert Levy became its managing director. The family’s social and cultural commitment significantly contributed to the economic and social welfare in the city. Yet in 1933, nobody did anything to stop the Nazis from dispossessing and imprisoning Cohn Bucky Levy – The Loss the family. The Theater&Philharmonie Thürin- event/symposium Altenburg, Theater gen is collaborating with the Yoram Loe- & Philharmonie Thüringen: 14 May wenstein Performing Arts Studio in Tel 2017; performances in Altenburg Aviv to examine this German-Jewish sto- (various venues) 20 May – 2 Jun. 2017; ry against the background of the Shoah. performances at the Performing Arts Artists from Germany and Israel will use Studio, Tel Aviv: 3 Jun. – 30 Nov. 2017 it as the starting point for a joint theatre www.tpthueringen.de project that highlights the importance of historical experience, religiousness and nationalism. Current social conflicts, such as increasing Islamophobia and IsraeCLIFFDANCERS li-Palestinian relations, will be integrated into the development of the piece. The Or what contemporary dance for production team is incorporating histor- young audiences can learn from TV ical documents, German and Israeli songs series and text fragments by well-known Jewish writers into the play, and will develop and A “cliffhanger” is what we call a danrehearse the piece at the Levy family’s gling end of a normally cinematic episode former home in Altenburg. The Paul Gus- which abruptly stops at a dramaturgical tavus House will be used as an open space climax. It leaves viewers with unanswered for exhibitions, discussions and lectures questions and whets their appetite for a where citizens will have the chance to en- possible continuation. With the project gage in dialogue with the project’s partic- “Cliffdancers” the tanzhaus nrw wishes to ipants. German, English and Hebrew investigate to what extent the narrative texts will be spoken and treated equally technique of cliffhangers can serve as the on stage. The performances will take basis for developing contemporary dance place at original historical venues in town performances for young audiences. which will generate increased public The project critically examines tradiawareness of this chapter of Altenburg tional viewing habits during a dance perhistory. formance, recognising that children and young adults nowadays are growing up as Artistic director: Bernhard Stengele, designers and creators of their everyday Lilach Segal (IL) Writers: Mona Becker, lives. In the Internet they react to the latElizabeth Kuti (GB) Dramaturgy: Eynat est reviews, speculate in user forums Baranovsky (IL), Svea Haugwitz about what will happen next in their faDirector of the Performing Arts Studio: vourite TV series, and even continue deYoram Loewenstein Prop manager: veloping the stories themselves in soMarianne Hollenstein (CH) called “fan fiction”. In this way, TV series – even after they have run their course – Workshop Performing Arts Studio, Tel take on an afterlife on the Internet. Aviv: 2 – 7 Jan. 2017; Introductory “Cliffdancers” wishes to create such a
media-based afterlife for a dance production, targeted at young audience members between the ages of twelve and sixteen. The artists of tanzhaus nrw are working together with colleagues from the Belgian Kopergietery ensemble to produce a three-part dance series. Secondary-school pupils in Düsseldorf will collaborate with a team of choreographers, dancers, scholars, media artists, bloggers and game designers to produce the corresponding fan fiction. This will be shared and distributed via Snapchats, Instagram actions and YouTube tutorials. The participants will present the results as part of the dance premiere. Artistic director: Mijke Harmsen Choreography: Gaetan Brun-Picard (FR), Dani Brown, Enis Turan, Laura Vanborn (BE) Experts: Sam De Graeve (BE), Vincent Fröhlich, Johan De Smet (BE) and others tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf: 14 Jun. 2017, 31 Aug. 2017, 14 – 17 Oct. 2017 (premiere); Kopergietery, Ghent: July 2017, 23 – 25 Sep. 2017 www.tanzhaus-nrw.de
In the 2017 edition of the “Festival of International New Drama”, the Schaubühne Berlin highlights the theme “Democracy and Tragedy”. The reciprocal relationship between democracy and tragedy has been with us since Greek antiquity. The sympathy, fear and anxiety caused by the conflicts depicted on stage were meant to purify the emotions of the citizenry and allow them to develop political awareness. The invited theatre artists wish to examine the current status of democracy, its endangerment, its suppressed guilt and its contradictions. Based on the predominantly crisis-ridden diagnoses of the world’s present democracies, this project examines our political and social concepts of community and coexistence, and presents scenarios of how we might live in the future. Angélica Liddell’s piece is a gloomy, dystopian vision of a Europe which has completely shuttered itself from the outside world. Anne-Cécile Vandalem will present her tragicomedy on the theme of right-wing populism. Romeo Castellucci’s production delves deep into history, back to Alexis de Tocqueville, in order to gain a view of contemporary life and democracy in America. And Christophe Meierhans will invite audience members to the kitchen table to test new forms of coexistence. All of the productions will premiere for the very first time at the Berlin festival. The programme features works ranging from straight plays and documentary theatre pieces to scenic installations and interdisciplinary formats. Artistic director: Thomas Ostermeier Participants: Romeo Castellucci (IT), Dead Centre (IE), Angélica Liddell (ES), Mapa Teatro (CO), Christoph Meierhans (CH), Sanja Mitrovic (CS), Milo Rau (CH), Anne-Cécile Vandalem (BE) Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin: 30 Mar. – 9 Apr. 2017 www.schaubuehne.de
Collective Ma’louba Interdisciplinary collective for Arabic-speaking artists from both shores of the Mediterranean.
