“The Idea of Communism. Philosophy and Art”.
From June 25 to June 27, 2010 the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz hosts an interdisciplinary congress called “The Idea of Communism. Philosophy and Art”. The core event is a philosophical conference started by Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek, and based on an event of the same name which took place in London in 2009. A program including performances, installations, films and concerts provides an aesthetical complement to the conference. Works by guest artists deal with both the abstract idea of communism and the political history of 20th-century ‘really existing socialism’ in Europe, as well as a potential future for the communist model (in art).
CONFERENCE: The word “Communism”: between philosophical criticism and an actual review of the “socialist States”
Alain Badiou: “The 2009 London conference showed that, in debates dealing with both the historical destiny of humanity and the norms of collective action, it is now possible to give back to the word “Communism” its full meaning.
Since the labour movements in the 19th century and their interpretation by great minds of the times, the word “Communism” has been at the intersection between politics and philosophy. Therefore, nowadays it must be considered on the basis of both its ideal content and the actual experiences to which it has been associated and in which it has been seriously compromised.
The London conference was about philosophy and ideology. The Berlin conference will focus on a review of the socialist States that in the 20th century embodied the motive of a “dictatorship of the proletariat”. With this in mind, the conference will host a significant number of participants from Eastern European countries.”
With: Alain Badiou (Paris) and Slavoj Žižek (Ljubljana), Susan Buck-Morss (New York), Cécile Winter (Paris) and Gáspár M. Tamás (Budapest).
PERFORMANCE. INSTALLATION. FILM. MUSIC.
The centre of the art program are guest performances by two performance groups from Eastern Europe. BADco., an art collective based in Zagreb, presents its two latest works: “1 poor and one o” and “The League of Time”. Janez Janša’s company (based in Ljubljana) presents a performance called “Pupilja, Papa Pupilo and the Pupilceks – Reconstruction”, a re-enactment of a Slovenian neo-avant-garde happening from 1969. In addition, Nick Currie aka Momus will carry out an “unreliable tour” on the conference theme, and Berlin artist Anne Kuhn and Chto Delat, a Russian collective of activists and performance artists, will set up installations.
The film program gathers various perspectives of history and the utopian potential of Communism: Harun Farocki presents his film work in relation to labour and utopia through an entertaining film-lecture. Other films featured are “Handsworth Songs” by Black Audio Collective, Chris Marker’s “Der letzte Bolschewik” and the playful pseudo-documentary “L’An 01” by Jacques Doillon, Alain Resnais and Jean Rouch.
The concert program includes a live performance using electronic media by Marc Weiser aka Rechenzentrum of a dubbing of the classic socialist film “Enthusiasmus”. Finally, the agitprop collective Schwabinggrad Ballett, based in Hamburg, will present a concert-performance.
With the support of Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Éditions Lignes and Institut Français.
Kurators // Conference: Gernot Kamecke, Frank Ruda, Henning Teschke and Jan Völker.
Kurators // Performance. Installation. Film. Music: Michael Busch, Alex Engel, Maximilian Haas, Sebastian Kaiser and Christian Morin.
For reduced tickets please ask the box office via phone 0049 –(0)30 – 240 65 777 or via Email ticket@volksbuehne-berlin.de