GOSSIP

The project cycle GOSSIP is the first episode of the IN:VISIBILITIES program series in the 2021/22 cycle by Agnieszka Roguski. It addresses the political and poetic implications of seemingly banal actions that create, evade, or oppose in:visibilities. 

Gossip implies the proliferation and falsification of everyday information, thereby dismissed as flimsy or illegitimate as much as it is in high demand. In a digitalized world, gossip gains relevance when the circulation of images, content, and information influences political decisions, establishes economic relations, or regulates social connections. Gossip creates the public sphere(s) and manipulates (power) relations—and is thus not only an important strategy for maintaining the prevailing orders, but can also be used to undermine them. If gossip is a means of shaping community and the public sphere, especially online, how can its means be placed in an institutional context—and thus change, negotiate, interrupt, and critically reflect modes of presentation and narration? 

GOSSIP uses effects of networking and circulation to retell what appears self-evident on screens and displays: through moments of researching, talking, hosting, and showing. The focus is on social norms and attributions such as race, gender identity, and class. The program unfolds as an open research movement through workshops with students from the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and the University of Hildesheim. It includes hybrid talks, hosts a bar, and closes with an exhibition presenting works by Ana Botezatu, Rindon Johnson, Katarzyna Perlak, and Bruno Zhu.

Researching
April 26–29 / June 15: Institutional Glitches
Workshop, Instagram takeover, and presentation by students of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. In cooperation with Broken Relations – Infrastructure and interruption. Art under Pandemic Conditions (Beatrice von Bismarck and Ilse Lafer, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig).

June 18–20: The Speculative Exhibition
Workshop with students of the University of Hildesheim, Institute for Visual Arts and Art Studies. In cooperation with Fiona McGovern (Junior Professor for Curatorial Practice and Art Education, University of Hildesheim).

Talking
July 2: Lecture (hybrid)
Marc Siegel (Professor for Film Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz) on gossip, publics and counter-publics.

July 9: Public discussion (hybrid)
Amina Aziz (journalist, academic speaker, and political educator), Tobias Matzner (Professor for Media, Algorithms, and Society, Paderborn University), and Nadia Shehadeh (sociologist and blogger) on gossip as empowerment over discriminatory algorithms. 

October 9: Talk (hybrid)
Övül Durmuşoğlu (curator and writer) and Daria Khan (curator and founder of Mimosa House, London) on the relation of instituting and institution in the context of community-oriented exhibition practices.

Hosting
July 24, July 31, August 28: Queer Bar
with artist Paul Niedermayer (Berlin)

Showing
September 26–November 1: Exhibition
with Ana Botezatu, Rindon Johnson, Katarzyna Perlak, Bruno Zhu
Opening: September 25

View full program here.

Concept and realization: Agnieszka Roguski (Artistic Director 2021/22)

All talks are accessible onsite and/or via YouTube livestream.
Admission is free. All events take place under the applicable protection and hygiene regulations.

With generous support from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Schleswig-Holstein and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.