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)

Following bell hooks' conceptualization of art and artistic creation as fundamentally transformative, in the lecture series "Aesthetic Dimensions of the Political: Art, Activism, Participation" in the summer semester of 2022, we would like to discuss with speakers* from different disciplines. These bring different fields of activity, thematic emphases, and regional focuses that are connected by feminist, queer-feminist, and gender-related issues.

Together we would like to address diaspora, exile and flight as well as self-organization and resistance. We want to explore how the linkages of artistic creation, archival practices, and critique can form theoretical concepts for the development of new forms of communities in solidarity. Especially in overcoming global inequality and dependency relations in a world still shaped 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 to demand political participation. The aesthetic dimensions of the political and art's ability to articulate alternative worlds will be examined. This critical potential of art enables it to go beyond questions about the institutions of the political as ethical-aesthetic considerations, because its creative modes create alternative semantics to, for example, a society's legal failures or lack of political participation. Invited d15 artists, curators, and scholars 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. 25. April 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

7. June 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

July 10, 2022  SylviaSasse: The Artistic Documentation of War: Ukraine 2014-2022

July 11, 2022 Burcu Dogramaci: Queer Exile, displaced Arts - Art History on shaky ground

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