The Art of Assembly

Florian Malzacher & brut Wien
  • 5.0 (1)
  • PHILOSOPHY
The Art of Assembly

In this series of talks, curator and author Florian Malzacher is joined by guests from arts, politics and theory to reflect on the potential of assemblies in activism, politics and art. „The Art of Assembly" speculates on the potential of gatherings in a time where not much seems certain.

  1. XXIX: The Right to Flow. Water as Source of Life, Conflict, and Legal Utopias (With Edson Krenak Naknanuk, Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse, Kathrin Röggla, Elisabeth von Samsonow & Florian Malzacher)

    OCT 12

    XXIX: The Right to Flow. Water as Source of Life, Conflict, and Legal Utopias (With Edson Krenak Naknanuk, Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse, Kathrin Röggla, Elisabeth von Samsonow & Florian Malzacher)

    Water is a main protagonist of all human mythologies, a metaphor for life itself – and at the same time subject of countless, very concrete and rapidly growing conflicts. The 29th edition of The Art of Assembly asks how water can be considered not as a commodity based on concepts like ownership and exploitation, but rather as a common good or even as a partner: Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse, member of the royal family from the Waikato tribe, opens the conversation with her intimate knowledge about the connection of the Maori people with the Whanganui in Aotearoa (New Zealand), the first river worldwide that was granted legal personhood. Indigenous activist, writer and scholar of legal anthropology Edson Krenak Naknanuk shows how the legal imagination of indigenous people offers a different idea of ownership not only for the Amazon. In her play The Water, writer Kathrin Röggla reflects on how a mixture of fear and repression, actionism and bureaucracy, empty political promises and personal interests are preventing targeted action against the climate crisis. The artist and philosopher Elisabeth von Samsonow is fascinated by the bifunctionality that separates water as a symbol of life and its disciplining in technology and industry.

    1h 53m
  2. XXVIII: What Is to Be Done? Dealing with New-Right Culture Wars (Amelie Deuflhard, Oliver Frljić, Thomas Krüger, Joanna Warsza & Florian Malzacher)

    MAY 17

    XXVIII: What Is to Be Done? Dealing with New-Right Culture Wars (Amelie Deuflhard, Oliver Frljić, Thomas Krüger, Joanna Warsza & Florian Malzacher)

    The net is tightening. What has long been a reality in other countries is also becoming increasingly noticeable in Germany – and not just in the east: new-right politicians are also gaining power in cultural policy, exerting pressure and threatening individual artists. For Amelie Deuflhard, director of the Kampnagel cultural centre in Hamburg, intimidation attempts by the AfD are part of everyday life. Theatre director Oliver Frljić has repeatedly provoked often violent reactions with his productions in Croatia, Serbia, Poland and Germany. Thomas Krüger, President of the German Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education), has been looking for strategies to counter the shift to the right for many years. Curator Joanna Warsza examines how the effects of eight years of national-conservative cultural policy in Poland are slowly being reversed following the victory of the opposition. The 28th edition of The Art of Assembly asks specifically what tactics and strategies we can learn from each other in dealing with far-right intimidation and political interventions.

    1h 48m
  3. XXVII: The Arts as Playground for the Urban White Middle Class? (Glenn Bech, Sahar Rahimi, Julia Wissert & Florian Malzacher)

    MAR 19

    XXVII: The Arts as Playground for the Urban White Middle Class? (Glenn Bech, Sahar Rahimi, Julia Wissert & Florian Malzacher)

    For years, theatres, museums and other art institutions have been trying to broaden their audiences – with limited success: the (Western) art field still mainly assembles a white, urban middle class by protecting its borders through distinction and offering cultural capital to those who find access. The 27th edition of The Art of Assembly takes an intersectional look at persistent exclusions and privileges: Author and psychologist Glenn Bech, who used to be ashamed about his working-class roots, confronts a homophobic society as much as an urban arts scene that seeks to appropriate the gay writer from the provinces. Theatre-maker Sahar Rahimi raises the question of why classism is rarely openly discussed in the cultural sector: Is her work more determined by her working-class background or her refugee biography? Julia Wissert, the first Black director of a German city theatre, tries to turn Schauspiel Dortmund into an open, safer, and diverse space – backstage, onstage, and in the auditorium.

    1h 59m
  4. XXVI: Impacts of Sound – Sounds of Impact (Fabio Cervi / Earshot, Atiyyah Khan, Brandon LaBelle, Xenia Koghilakil & Florian Malzacher)

    11/30/2023

    XXVI: Impacts of Sound – Sounds of Impact (Fabio Cervi / Earshot, Atiyyah Khan, Brandon LaBelle, Xenia Koghilakil & Florian Malzacher)

    Acoustic spaces play a part in defining borders and creating communities. While they fundamentally influence the shaping of public space, their ideological underpinnings, power structures and implications are often unacknowledged. The 26th edition of The Art of Assembly investigates how reconfiguring sonic environments and practices might lead to new modes of listening and the questioning of cultural hegemonies. Sound theorist Brandon LaBelle engages notions of social equality and acoustic justice, pointing out ways in which listening norms and conventions affect community-building and social participation. Architect and musician Fabio Cervi discusses his work as assistant audio investigator at Earshot, an agency founded by artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Earshot conducts sonic investigations for communities affected by corporate, state, and environmental injustice. Xenia Koghilaki examines crowd rituals and intensity in concerts and other musical situations, exploring collective movement as a means of resistance. Arts journalist and DJ Atiyyah Khan digs up lost histories of how South African jazz musicians mobilised communities and unconventional venues during apartheid, creating spaces of political resistance and joy..

