Jimmie Durham
Tania Bruguera
Marlene Dumas
Irwin
Teresa Margolles
Aernout Mik
Ahmet Ogut
Daniel Baker
Ute Meta Bauer
Neil Beloufa
James Benning
Franco Berardi Bifo
Homi Bhabha
Beatrice von Bismarck
Arianna Bove
Ethel Brooks
Boris Buden
Chen Chieh
Keti Chukhrov
Josef Dabernig
Ekaterina Degot
Manthia Diawara
Katja Diefenbach
Helmut Draxler
Koken Ergun
Nina Fischer
Maroan el Sani
Marcus Geiger
Nida Ghouse
Boris Groys
Stefano Harney
Adrian Heathfield
Tom Holert
Ranjit Hoskote
Hassan Khan
Julius Koller
Nicolas Kozakis
Raoul Vaneigem
Brigitta Kuster
Maurizio Lazzarato
Dieter Lesage
Maria Lind
Thomas Locher
Isabell Lorey
Radhouane El Meddeb
Angela Melitopoulos
Andrea Milat
Louis Moreno
Nástio Mosquito
Rabih Mroue
Marina Naprushkina
Stefan Nowotny
Boris Ondreicka
Marion von Osten
Stefan Panhans
Nikos Papastergiadis
Alexei Penzin
Piotr Piotrowski
Tihana Pupovac
Li Ran
Gerald Raunig
David Riff
Irit Rogoff
Rasha Salti
Katya Sander
Christoph Schlingensief
Nina Wetzel
Matthias Lilienthal
Keiko Sei
Simon Sheikh
Judith Siegmund
Ferenc Grof and Jean
Baptiste Naudy
Praneet Soi
Jon Solomon
Allan deSouza
Felix Stalder
Hito Steyerl
Mladen Stilinovic
Zoran Terzic
Christopher Thomas
Tom Trevatt
Fusun Turetken
Burak Arikan
Anton Vidokl
Liza Babenko
Tisha Mukarji
Ina Wudtke
Qiu Zhijie
Dolores Zinny
Juan Maidagan
Documents, Constellations, Prospects. Seven days with artworks, performances, dialogues, talks, rehearsals, screenings, and workshops. With contributions byJimmie Durham, Marlene Dumas, Louis Moreno, Stefano Harney and others.
FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellations, Prospects—seven days with artworks, performances, dialogues, talks, rehearsals, screenings, and workshops—takes place 18–24 March 2013 at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.
The Berlin part of the long-term research, education, exhibition, and publication project FORMER WEST (2008–2014) engages in a critical reinterpretation of post-1989, post-Cold War histories by proposing a number of tentative constellations of various documents and prospects from the fields of art and theory, uncovering the fault lines of the West's "formerness."
FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellations, Prospects is guided by five currents, each of which involves artists, theorists, and the public in a variety of presentations and deliberations. Art Production, conceptualized by philosopher and art critic Boris Groys, looks at artistic labor as representative of the contemporary functioning of society as a whole, raising acute questions concerning the political dimensions of art under our current condition. Infrastructure, brought together by theorist Irit Rogoff, explores how when we in the West, or in the industrialized, technologized societies, congratulate ourselves on having a well-functioning infrastructure, we forget the degree to which these have become protocols that bind and confine us in their demand to be conserved and resisted. Thus, how can we envision new paths to understanding infrastructure otherwise? Curated by poet and curator Ranjit Hoskote, Insurgent Cosmopolitanism explores how the polity—and thus the public—has been changing through recent insurgent upheavals, and proposes that we might retrieve the ideal of cosmopolitanism as an active and critical strategy from within these political hotbeds.
A week-long educational performance engages some 150 students from institutions around the world in Learning Place, conceived by writer and cultural critic Boris Buden, which engages in collective research on topics such as the commodification of knowledge, critique of creativity, and functioning of edu-industries in today's cognitive capitalism. Dissident Knowledges, conceptualized by curators Maria Hlavajova and Kathrin Rhomberg, propose both temporal and spatial dynamic interventions in this gathering of artworks, performances, film screenings, and brief improvised statements. As part of this current, the overall project concludes with a Berlin Public Editorial Meeting hosted by curator and writer Simon Sheikh, inaugurating a two-year trajectory of such meetings leading to the realization of the FORMER WEST publication.
