11 January 2019

New programme focus “Wo kommen wir hin”.
An Artistic Research Laboratory at the Akademie der Künste

Concept: Kathrin Röggla, Karin Sander and Manos Tsangaris
12 January 2019: Free International Drumming II, Pariser Platz
21 March – 2 June 2019, Hanseatenweg

What about the potential for resistance from the arts in the political arena? Where are the arts and society developing today? From March to the beginning of June 2019 the new main focus programme of the Akademie der Künste is dedicating itself to these questions. The aim is to re-examine and reflect on the tools used for artistic production. Akademie members and guests use writing, composing, acting, scenography and conceptual work to rethink the forms of their artistic actions and question their limitations.

The participants in "Wo kommen wir hin" make the basic techniques of artistic work the starting point for opening up aesthetic thinking spaces. Composer Manos Tsangaris, director of the Music Section at the Akademie der Künste, calls it "scenic anthropology": "A person who listens, watches, or discusses something with us becomes the focus of the composition, the production or the installation." What does this approach mean for artistic production and its medium? Writer Kathrin Röggla, vice president of the Akademie, looks into communication crises in both private and public communication, in which concepts like dramaturgy, narrative or continuity increasingly play a role. Where are the ruptures in seemingly functional communication to be found today? And what is their relationship to politics?

Where are the arts developing today?
Visual artist Karin Sander, member of the Akademie der Künste, will collect visions of the future as productive forces, staging the space at the Akademie der Künste in a solo presentation. Together with Harald Welzer, sociologist and founder of FUTURZWEI, she poses questions about visions of the future, letting those who represent the future in our society speak for themselves. In their mixed media performance Moving Sand – Topos comprised of film, dance, text and music, filmmaker Jeanine Meerapfel, President of the Akademie der Künste, and musician Floros Floridis address how artificial intelligence colonises people's daily lives.

With Akademie members Marc Andre, Jens Harzer, A.L. Kennedy, Alexander Kluge, Helmut Lachenmann, Mark Lammert, Kathrin Röggla, Karin Sander, Eran Schaerf, Oliver Sturm, Manos Tsangaris, Valery Tscheplanowa, Angela Winkler und Hanns Zischler as well as Floros Floridis, Harald Welzer and Malte Ubenauf.

With "Free International Drumming II" at 12 January, the artistic research laboratory "Wo kommen wir hin" is opening its doors to the contemporary Korean music scene. Through this, classical courtly music and the ritual forms of Korean shamanism in music and performance interfuse with jazz and composition. In the exchange between the DoodulSori ensemble, Peter Ehwald & Ensemble ~su, INklang and Akademie members Karin Sander and Manos Tsangaris, an open dialogue within contemporary styles emerges.

From 21 March 2019, "Where are we going" will transform the Akademie building on Hanseatenweg into a 'work academy', presenting the first interim results in a series of events and talks. From 18 May to 2 June, the programme will then flow into a 14-day phase with various events involving the entire building.

Event dates
Free International Drumming II
12 January 2019, 8 pm, Tickets € 9/6
Ensemble DoodulSori and Peter Ehwald & Ensemble ~su, INklang
Talk: Manos Tsangaris and Karin Sander
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin

„Wo kommen wir hin"
An Artistic Research Laboratory at the Akademie der Künste
in cooperation with Kolumba Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln
21 March – 2 June 2019
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Further information to follow shortly