Workshop III Protokoll des Untergangs-Schreiben als politisches Handeln

We live in realities that are fragmented and distorted by the media and that increasingly cause the subject to disappear. Political conditions are increasingly becoming de-politicised. The privatisation of politics by no means brings the individual additional room for manoeuvre, but rather the very opposite. As a result, art that sees itself as a place of freedom in bourgeois tradition, is being questioned and challenged. No surprise that art is currently becoming political once again.

The workshop examines this process for artistic forms and working situations whose fundamental medium is language. Language generates and obfuscates political circumstances. In the field of politics it serves the purpose of agitation and manipulation, to assert lobbyists’ interests. How can and should ‘language artists’ react – is there a different way out to mere deconstruction of language and, associated with this, mere agitation, the absolution of mere rhetoric? How can the individual locate itself in this field? Does the subject that struggles for freedom still exist, or has it disintegrated and, with it, any kind of narration? But what, then, are we fighting for in the re-politicisation of art? What about power – the central category of politics? Do not all language-critical and subject-critical discourses and positions serve to mask Workshop III

Record of downfall

Writing as political act

20/10 – 25/10/2008

By Edith Draxl (A)

With Helgard Haug (Rimini Protokoll) (D), Ulrich Peltzer (D), René Pollesch (D), Uwe Schutte (D) & Stefanie Wenner (D)

In German language

We live in realities that are fragmented and distorted by the media and that increasingly cause the subject to disappear. Political conditions are increasingly becoming de-politicised. The privatisation of politics by no means brings the individual additional room for manoeuvre, but rather the very opposite. As a result, art that sees itself as a place of freedom in bourgeois tradition, is being questioned and challenged. No surprise that art is currently becoming political once again.

The workshop examines this process for artistic forms and working situations whose fundamental medium is language. Language generates and obfuscates political circumstances. In the field of politics it serves the purpose of agitation and manipulation, to assert lobbyists’ interests. How can and should ‘language artists’ react – is there a different way out to mere deconstruction of language and, associated with this, mere agitation, the absolution of mere rhetoric? How can the individual locate itself in this field? Does the subject that struggles for freedom still exist, or has it disintegrated and, with it, any kind of narration? But what, then, are we fighting for in the re-politicisation of art? What about power – the central category of politics? Do not all language-critical and subject-critical discourses and positions serve to mask power, thus making them nothing more than its servants? The workshop focuses on these and other questions – associative, fragmentary and questioning.

Konzept / Idee: Edith Draxl
Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: Helgard Haug
Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: Ulrich Peltzer
Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: René Pollesch
Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: Stefanie Werner