The central aim of this project is to establish an Arabic-speaking, international artists’ collective. Its core members – the Syrian director Rafat Alzakout, Syrian author Mudar Alhaggi and Syrian actress Amal Omran – will work with artists from the Arab region to develop various interdisciplinary projects which focus on producing Arab-speaking theatre performances. The project will create comprehensive, multifaceted works of art which could include elements of drama, dance, film, music, readings and workshops. The cultural traditions, legends, and stories of the
40
Curator: Rolf C. Hemke Production management and dramaturgy: Immanuel Bartz Stage direction: Rafat Alzakout (SY), Fadhel Jaibi (TN) Writer: Mudar Alhaggi (SY) Actress: Amal Omran (SY) Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen: 16 – 17 May 2017; Theater an der Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr: 19 May 2017; Theater im Aufbau-Haus, Berlin: 10, 11, 14 Jun. 2017; Fringe Festival, Edinburgh: 2 – 27 Aug. 2018; Théâtre de l’Union / Festival Les Francophonies en Limousin, Limoges: 21 – 30 Sep. 2017; Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Kleines Haus, Karlsruhe: 10 – 22 Apr. 2018 www.theater-an-der-ruhr.de
Searching for Clues: 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution Russian Cultural Festival in Freiburg
The year 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The revolutionary upheavals had long-lasting socio-economic and cultural repercussions that were felt far beyond the borders of Russia and influenced the rest of the 20th century. In search of clues about the Russian Revolution, the Russian Cultural Festival in Freiburg wishes to highlight this significant event and reflect on the historical and especially current relations between Germany and Russia. Over twenty academic and artistic organisations in the city are set to engage in cooperation for the event in an exemplary manner. In collaboration with international partners, e.g. the State GULAG Museum in Moscow, the human rights organisation “Memorial” and the State Russian Library Rudomino, the organisations will host exhibitions, plays, research projects, film series, a conference, and a lecture series which illustrate the explosive force the Revolution had on the arts and its influence on western European cultures and society to this day. The 2017 Russian Cultural Festival in Freiburg is a project by the newly estab-
Artistic director: Sarah Sigmund Artists: Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir (IS), Birgit Dieker, Armand Pierre Fernandez (FR), Morten Traavik (NO), Sylvie Fleury (CH), Yinka Shonibare (GB), Lee Bul (KR), Via Lewandowsky Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, Dresden: 15 Sep. 2017 – 28 Feb. 2018 www.mhmbw.de
Miracle of the Prairie: Response Ability / Non-Native Establishment An experiment for the cultural organisation of the future
Many places in Europe are now erecting barriers. Nationalistic, xenophobic movements are gaining momentum. Right-wing populism is spreading. At the same time, we are seeing grass-roots movements fighting authoritarian, anti-liberal and right extremist tendencies. But even if cultural organisations are assuming greater socio-political responsibility, rarely are their own structures impacted by these trends. Therefore, the artists’ collective zeitraumexit asks the Searching for Clues: 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution — Igor Ponosov, question: What function does art have in performance “Red Cube”, Moscow, 2008 the current political landscape? What kind of cultural organisation does an urlished Tsvetaeva Centre for Russian CulTargeted ban society need and want? ture at the University of Freiburg. The This project is a radical, short-term Interventions project will impressively demonstrate how experiment which stages political, partican entire city can work together to emHumanoid entities and ipative and aesthetic processes and playbrace a mutual theme. rocket objects fully depicts the operations of a cultural organisation as a creative commons. Project director: Elisabeth Cheauré The Bundeswehr Museum of Military In September 2017, the festival “MirArtistic director: Margarita Augustin History in Dresden is perhaps one of the acle of the Prairie” will present internaParticipating institutions: Zwetamost fascinating cultural historic muse- tional artistic works