BY WARREN NEIDICH

Rehearsing Futures Past, an oral blind folded performance, which takes place in front of my Duende Neon.

First Turning: I enter from the stage left and stand in front of my neon sculpture The Duende Diagram. My assistant moves to center stage, takes hold of my shoulders and turns me 360 degrees twice leaving me facing my neon sculpture. Blindfolded I project the red dot of my laser wand upon the words Taylorism and Hebbinism. She recites from the other neon-illuminated terms that surround these words pronouncing Cultural Capitalism and Cognitive Capitalism. Se turns me 180 degrees so that now I am facing the audience and my back is towards the neon I place the megaphone up to my mouth and begin to recite the contingent terms that create the diagram inside my skull.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              Weiterlesen →

BY DAN MIHALTIANU

„To be radical is to go to the root of the matter. For the artist, however, the root is the artist himself“. 

Kandy Marxhol: Critique of Philosophy of Art from A to B

Intelligentsia – Priviligentsia – Emergentsia

Even if, theoretically, they seem to represent diverging interest and functions, the Intelligentsia and the Priviligentsia are the two components of the cultural and political elite that continually flirt with each other in Socialist Society. The former plays the part of „social critic“, obviously within the very narrow limits, legal or illegal, imposed by the system, while the latter plays the part of the guardian, manager and beneficiary of the established régime. The Intelligentsia played a certain role in the implementation of Communism, however, after the consolidation of the regime it could only play the part of illustrator or analyst of socialist reality, which it did with a wide range of attitudes, from emulation to servility and even daring „constructive criticism“ or „cultural resistance“, dissidence being extremely rare and rather singular. Weiterlesen →

VON REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT

Die Urbanisierung in Deutschland, also die Bedeutung der Kernstadt als Lebensraum, hat in den vergangenen Jahren weiter zugenommen.[1] Die wohlhabenden Nationen Nordamerikas, Europas, Australien, Ozeaniens, Japans, die noch bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts ländlich strukturiert waren, weisen heute eine städtische Bevölkerung von 72 – 95 % auf.[2] Die Stadt bietet Raum für unterschiedliche Lebensentwürfe und berufliche Perspektiven. Weiterlesen →

BY ŁUKASZ BIAŁKOWSKI

A match can be won, lost, or tied  Kazimierz Górski

The unforgettable coach of the Polish national football team was known for a peculiar sense of humor. His tautological bon mots, such as the one above or the claim that “the ball is round and there are two goals, either we win, or they”, are repeated even today. They arouse amusement with their majestic tone. They sound like quotes from Montaigne, Pascal, or other philosophers. This style adopted by Górski, to give a rank of philosophical maxims to the obvious statements, was an ironic tweak of the nose at tacticians, strategists, commentators, sports journalists, and all those who like to talk too much about sport. Górski wanted to suggest that there is no sense in talking too much about sport, that rules of game are simple and apart from them there are only: rivalry, skills, and a stroke of luck. Weiterlesen →

BY SŁAWOMIR BRZOSKA

The knot of all time has turned to dust (Hamlet)

Missionaries reached a certain African village. They were allowed to stay longer and observed the daily rituals and customs of their hosts; in the end persuaded the tribe elder to reorganize the settlement, which was meant to make life easier and more effective for its inhabitants. In their arrogance, ignoring the established order of the sacred space, they have at the same time completely destroyed their initial cosmology. This was in essence for centuries a cultivated model of the village with its subdivisions and respectively placed elements: the boundaries of sacrum and profanum, dwellings, plants, places where animals were kept etc. In effect, the members of this archaic community lost their so-called centre, became lost in the new reality. Then it was a great deal easier to persuade them to cast off their former beliefs and accept an entirely foreign religion. Weiterlesen →