With contributions by Bini Adamczak, Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham, Daniel Baker, Ute Meta Bauer, Neil Beloufa, James Benning, Franco Berardi Bifo, Homi Bhabha, Beatrice von Bismarck, Arianna Bove, Ethel Brooks, Tania Bruguera, Boris Buden, Chen Chieh-jen, Chto Delat?/What is to be done?, Keti Chukhrov, Josef Dabernig, Ekaterina Degot, Manthia Diawara, Katja Diefenbach, Helmut Draxler, Marlene Dumas, Köken Ergun, Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani, Marcus Geiger, Nida Ghouse, Boris Groys, Stefano Harney, Adrian Heathfield, Tom Holert, Ranjit Hoskote, IRWIN, Hassan Khan, Július Koller, Nicolas Kozakis and Raoul Vaneigem, Brigitta Kuster, Maurizio Lazzarato, Dieter Lesage, Maria Lind, Thomas Locher, Isabell Lorey, Teresa Margolles, Radhouane El Meddeb, Angela Melitopoulos, Aernout Mik, Andrea Milat, Louis Moreno, Nástio Mosquito, Rabih Mroué, Marina Naprushkina, Stefan Nowotny, Boris Ondreička, Marion von Osten, Ahmet Ögüt, Stefan Panhans, Nikos Papastergiadis, Alexei Penzin, Piotr Piotrowski, Tihana Pupovac, Li Ran, Gerald Raunig, David Riff, Irit Rogoff, Rasha Salti, Katya Sander, Christoph Schlingensief with Nina Wetzel and Matthias Lilienthal, Keiko Sei, Simon Sheikh, Judith Siegmund, Société Réaliste: Ferenc Gróf and Jean-Baptiste Naudy, Praneet Soi, Jon Solomon, Allan deSouza, Felix Stalder, Hito Steyerl, Mladen Stilinović, Zoran Terzić, Christopher Thomas and Tom Trevatt, Füsun Türetken and Burak Arikan, Ultra-red, Anton Vidokle in collaboration with Liza Babenko and Tisha Mukarji, Ina Wudtke, Qiu Zhijie, Dolores Zinny and Juan Maidagan, and others.
Conceptualized by Maria Hlavajova and Kathrin Rhomberg in collaboration with Boris Buden, Boris Groys, Ranjit Hoskote, Katrin Klingan, and Irit Rogoff.
For the full program, complete list of contributors, and live streaming, as well as full project archive, please visit the FORMER WEST Digital Platform at www.formerwest.org.
FORMER WEST is initiated and developed by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht. FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellations, Prospects is a joint project by Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.
Funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation); Culture Programme of the European Union, Brussels; Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam; Goethe-Institut; and ERSTE Foundation, Vienna.
Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as well as by the Federal Foreign Office.
The activities of BAK, basis voor actuele kunst have been made possible with financial support from: City Council of Utrecht and Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands.
Further information:
Haus der Kulturen der Welt www.hkw.de
BAK, basis voor actuele kunst www.bak-utrecht.nl
Accreditation requested: presse@hkw.de
Press contact: Anne Maier, anne.maier@hkw.de / T +49 (0)30 397 87 153
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 - 10557 Berlin
Exhibition
Tue 29.1. 17:00 – 23:00
Wed 30.1. - Sun 3.2. 10:00 – 22:00
Mon 28.1.: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 10:00 – 11:00
Tue 29.1.: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Infocounter 17:30 – 23:00
Wed 30.1. - Sun 3.2.: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Infocounter 10:00 – 21:00
Admission: 25 € (Day ticket) up to 170 € (Festival ticket plus admission to CTM – Festival for Adventurous Music & Arts)