A Summit on Art, Theory, Politics, and Civil Society

On the basis of a broad network of local cultural institutions— and strongly supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg—the establishment of a new annual “summit meeting” is planned for Stuttgart. It will be dedicated to the main sociopolitical lines of conflict and negotiate them in the spheres of the visual and performative arts, theory, and activism. The perspective here is expressly global.

The first edition of this new project will discuss alternative approaches to neoliberal financial capitalism that is based on algorithms, debt, and the myth of unlimited growth. How can such abstract structures be read, understood, and reinterpreted in face of their own contradictions? Which collective and individual forms of resistance are necessary in order to counteract the existing injustices and the mechanisms of exploitation and destruction? Which special potentials are harbored by poetry, imagination, and fiction for the concept of a different economy?

This first summit encompasses more than twenty lectures, performances, and music and film contributions from various academic, artistic, and activist contexts—regularly followed by workshops (including workshops for pupils). The main focus during the four days is on the exploration of diverse forms of articulation that go beyond the classical academic formats—and on an intense joint debate based on a wide spectrum of discourses.

In view of climate change, the neo-feudal drive of financial capitalism, increasingly strong nationalism and racism, as well as a populism that deliberately operates on the basis of disinformation and demagogy,
our concern is to initiate longterm reflection on both political and aesthetic conceptions of societal change.

In so doing, we need to deal with the problem that a disturbing wave of political change is going on at present. With the growing number of demagogues who have been democratically elected (Donald Trump in the USA, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Narendra Modi in India, Vladimir Putin in Russia, etc.), we are facing a shift toward societies in which nationalism, racism, sexism, and homophobia are politically implemented, and in which pluralism and freedom of speech are massively restricted.

Thus, it is not a matter of fighting against neoliberal conditions only, but also against anti-democratic and neofascist tendencies, and it seems as if new languages, imaginations, and collective forms of agency are called for in such fight.

Moreover, the complexity of the current political, societal, and economic conditions requires a reconsideration of concepts such as class, solidarity, law, and justice, but also of our forms and tools of critique and resistance. The summit aims at offering a forum for exactly these concerns.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

6:00 - 6:15 p.m.

Words of Welcome

Petra Olschowski, state secretary

6:15 p.m.

Introduction

Iris Dressler & Christine Peters

7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Art, Revolution Asylum: How to Decolonize

Mohammad Abu Hajar (Tartous, Syria, Berlin)
Lecture Performance

8:00 - 9:00 p.m.

How to conduct a Planchette on the Ghost of Money

Shuddhabrata Sengupta (New Delhi)
Lecture

9:00 - 10:00 p.m.

How to Conquer Infrastructure Space and Colonize the Scalar Niche

Hilary Koob-Sassen (London)
Lecture Performance

10:00 p.m.

Dinner

Friday, March 31, 2017

10:00 - 10:45 a.m.

Inter-Pacific Ring Tribunal

Nabil Ahmed (Dhaka, London)
Lecture

10:45 - 11:45 a.m.

Racial Politics of Opacity

We cannot build what we cannot first imagine
Jota Mombaça, Thiago de Paula Souza (Sao Paulo)
Lecture Performance

10:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Workshop 3 (for pupils)

Art and Action – For One World for All
Moderation: Peter Haury (Stuttgart)

10:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Workshop 4

SAID TO CONTAIN:
Neue Dringlichkeit / Bojan Djordjev, Maja Leo (Belgrade / Zurich)

11:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Workshop 1

Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Nabil Ahmed, Mohammad Abu Hajar, a. o.

Moderation: Florian Malzacher (Berlin)

11:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Workshop 2

Jota Mombaça, Thiago de Paula Souza, Hilary Koob-Sassen, a. o.

Moderation: Katrin Mundt (Bochum)

1:30 p.m.

Lunch

2:30 - 3:15 p.m.

Plenum

3:15 - 4:15 p.m.