on the topic of politjewa-Zentrum für russische Kultur at ums in Germany. After undergoing exten- ical participation. At the same time, the University of Freiburg und Freiburg sive renovation designed by the architect representatives from cultural institutions Office of Cultural Affairs in cooepration Daniel Libeskind in 2011, the New York throughout Europe will meet with politwith the University of Freiburg, Theater Times selected the museum as one of the ical activists at the “European Summit Freiburg, Hochschule für Musik, “41 Places to Go” in the world. In addition Culture of Protest” to discuss the relaKommunales Kino, Literaturbüro, to the permanent exhibition on military tionship between protest movements and Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble technology, battlefield portraits and uni- cultural organisations. At the conclusion SurPlus, E-Werk, Kunstverein, Theater forms, the museum also stages temporary of the festival, zeitraumexit will entrust im Marienbad, Galerie für Gegenwartexhibitions on a regular basis featuring its infrastructure to civic groups from skunst im E-Werk, Stadtbibliothek and contemporary artistic positions. The artis- Germany and abroad until summer 2018. others Participants: Sergej Lebedew tic installations in the public area of Arse- Those who wish to participate will have (RU), Amir Reza Koohestani (IR), Juri nalhof titled “Targeted Interventions” are to submit a proposal in a public compeAndruchowytsch (UA), Chto Delat designed to prepare the visitors before tition and be chosen by an assembly (sov(RU), Mari Bastashevski (RU), Arseny they enter the museum for the special ex- ereign). A committee of festival particiZhilyaev (RU), Igor Ponosov (RU), hibition “Violence and Sex”. The main ex- pants and guests (legislature) will develop Maria Thorgevsky (CH), Stephan hibition is dedicated to (de-)constructing a democratic procedure to regulate the Weilands, Irina Scherbakowa (RU), gender roles and cultural-historic attribu- presentations. The implementation of Peter Weibel, Dietmar Neutatz, Ekatetions in the context of violence, war and and compliance with the rules will be enrina Dmitrieva (RU), Nikolaus Katzer the military. To what extent is it possible sured by the “Art Monarch” Tanja Krone (RU), Larisa Polubojarinova (RU), Dirk to depict the complexity of human emo- (judiciary). She will be accompanied by a Kemper (RU), Igor Schajtanov (RU), tions outside of the model of the aggressive chorus, modelled after choruses in Greek Aleksej Zherebin (RU) and others man and the peace-loving woman? The antiquity, consisting of students from the works by contemporary artists form an ar- University of Popular Music and Music Various venues in Freiburg i.Br.: tistic obstacle course which illuminates Business. 1 Oct. 2017 – 15 Dec. 2017 physicality and violence in different ways. The project will enable visitors to exwww.zwetajewa-zentrum.uni-freiburg.de The installations preceding the exhibition perience aesthetic and democratic-parwill appear as foreign bodies within the liamentary practices and encourage an general complex of the museum, confusing international discussion on the role and visitors’ usual expectations to this com- function of cultural institutions. The promemorative site of German military tradi- ject will be accompanied and evaluated by tion. “Targeted Interventions” is designed students from the University of Mannto appeal to an international audience. heim, as well as documented on video.
© Igor Ponosov
past and present in the Arabic-speaking region will comprise a significant portion of the content. Furthermore, the artists wish to investigate the cultural similarities and differences between Europe and the Arab world. The projects will be developed, rehearsed and produced at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim. The artists’ collective would like to create temporary, transnational, multilingual spaces of encounter at the national and international level. The projects will go on tour together and separately in order to promote international network building. In order to maintain ties to the Arab cultural region and integrate artistic feedback into the project, the organisers will set up a second production venue at the Théâtre National Tunisien in Tunis, where Fadhel Jaibi, one of the most influential theatre artists in the Arab region, works as a director.
