Documenting Troubles, semester workshop
The coming semester will revolve around the documentation of troubles, and the troubles of documenting. We’ll look at artistic practices that employ a notion of the document with the aim of providing a lesson and a proof (as in the verb’s etymological roots) so as to contest existing narratives or shed light on ones that are repressed. But we will also, no less importantly, trouble documenting — questioning and rethinking notions of veracity, realism and facticity, performativity and fiction. In an age during which imminent ecological disaster is denied, prevalent systemic racism occluded and extreme levels of economic inequality masked by elaborate tax evasion schemes, the urge to document, to insist on truth claims however provisional, seems vital.
Which of these terms might still feel relevant, and why? Can performative practices be considered documentary? Or are documentary practices by definition performative? Can fabricated images make truth claims? Is truth by definition fabricated? The semester will be an invitation to revisit some of these troubles, and stay with them.
For the first class meeting please prepare a short project outline (one-page max.), which sketches an idea that you wish to develop during the semester. It can, but doesn’t have to, relates to these questions. It can be rough, loose or speculative. We will follow the projects as they develop during the class meetings, with the aim of eventually staging an exhibition together (timing and format TBA), related to the questions and discussions that develop throughout the semester.
The meeting will be dedicated to student/participants presentations, encouraging the development of new work.
Series of meetings will be hosted by Lensbased class which will be facilitated by Boaz Levin. Meetings will be open for public and participants will be expected to be fully engaged with the process.
Hardenbergstraße 33, / Room 115.
30.Okt.