BY AHMET ÖGÜT

The Silent University operates at the intersection between contemporary art and modern pedagogy in a space filled with misconceptions about culture and institutionalized art practices. Cultural institutions such as public and private museums, non-profit art institutions, and private art and cultural foundations employ models of education that are radically different in their methods and structures from educational models practiced by institutions with a focus purely on teaching. Specifically, traditional universities are characterized by centralized bureaucratic structures and an expanding administrative apparatus, leading to sprawling costs and the reproduction of class distinctions. At their core, culture and art practices are inherently disposed towards transient projects, while pedagogy on the contrary requires extended commitment. Weiterlesen →

VON SARAH LÜDEMANN

Such is the anti-oedipal strategy: if man is connected to the machines of the universe, if he is in tune with his desires, if he is “anchored”, he ceases to worry about the fitness of things, about the behaviour of his fellow-men. (Miller, Sexus)

Seht, ich lehre euch den Übermenschen! Der Übermensch ist der Sinn der Erde. […] Ich beschwöre euch, meine Brüder, bleibt der Erde treu und glaubt Denen nicht, welche euch von überirdischen Hoffnungen reden! (Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra)

Our religious beliefs separate heaven and earth, this life and the afterlife, and our philosophical thinking cuts apart mind and matter, all of which forces a chasm between the visible and the invisible. How to bridge the chasm? What means are there for transporting the unseen into the seen? (The Soul’s Code, James Hillman)

+ + Ersinnen einer radikalen Evolution des Seins, die sich entfernt von Oberflächenstrukturen, Ablenkungsmanövern und dem perfiden Imperialismus der Ratio. Homo sapiens, sapiens beati spiritualis…

+ + Proklamation eines neuen Denkfeldes, das über das reine Denken hinausgeht, weil es mit der EMOTION beginnt, der REAKTION DES KÖRPERS, dem “Eindruck in den Körper (gedanklich ähnlich dem “Apparat” in Kafkas Strafkolonie, wenn auch auf keinste Weise so mörderisch bestrafend!).

Fuck me in Disneyland ist nicht nur der DJ Name des Berliner Künstlers Adrian Brun, sondern fasst auch wunderbar die Idiotie der westlichen Supernova – Plastik – Masquerade zusammen, die sich eben auf das Oberhalb der glitzernden Oberfläche beschränkt. Die momentane Pop-Kultur der Image-Kultivierung ist schlussendlich ohne Inhalt und unser Daseins-Zustand sprichwörtlich auf Mikroebene Plastik durchzogen. Ich bin nicht die einzige hungrige Seele, die sich nach Nahrhafterem sehnt, und so träume ich von einer radikalen Evolution des Seins, jenseits von destruktivem Glücks-Ersatz. Dabei ist die Evolution des Einzelnen immer auch die Evolution des Kollektivs und so muss bei sich selber der Anfang gemacht werden. Weiterlesen →

BY CHRISTIAN HASUCHA

At an unimpressive set of traffic lights on Karl-Marx Street in Berlin, an inconspicuous man waits for the lights to change and springs into action on green. Weiterlesen →

VON FRIED ROSENSTOCK

…sehe ich mit Gesten verknüpft. Wenn man z.B. beim Klavierspielen die Unabhängigkeit der beiden Hände übt, muss eine Hand gegen die andere anspielen, gleichzeitig, was eine starke Konzentration erfordert. Ein Künstler, der laut denkt, wird nicht ständig mit den Fingern Anführungszeichen in die Luft schlagen, wenn etwas als metaphorisch oder ironisch hervorgehoben werden soll, eine “Untermalung”, die heute leider sehr verbreitet ist. Das meine ich ausdrücklich nicht, die Geste kann dem Gedanken – so wie die beiden unabhängig spielenden Klavierhände – sogar entgegenlaufen, ihn in Frage stellen. Ich könnte versuchen, mich an komplizierte kunsttheoretische Zusammenhänge zu erinnern und plötzlich mit der flachen Hand in eine Schüssel mit Wasser schlagen, die auf dem Tisch vergessen wurde…