Herbst Academy: workshop call
steirischer herbst festival
Graz, Austria
Deadline for registration:
Wednesday 28 August 2013
academy [at] steirischerherbst.at
Curated by Luigi Fassi and Anne Faucheret
Liaisons Dangereuses: Alliances, Misalliances and False Friends, the leitmotif of this year’s steirischer herbst festival looks at connections, relationships and their transformation—in society, art and culture and in both the private sphere and in politics. herbst Academy offers four workshops for artists, curators, theorists and students to explore relational systems in motion and their transformation in society, art and culture and at the same time further investigate the artworks and productions on show at the festival. The participants and leaders of all four workshops will come together in a three-day international conference with a range of speakers from different fields taking place from 4 to 6 October—Liaisons Dangereuses. Seeking Emancipatory Alternatives in Trembling Times.
Workshop I: Institution as Fiction: What is an Institution?
2–4 October
By Beirut (Sarah Rifky (EG), Jens Maier-Rothe (DE), Antonia Alampi (IT))
To exist within fast-altering economic, political and social realities, (art) institutions have to think themselves as works in movement, as open works, in a constant effort of re-imagining what they could, or should, be in their time. To stay relevant and responsive, institutions cannot afford to be hemmed in by normative conceptions of what an institution really is, or has to be. In their workshop for artists and culture workers, Sarah Rifky, Jens Maier-Rothe and Antonia Alampi from the Cairo-based art initiative Beirut propose a series of collective exercises to reconceive the institution—including its identities, resources and economies—as a fictitious entity.
Workshop 2: Neoliberalism as a New Anthropotechnique: Between the Cyborg and the Desiring Machine
2–4 October
By Giovanni Leghissa (IT)
Even though it seems so at times, neoliberalism need not necessarily be seen as the natural, almost inevitable further development of classical liberalism. The philosopher Giovanni Leghissa from Turin University suggests a deconstructive interpretation instead. The workshop will be about demonstrating the origins of neoliberalism in theory and defining a cultural agenda that allows us to conceive alternatives to the prevailing economic model. According to Leghissa, however, what this will also require is a form of rationality which differs structurally from conventional forms.
Workshop 3: Afropean Decoloniality in the Art Plantations of Modernity
7–9 October
By Alanna Lockward (DO)
Three days of film screenings, three days of intense discussions on the Black Diaspora and the work of African video artists in the European context. Together with the Berlin-based curator and author Alanna Lockward, initiator of the Art Labour Archives, participants will try to decolonialise hegemonic narratives of art and forge new alliances based on the works of Teresa María Díaz Nerio, William Kentridge, Tracey Moffatt and Ingrid Mwangi. Aimed at facilitating cross-cultural dialogue and decolonising hegemonic narratives on art, the workshop will draw extensively on the discourse of Black Feminism and Critical Race Theory.
Workshop 4: Theatre of the Oppressed and Radical Transformation: From Desire into Action
7–9 October
By Hector Aristizábal (CO)
What role can theatre play in times of social and political upheaval? Hector Aristizábal, theatre maker, psychologist and activist against torture, has founded the ImaginAction network in Los Angeles in order to utilise the transformational forces of theatre for community building and in processes of self-empowerment. Against the background of the Theatre of the Oppressed developed by Augusto Boal in the 1960s, Aristizábal will join the workshop participants to develop scenes from concrete life experiences, looking for ways to connect individual modes of acting with global movements for radical political change.
Conference: “Liaisons Dangereuses: Seeking Emancipatory Alternatives in Trembling Times”
4–6 October
Festival Centre steirischer herbst, Ex-Zollamt, Bahnhofgürtel 57, 8020 Graz, Austria
With Hector Aristizábal (CO), Zdenka Badovinac (SI), Beirut (Sarah Rifky (EG), Jens Maier-Rothe (DE), Antonia Alampi (IT), Ellen Blumenstein (DE), Sarah Browne (IR), Lieven De Cauter (BE), Jeannette Ehlers (DK), Marianne Flotron (CH/NL), Zachary Formwalt (NL/US), Sam Gindin (CA), Katerina Gregos (BE/GR), Krist Gruijthuijsen (AT/NL), Marina Grzinic (SI), Jan Peter Hammer (DE), John Jordan (US/FR), Giovanni Leghissa (IT), Alanna Lockward (DE/DO), Florian Malzacher (DE), Markus Miessen (DE), Saverio Pesapane (IT), Jonas Staal (NL), Wooloo (DK), Erik Olin Wright (US) and others.