41 Directors and curators: Gabriele Oßwald, Jan-Philipp Possmann, Wolfgang Sautermeister Artistic support: Tanja Krone Artistic participants: Ant Hampton (GB), David Weber-Krebs (BE), Christophe Meierhans (CH), ongoing projects Other participants: Sibylle Peters, Jan van Deth, Raul Zelik, Marijana Cvetkovic (CS), Zsuzsa Berecz (HU), Andreas Liebmann (DK) Mannheim: 13 Sep. 2017 – 7 Jul. 2018 www.zeitraumexit.de
Open Border Ensemble
Image taken from „Revista Manchete“, Brasilien 1971,courtesy Paulo Tavares
Photo: Radjawali Irendra, 2016
Expansion of the acting ensemble
In autumn 2015 the Munich Kammerspiele organised the “Open Border Congress” and started a model project which converted the theatre into a “Welcome Theatre”. During the course of an entire season, the theatre addressed the topics of escape, arrival and the “welcome culture” at the personnel, organisational and artistic levels. In its new follow-up project “Open Border Ensemble”, the Munich Kammerspiele wishes to explore these migration-related themes in more detail and continue the “conversion” process of the theatre. Following an open call for proposals, six artists of immigrant descent will be invited to participate in the Open Border Ensemble. Together with the Lebanese director Rabih Mroué, they will develop a play on the history of Syria and the rise of the Assad regime. The artists of the Open Border Ensemble will also be integrated into the artistic concept of the already established “Welcome Café” at the Kammerspiele. The basic idea of the project is to encourage the theatre to regard integration of these artists as an aesthetically progressive endeavour in which both sides benefit from one another. In the 2017/2018 season, the Open Border Ensemble will independently develop artistic productions, while efforts continue to further involve and integrate the ensemble into the operative structure of the theatre. The long-term aim is to establish the Open Border Ensemble as an integral part of the regular acting ensemble of the Munich Kammerspiele. Dramaturgy: Rania Mleihi (SY) Stage direction: Rabih Mroué (LB), Lola Arias (AR), Jessica Glause Welcome Café Munich, Kammer 2, Munich: 23 Jan. 2017, 20 Feb. 2017, 20 Mar. 2017, one performance in April, May and June 2017; Mroué project Munich, Kammer 3, Munich: spring 2017; Glause project Munich, 2017/18 season; Arias project Munich: 2017/18 season www.muenchner-kammerspiele.de
Disappearing Legacies — Aerial drone photo of destroyed rain forest in West Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia
Disappearing Legacies — Construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway which was built by cutting through the rain forest during the Brazilian military dictatorship
Disappearing Legacies The world as a forest
The reopening of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Hamburg represents an effort to re-orientate the museum toward climate justice and the challenges of the Anthropocene. How can museums of natural history react to climate change and the loss of genetic diversity? What does it mean to preserve, prepare and present a natural history collection while taking these topical aspects into account? The seminal idea for the planned exhibition was the 160th anniversary of the publications of the Darwin-Wallace Papers, a central treatise of biology. The natural scientist Alfred R. Wallace embarked on several expeditions to South America and
Asia in the 19th century. He collected tropical fauna, documented the biological diversity he found there, and deciphered the mechanisms of natural selection. His collection is regarded as the foundation of his ground-breaking theories. There is debate, however, as to whether such discoveries would even be possible today in view of the fact that the ecological system of the rainforest has been largely destroyed due to deforestation and its conversion to monoculture plantations. The curators plan to present current research findings, historical archive materials from natural history collections around the world, and contemporary works of art. The artworks will shed light on the legacy of European colonialism in the tropics and draw attention to some of the radically transformed landscapes of the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago. In this way the exhibition attempts to compare Wal-
lace’s naively idyllic impressions with present-day images and enable visitors to grasp the impact of environmental change. Artistic directors: Anna-Sophie Springer, Etienne Turpin (CA/ID) Research advisors: Matthias Glaubrecht, Felix Sattler, Frank Steinheimer Centrum für Naturkunde, Hamburg: 19 Oct. 2017 – 28 Feb. 2018; Tieranatomisches Theater – Raum für forschende Ausstellungspraxis, Berlin: spring/summer 2018; Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen, Martin- Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle: autumn 2018 www.reassemblingnature.org
42 COMMITTEES OF THE GERMAN FEDERAL CULTURAL FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES The Board of Trustees is responsible for making final decisions concerning the general focus of the Foundation’s activities, its funding priorities and organisational structure. The 14-member board reflects the political levels which were integral to the Foundation’s establishment. Trustees are appointed for a five-year term. Chairwoman of the Board Prof. Monika Grütters Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery and Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs Representing the Federal Foreign Office Prof. Dr. Maria Böhmer Minister of State Representing the Federal Ministry of Finance Jens Spahn Parliamentary State Secretary Representing the German Bundestag Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert President of the German Bundestag Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Thierse Former President of the German Bundestag. Dr. h.c. Hans-Joachim Otto Former Parliamentary State Secretary Representing the German Länder Rainer Robra Head of the State Chancellery and State Minister for Culture in Saxony-Anhalt Dr. Eva-Maria Stange State Minister of Science and the Arts in Saxony Representing the German Municipalities Klaus Hebborn Councillor, Association of German Cities Uwe Lübking Councillor, Association of German Towns and Municipalities Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Foundation of German States Erwin Sellering Minister-President of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Representing the fields of art and culture Prof. Dr. Bénédicte Savoy Professor of Art History Durs Grünbein Author Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Wolf Lepenies Sociologist
ADVISORY COMMITTEE The Advisory Committee makes recommendations on the thematic focus of the Foundation’s activities. The committee is comprised of leading figures in the arts, culture, business, academics and politics.
Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen Secretary General of the Cultural Foundation of German States Dr. Volker Rodekamp Director of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheytt President of the Cultural Policy Society Johano Strasser German P.E.N. Center Frank Werneke Deputy Chairman of the ver.di labour union Prof. Klaus Zehelein Former President of the German Theatre Association Olaf Zimmermann Managing Director of the German Cultural Council
JURIES AND CURATORIAL PANELS The Federal Cultural Foundation draws on the scientific and artistic expertise of about 50 jury and curatorial panel members who advise the Foundation on thematic and project-specific matters. For more information about these committees, please visit the corresponding projects posted on our website ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de
THE FOUNDATION Executive Board Hortensia Völckers Artistic Director Alexander Farenholtz Administrative Director Secretarial offices Beatrix Kluge / Beate Ollesch (Berlin office) / Christine Werner Assistant to the Executive Board Dr. Lutz Nitsche Contract Department Christian Plodeck (legal advisor) / Katrin Gayda / Stefanie Jage / Anja Petzold Press and Public Relations Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel (dept. head) / Tinatin Eppmann / Juliane Köber / Julia Mai / Christoph Sauerbrey / Arite Studier / Therese Teutsch Programme Department Kirsten Haß (dept. head) / Dr. Marie Cathleen Haff (dept. head General Project Funding) / Sebastian Brünger / Teresa Darian / Anne Fleckstein / Michael Fürst / Marie Krämer / Antonia Lahmé / Carl Philipp Nies / Uta Schnell / Karoline Weber / Friederike Zobel
Prof. Dr. h.c. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann President of the Goethe-Institut, Chairman of the Advisory Committee
Programme Management and Evaluation Ursula Bongaerts (dept. head) / Marius Bunk / Marcel Gärtner / Bärbel Hejkal / Sarah Holstein / Constanze Kaplick / Steffi Khazhueva / Anja Lehmann / Frank Lehmann / Dörte Koch / Nadine Planert / Ilka Schattschneider / Anne-Kathrin Szabó / Kathleen Wismach
Dr. Dorothea Rüland Secretary General of the DAAD, Vice Chairwoman of the Advisory Committee
Projektprüfung Steffen Schille (dept. head) / Franziska Gollub / Fabian Märtin / Lina Schaper/ Antje Wagner
Dr. Franziska Nentwig Executive Director Kulturkreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft e.V.
Verwaltung Andreas Heimann (dept. head) / Margit Ducke / Maik Jacob / Steffen Rothe
Jens Cording Commissioner of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Prof. Martin Maria Krüger President of the German Music Council
43 THE MAGAZINE If you would like to receive this Magazine on a regular basis, you may sign up for a free subscription (German edition) on our website ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de/ magazinbestellung aufgeben. If you do not have Internet access, you may also call us at: +49 (0)345 2997 131. We would be happy to place you on our mailing list!
THE WEBSITE The Federal Cultural Foundation maintains an extensive, bilingual website where you can find detailed information about the Foundation’s activities, responsibilities, funded projects, programmes and much more. Visit us at: ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de ↗ facebook.com/kulturstiftung ↗ twitter.com/kulturstiftung
IMPRINT Publisher Kulturstiftung des Bundes Franckeplatz 2 06110 Halle an der Saale T +49 (0)345 2997 0 F +49 (0)345 2997 333 info@kulturstiftung-bund.de ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de Executive Board Hortensia Völckers / Alexander Farenholtz responsible for the content Editor-in-chief Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel Editorial advisor Tobias Asmuth Final editing Therese Teutsch Translations Robert Brambeer Design Neue Gestaltung, Berlin Picture credit Alexander Kluge
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Printed by BUD, Potsdam Copy date 15 February 2017 Print run 26,000 (German edition) By-lined contributions do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editor. © Kulturstiftung des Bundes – All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without prior written consent from the German Federal Cultural Foundation is strictly prohibited. The German Federal Cultural Foundation is financed by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media by resolution of the German Bundestag
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