    2h 3m
  5. XXV: Assemblies of Individuals – Live Work in Non-Performance Spaces (Mette Edvardsen, Tino Sehgal & Florian Malzacher)

    11/15/2023

    XXV: Assemblies of Individuals – Live Work in Non-Performance Spaces (Mette Edvardsen, Tino Sehgal & Florian Malzacher)

    Theatres regulate space and time for their audiences and demand collective engagement. Other kinds of venues – like museums or libraries – are designed to separate and isolate even large crowds and promote liberal ideas of emancipation. Everyone decides for themselves how long they want to stay and engage. The 25th edition of “The Art of Assembly” looks at artistic approaches to assemblies in cultural places not originally intended for performance. Choreographer Mette Edvardsen looks for soft spaces where her discrete performances become a porous part of the environment, where performers and audiences are in more than one space at the same time. Artist Tino Sehgal has been working with the DNA of museums and the liberal assemblies created by exhibitions, which he uses for his constructed situations – thin lines that direct attention and gazes, choreographing the paths of the audience.

    1h 43m
  6. XXIV: Interwoven Bodies (Michael Hardt, Michael Kliën, Pedro Lasch, Corina Stan & Florian Malzacher)

    09/28/2023

    XXIV: Interwoven Bodies (Michael Hardt, Michael Kliën, Pedro Lasch, Corina Stan & Florian Malzacher)

    How do we deliberate before and beyond language, how do we create relations without words, how are our bodies determined by the spaces we are in? The 25th edition of The Art of Assembly takes place in the context of Michael Kliën’s “Parliament”, a social choreography in which citizen-performers work in silence to hold council amidst the elemental phenomena and fundamental concerns of collectively lived experience. Political philosopher and literature theorist Michael Hardt together with Antonio Negri coined the term Multitude, describing a „multiplicity of singularities acting together“: a network that is neither homogeneous nor self-identical. Visual artist Pedro Lasch, director of the Social Practice Lab at Duke University, works with choreographies of festive gatherings, multiplatform social communication, and other artworks created through interaction. Literature scholar Corina Stan shows that relations are not only constructed by proximity but also by interpersonal distances that have shaped ethical thinking throughout modernity.

    1h 43m
  7. XXIII: Gathering (in the) Cloud. Digital Performance Beyond Zoom (Kent Bye, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Sarah Rothberg & Florian Malzacher)

    05/19/2023

    XXIII: Gathering (in the) Cloud. Digital Performance Beyond Zoom (Kent Bye, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Sarah Rothberg & Florian Malzacher)

    The pandemic introduced virtual gatherings into many people’s lives. Team meetings, activist assemblies, even theater performances were now attended from kitchen chairs, sofas, and beds. Both activists and performance makers (usually strong believers in the need for bodily presence) resorted to screens–and if only because there was no choice. Where are we now and what comes after Zoom? Is the metaverse more than a promise or threat? In this edition of the Art of Assembly we look at how performing arts are approaching digital realms. Journalist Kent Bye, who hosted hundreds of game developers, academics, creatives, and enthusiasts in the VR and AR fields on his podcast “Voices of VR,” offers a brief overview of virtual gatherings in art and activism. Jaamil Olawale Kosoko speaks about their virtual performance suite Chameleon: The Living Installments, exploring the fugitive realities of living at the intersection of digitality, Blackness and queerness. Sarah Rothberg introduces her playful VR/AR experiences and talks about the intersection of interactivity and performance.

    1h 25m
  8. XXII: Provoke Me if You Can. The Crisis of Artistic Disturbances (Núria Güell, Renzo Martens & Florian Malzacher)

    02/14/2023

    XXII: Provoke Me if You Can. The Crisis of Artistic Disturbances (Núria Güell, Renzo Martens & Florian Malzacher)

    Provocations as a means of disturbance have long been part of artists’ as well as activists’ basic toolkits. But in a time when many already feel permanently snubbed, artistic provocations often seem stale and redundant. The demand for repair, care, and healing dominates artistic discourse. On the other hand, when climate activists glue themselves to highways or oil paintings, emotions run high throughout society. Meanwhile, the political far-right blatantly focuses on lowering inhibition thresholds: Continued taboo-breaking pushes the boundaries of what is say- and doable. Núria Güell’s artistic practice continuously challenges moral and legal conventions when, for example, she offers herself as a bride to random Cuban man who wants to get a Spanish passport, or when, in reverse, she tries to become stateless herself. Renzo Martens disturbed viewers with videos such as Enjoy Poverty in which he centered himself as a white man and propagated the self-gentrification of Congolese plantations. Meanwhile, however, his role as a performer as well as the relationship to the protagonists of his work has fundamentally changed. In time where confrontational practices are generally questioned, The Art of Assembly investigates how the concept of provocation has shifted in recent years.

    1h 34m
See All (29)

About

In this series of talks, curator and author Florian Malzacher is joined by guests from arts, politics and theory to reflect on the potential of assemblies in activism, politics and art. „The Art of Assembly" speculates on the potential of gatherings in a time where not much seems certain.

Information

  • Creator
    Florian Malzacher & brut Wien
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2021-2024 The Art of Assembly
  • Show Website
    The Art of Assembly

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada