With Durs Grünbein, poet, translator, and essay writer, Berlin
The political, cultural, and economic crises of the early 21st century are also crises of knowledge and orientation. Accordingly, the need for clear decisions based on the knowledge of experts increased within pluralistic societies. Nevertheless, expert knowledge does not only communicate deeper insights; due to the complexity of crises that affect different social areas and due to the separation of fields of expert knowledge, it also creates new uncertainties. Everyone has to face these uncertainties with his own power of imagination and judgment.
Therefore, it is the time to correlate separate discourses, especially between the arts and the sciences, and to support the communication between the different spheres of experience and cognition. The Familiar Talks meet these crises on the medium of the dialog. Within the process of a talk, experiences, knowledge, and new thought impulses get not only shared, but transformed into a polyphony of questions and answers, tales and cites, thoughts and critiques.
Hence, the dialog may be the most appropriate form when it comes to the collective work on knowledge and to the amazement when confronted with what we do not know.
The title of the discussion series, Familiar Talks, reflects the wish to establish an open-minded atmosphere in order to overcome limits of thinking, find new ways, open spaces for tellings, and trace the unknown. The audience is also invited to join actively.
The Familiar Talks are dedicated to the author, film director, and philosopher Alexander Kluge, who has-in his inimitable manner-led many talks with scientists, artists, politicians, businessmen, and fictitious persons in a mood of subtle curiosity, creative incitation, lust for telling, and critical acuteness.
In a loose series, the Akademie Schloss Solitude will host Familiar Talks in the years 2012 and 2013 between artists, scientists, persons from the economy and from politics as well as with the initiator and host Asmus Trautsch.
The philosopher, composer, and poet was a fellow in the art, science & business program in 2010/2011.
Entrance: 8 Euro (regular), 6 Euro (discount)