Monarchs of Time and Space

John Barker (London)
Lecture Performance

4:15 - 5:15 p.m.

Speculations on a Transformative Theory of Justice

Denise Ferreira da Silva (Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver)
Lecture

5:15 - 5:45 p.m.

Break

5:45 - 6:15 p.m.

Köln Phantasm

Rheim Alkadhi (Iraq, USA)
Lecture Performance

6:15 - 7:15 p.m.
7:15 - 7:30 p.m.

Break

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Emotionals Come Rally

PeterLicht (Cologne)
Lecture Performance

8:30 p.m.

Dinner

Saturday, April 1, 2017

10:00 - 10:45 a.m.
10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Workshop 3 (for pupils)

Art and Action – For One World for All
Moderation: Peter Haury (Stuttgart)

10:45 - 11:45 a.m.
11:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Workshop 1

Srećko Horvat, Simon Sheikh, Rheim Alkadhi, a. o.
Moderation: Florian Malzacher

11:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Workshop 2

John Barker, Keti Chukhrov, Denise Ferreira da Silva, a. o.
Moderation: Katrin Mundt

11:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Workshop 4

Trump as Class Warrior?
Annette Ohme-Reinicke (Stuttgart)

1:30 p.m.

Lunch

2:30 - 3:15 p.m.

Plenum

3:15 - 4:15 p.m.

Art and the Practice of Freedom

Gulf Labor Coalition / MTL Collective
Nitasha Dhillon, Amin Husain (New Delhi, New York / Ramallah, New York)
Lecture Performance

4:15 - 5:15 p.m.

Abberation: Resistance Against and Alternatives to Extractivism

Enrique Matías Viale (Buenos Aires)
Lecture

5:15 - 5:45 p.m.

Break

5:45 - 6:15 p.m.

Air as Resistance

Tools for Action
Artúr van Balen, Katherine Ball (Budapest, Berlin / Breckenridge, Colorado)
Lecture Performance

6:15 - 7:15 p.m.
7:15 - 7:30 p.m.

Break

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

The Poem on Emptiness

Boris Ondreička (Bratislava, Vienna)
Lecture Performance

8:30 p.m.

Dinner

11:00 p.m.

Party

David Quigley (Vienna)

Sunday, April 2, 2017

10:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Workshop

Air as Resistance
Tools for Action / Artúr van Balen, Katherine Ball

11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

SAID TO CONTAIN:

Neue Dringlichkeit
Bojan Djordjev, Maja Leo (Belgrade, Zurich)
Report

11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Politics in the Fourth Person Singular

Katja Diefenbach (Berlin)
Lecture

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Final Debate

Moderation: Katrin Mundt

2:00 p.m.

Lunch

3:00 p.m.

No Color Colorful

Schorsch Kamerun (Hamburg)
Lecture Performance

Mediatheque

A central element is the Mediatheque-in-progress, which is to make materials on the various topics accessible.
The discussions, results, and experiences from the summit will be documented through various media-based formats—all of which will be integrated into the planning process during the upcoming summit meeting.

Infotheque

The infotheque is a platform for local and international initiatives that wish to introduce their projects here and discuss them with others.

Partners and Funders

A Project by
Akadememie Schloss Solitude
100J-ifa_logo_black
Schauspiel Stuttgart
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart
Theater Rampe
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
In Cooperation with
Die AnStifter
Fritz-Erler-Forum Baden-Württemberg
Hannah-Arendt-Institut Stuttgart

Hannah-Arendt-Institut Stuttgart

Einrich Boell Stiftung
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Baden-Württemberg
Idea and Concept

Christine Peters, Iris Dressler

 

in Cooperation with

Marie Bues, Hans D. Christ, Klaus Dörr, Martina Grohmann, Jan Hein, Jean-Baptiste Joly, Elke aus dem Moore, Katrin Spira

Main Supporter
Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg
Supported by
ifa / Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen