Lecture Series Summer Semester 2022

"Art constitutes one of the rare locations where acts of transcendence can take place and have a wide-ranging transformative impact." (bell hooks)

In line with bell hooks' conceptualization of art and artistic creation as fundamentally transformative, we would like to present the lecture series "Ästhetische Dimensionen des Politischen: Art, Activism, Participation" in the summer semester 2022 with speakers from different disciplines. They will contribute different fields of activity, thematic priorities and regional focuses that are linked by feminist, queer-feminist and gender-related issues.

Together, we want to look at diaspora, exile and flight as well as self-organization and resistance. We want to explore the question of how the links between artistic creation, archival practices and critique can form theoretical concepts for the development of new forms of solidary communities. Especially when it comes to overcoming global inequality and dependency relations in a world still characterized by (neo-)colonial structures, art can represent a space in which emancipatory strategies can be conceived.

The lecture series is dedicated to questions of the interplay between art and society: a central focus is on the performative function of art and literature to speak truth and demand political participation. The aesthetic dimensions of the political and the ability of art to articulate alternative worlds will be examined. This critical potential of art makes it possible for art to go beyond questions about the institutions of the political as ethical-aesthetic considerations, because with its creative modes it creates alternative semantics, for example to the legal failures of a society or the lack of political participation. Artists invited to d15, curators and academics will explore these questions together.

English:

Based on bell hook's conceptualization of art and artistic production as fundamentally transformative, we invite a discussion with speakers from different disciplines within the lecture series "Aesthetic Dimensions of the Political: Art, Activism, Participation", scheduled for the summer semester 2022. The speakers work in diverse fields of activity, thematic priorities and regional focuses, which are connected by feminist, queer-feminist and gender-related approaches.

Together we seek to address issues of diaspora, exile and flight, self-organization and resistance. We want to pursue the question of how the links between artistic creation, archival practices and critique can form theoretical concepts for the development of new forms of solidarity communities. Particularly in the effort to overcome global inequality and relationships of dependency in a world that is still shaped by (neo)colonial structures, art can have the potential to function as a space in which emancipatory strategies can be conceptualized.

The lecture series addresses questions of the interaction between art and society: A central focus is on the performative function of art and literature to speak the truth and demand political participation. The focus is on the aesthetic dimensions of the political and art's ability to articulate alternative worlds. This critical potential of art enables art to go beyond questions about political institutions as ethical-aesthetic considerations. With their creative modes they create alternative semantics to, for example, the legal omissions of a society or a lack of political participation. Invited artists of Documenta 15, curators and researchers will explore these questions together.

Program | program:

1. April 25, 2022 Einführung / Introduction: Liliana Gomez, Charlotte Bank, Hannah Grimmer

2. May 02, 2022 Andrea Giunta: Curatorial Strategies in Times of Exception: A Latin American Case (per Zoom)

3. May 09, 2022 Gayatri Gopinath: Promiscuous Intimacies: Queer Diasporic Excavations of the Archive

4. May 16, 2022 Jens Kastner: Fight the evil eye! The feminist art collective Polvo de Gallina Negra (1983-1993) in the context of conceptualist and activist practice (via Zoom)

5. May 23, 2022 Monira Al Solh: I strongly believe that we have no rights whatsoever

6. May 30, 2022 Elisabeth Tuider: Solidarity beyond identity politics

June 7-13, 2022: Archives des luttes des femmes en Algerie: Transmettre les traces des luttes féminines et féministes en Algérie. De la constitution d'une archive numérique à la mise en récit curatoriale

8. June 20, 2022 Marwa Arsanios: Conversation with Charlotte Bank

9. June 27, 2022 Jill Casid: Melancholy as Medium

10. July 04, 2022 Sylvia Sasse: The Artistic Documentation of War: Ukraine 2014-2022

11. July 11, 2022 Burcu Dogramaci: Queer Exile, Displaced Arts - Art History on Shaky Ground

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