Bonds - Opening

In the current, heated debate about the debt crisis, numbers, terminology and emotions – accompanied by allegations of blame – have become entangled in an almost indecipherable knot. The conference aims to establish possible questions, approaches and steps toward a possible solution.

Based on the suspicion that the debates and effects associated with the current monetary debts are closely related to other experiences of guilt and obligation – with evidence not just of existential and genealogical perception, but also of moral and legal guilt – one specific focus is on interdisciplinary dialogue between different approaches from the fields of art, culture, business and academia. In a range of speaking and discussion formats, liberated from the obligation to meet academic criteria, representatives from areas such as anthropology, sociology, cultural history, psychology, economics, financial sciences and the arts are invited to contribute their special thematic approaches and expertise. Interactive, systemic models will enable possible stances regarding guilt and debt to be experienced and perceived individually. The play »Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street« by Tomáš Sedláček questions the foundations of economic theory. And: the artist group Bureau d’Etudes maps the complex dimensions of guilt/debt.

Welcome: Bernd M. Scherer, Director Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Introduction: Thomas Macho (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

18:30 h The Making of the Indebted Man Lecture by Maurizio Lazzarato

19:30 h What is Corruption? Guilt, Debts and Older Liabilities Talk with Peter Eigen & Thomas Macho

20:30 h: Cancelling Debts Exhibition Opening more...

21 h Reception