Europe to the power of n

Thirty scenarios, and thus thirty different ways of thinking about Europe, form the point of departure for the trans-regional art project Europe to the power of n, which takes place in Brussels, Istanbul, London, Łódz, Minsk, Novi Sad, Høvikodden/Oslo, San Sebastián, and Beijing between 17 July 2012 and 30 April 2013. This project has been made possible through the Excellence Initiative of the Goethe-Institut. The launch of the project starts with a festival at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Within this frame a selection of scenarios and their protagonists are presented.

The Europe arising from this project has challenging relationships to others, is challenged and challenges itself in itself. It does not defend its identity and unity, but opens itself up. Through the works of art Europe is set in relation to others taking into consideration its colonial, non-European past, its current migrant imprints and its increasing global interdependences. Europe is no solitary entity!

Program Friday 6 July 2012 | Saturday 7 July 2012
(In German language with English translation)

10 am–12 pm: Information Architecture Workshop
How to Mediate Complexities?
Konrad Abicht, Vanessa Boni, Andreja Hribernik and Tristan Schulze with guests from the field of economy, science, design and art.

Konrad Abicht, Vanessa Boni, Andreja Hribernik and Tristan Schulze have developed a discursive internet platform that has primarily been set up to serve as a tool for research, documentation and mediation of Europen. In doing so dynamic and fluid connections between the topics, themes, concepts, places and people involved are built up. In the workshop, the potential of this project that has been developed in the field of culture will be discussed and tested for other social fields.

12 pm: Break

1 pm: Film
Binibining Promised Land
D: Köken Ergun, 2009, 30 min

Köken Ergun’s film addresses the situation of Filipino guest workers in Israel and shows the bonding force of a transnational society. Using the example of the most famous Filipininas beauty contest in Tel Aviv it talks about the realities and dreams of its protagonists, about the living circumstances of the Filipinos, their traditions and how they rewrite them. The film deals equally with dislocation and localisation and it indicates also how strongly connected parts of the world have become nowadays.

1.45 pm: Lecture Performance
Koen Vanmechelen: Genetic Freedom

The Belgium artist Koen Vanmechelen addresses bio-cultural diversity. In his lecture, he presents his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, which takes the genealogy of the chicken as point of departure for his artistic projects. Vanmechelen interferes into the crossbreeding itself, repeatedly crossbreeding national chicken breeds and their hybrid followers.

Lecture: Filip Luyckx: The Critical Fundamentals of Europe

The Brussels curator talks about his curatorial concept within the frame of Europe to the power of n.

2.30 pm: Film
Палiпадуаценне (Palipaduazennije)
30 min, 2012, from the project Language Lessons by Aleksander Komarov

“Palipaduazennije” is an invented name. It refers to Latin plant names in botanical gardens, which are totally artificial and given by their discoverers long time ago. In the film of Aleksander Komarov a group of Belarusian immigrants find themselves in the Botanical Garden in Amsterdam. They read words, that sound Belarusian but were invented, like the title of the film – “Palipaduazennije”.
Talk: The artist Aleksander Komarov and the Minsk curator Lena Prents talk about the research and filmproject Language Lessons.

3.15 pm: Break

4 pm: Lecture Performance
NAME Readymade, Janez Janša

Janez Janša is the name of Slovenia’s economic-liberal, conservative prime minister and has also been the name of three well-known Slovenian artists since the summer of 2007; officially and with all the papers and stamps required for an official name change. All of their works, their private affairs, in a word their whole life has been conducted under this name ever since. The group works explicitly with the symbolic power of the prominent name that has become a signifier of power and misuse of power.

Lecture: Miško Šuvaković: ASYMMETRIES. Concepts, Metaphors and Ideological DifférAnces

The Novi Sad curator talks about his curatorial concept within the frame of Europe to the power of n.

4.45 pm: Lecture Performance
Slavs and Tatars: Reverse Joy

In their new project Slavs and Tatars look at the heart of the Shi’a rituals in the month of Muharram to instigate various understandings of modernity and time. In Reverse Joy the complex constellation of Muharram is examined – the vernacular architecture, crafts, rituals, and narrative – which over the course of thirteen centuries has taken on a near cosmic significance, beyond regional rivalries, and possibly beyond faith itself to impact notions of identity, mysticism, protest, and resistance in the world at large.

Lecture: Joanna Sokołowska and Jarosław Lubiak: Modes of Reversal

The Łódz curators talk about their curatorial concept within the frame of Europe to the power of n.

5.30 pm: Talk
Annika Eriksson and Peio Aguirre about the film Wir bleiben / The Last Tenants

The artist Annika Eriksson and San Sebastián curator Peio Aguirre talk about Eriksson’s film Wir bleiben / The Last Tenants from 2011. The tenants of a house in Berlin Mitte, in which the artist used to reside as well, lived to see wartimes, National Socialism, Communism and Capitalism. By asking her former neighbours to tell their story, Eriksson provides us with a portrait of the building, which was bought by an investor recently.

6 pm: Break

7 pm: Lecture
Kit Hammonds: On the Point of Collapse: A Series of Thoughts on the Conflicting Interests in the Third Sector

The London curator talks about his curatorial concept within the frame of Europe to the power of n.

7.30 pm: Film
Freedom Requires Free People
D: Ane Hjort Guttu, 30 min

Tone Hansen, curator for Høvikodden/Oslo talks about the film. It shows an eight-year old boy who fights against a disciplinary and standardising school system and claims the right to decide for himself.

8.15 pm: Intro to Thomas Wrobel: Chinabrenner

8.30–9.30 pm: Break and “Chinabrenner” (Chinese cook-shop)

9.30–10 pm: Performance
Jun Yang: Becoming European or How I Grew up with Wiener Schnitzel

In his lecture performance Jun Yang deals with the relationship of China and Europe. His own and others’ experiences, memories and narratives, projections, dreams and wishes meet with film images in order to build up a new narrative.

Installations of Annika Eriksson and Melanie Gilligan are on permanent display during the festival.

Program Friday 6 July 2012 | Saturday 7 July 2012

Europe to the power of n is a project of the Excellence Initiative of the Goethe-Institut. The study that preceded this project, Scenarios about Europe, was carried out in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Leipzig between September 2011 and April 2012. Europe to the power of n is coordinated by the Goethe-Institut in London in collaboration with 10 institutions in and outside the European Union. The launch and festival are realised in close collaboration with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The artistic presentations are made possible through the support of Arend Oetker, Berlin.