Bodies of Evidence

Organized around the book presentation Bodies of Evidence (published by Passagen Verlag in 2018), the event will illuminate how the body appears as witness, document, and agent as it moves across borders drawn by vectors of power such as nationhood, sovereignty, and normalcy. From multiple perspectives traversing the fields of visual and performing arts, social anthropology, political theory, critical journalism, and philosophy, it interrogates the complex ways in which the body is implicated in contemporary »crises« and addresses its political and ethical repercussions.

Bodies of Evidence takes up the challenge to rethink corporeality today and to underscore the intertwinement of aesthetics, politics, and ethics. The event gathers voices from various fields and practices to reflect on the following questions: How can we understand bodies as the source, site, and target of emotions, pain, and desire? How can we account for the body as a sociopolitical construct and mediation, and still move beyond disembodied theories of agency? What does it mean to document and bear witness to atrocity and violence? Given the centrality of the body in current »crises« – as in migratory movements, the re-entrenchment of bordering processes, and state violence – the event probes whether corporeality can be envisaged as a site of recuperation where vulnerability can become a source of resistance.

Initiated and conceptualized by Gurur Ertem and Sandra Noeth.

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Program:

Friday, November 23, 2018

7.00 pm: Book presentation & Eat-In
Gurur Ertem, Sandra Noeth, Kattrin Deufert, Ayesha Hameed, Agri Ismaïl, Noémie Solomon, Hakan Topal

8.00 pm: Keynote Lecture
Marcus Steinweg

9.00 pm: Drinks & Music

Saturday, November 24, 2018

10.00 am–1.00 pm: Choreographic Workshop by Kattrin Deufert
(limited number of participants, please sign up until Nov 16 with Sonja Flury,
flury@akademie-solitude.de)                                   

1.00 pm: Lunch

2.00 pm: Dialog I / Borders and Corporeality
Agri Ismaïl, Noémie Solomon, Jacqueline Gordon

3.30 pm: Coffee Break

3.45 pm: Dialog II / The Politics and Ethics of Artistic Practice
Lecture Performances and presentations by Hakan Topal, Kattrin Deufert, Ana Filipovic

5.15 pm: Coffee Break

5.30 pm: Dialog III / Artistic Approaches to the Evidential Paradigm and Documents of the Present
Lecture Performance by Ayesha Hameed
Gurur Ertem in conversation with Sandra Noeth

7.00 pm: Dinner

8.00 pm: Translucent – One Too Many Body
Performance by Savyon

8.30 pm: Memorabilia
Performance by Elena Morena Weber

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With contributions by:
Kattrin Deufert, deufert&plischke; (Artistwin), performance artist and choreographer, Berlin/Germany | Gurur Ertem, sociologist, dancer, and curator, Istanbul/Turkey | Ana Filipovic, architect, Berlin | Savyon, performance artist, poet, dancer, and mathematician, based in Tel Aviv/Israel  | Jacqueline Gordon, works with sound, sculpture and performance, Los Angeles, CA/USA | Agri Ismaïl, author and lawyer, Stockholm/Sweden | Sandra Noeth, professor at the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin, Berlin University of the Arts, and curator, Berlin | Noémie Solomon, writer, teacher and curator of contemporary choreography, New York, NY/USA | Hakan Topal, artist and Assistant Professor of New Media and Art+Design, Purchase College, New York | Marcus Steinweg, philosopher and author, Berlin | Elena Morena Weber, working in performing arts, Zurich/Switzerland 

The symposium takes place within the art, science & business program at Akademie Schloss Solitude. The event will be held in English. Admission is free.

Per diem meal allowance incl. lunch, dinner, coffee, and beverages:
20 euros/10 euros for students.

Please sign up until November 16, 2018 via email to:
Sonja Flury, flury@akademie-solitude.de, Tel. + 49 (0)711 99619 482

The publication Bodies of Evidence is supported by the Alliance of International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media/Germany as well as by the European Dancehouse Network, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission. The publication has been commissioned by tanzhaus nrw, which is funded by the City of Düsseldorf and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).