CRITICISM IN A TIME OF HYPERCIRCULATION

From 11:00 a.m.
Guided tours of the Chancellor's Bungalow (with registration) [BOOKED UP]

11 a.m.
Meme-Workshop
with Cem A. aka @freeze_magazine (in English)
Workshop "Infrastructures of Consent"
with Zsófia Samodai and Julio Linares (in English)
Registrations: buchung@bundeskunsthalle.de

2:30 p.m.
Welcome and introduction
Dr. Eva Kraus, Intendantin der Bundeskunsthalle
Karin Sander, Direktorin der Sektion Bildende Kunst in der Akademie der Künste
Danièle Perrier, Präsidentin der AICA Deutschland
Ellen Wagner, Vorstandsmitglied AICA Deutschland

3:00 p.m.
Keynote from New Models (Caroline Busta and Lil Internet)
The former editor-in-chief of the magazine Texte zur Kunst, Caroline Busta, and the music producer Lil Internet (both Berlin) run ‘New Models’, one of the most interesting podcasts about culture, criticism, and Internet phenomena. ‘New Models’ present a poignant analysis of the changing conditions of criticism and see its future in self-organisation.

3:30 p.m.
New Models in conversation with Kolja Reichert

4:00 p.m.
Break

4:30 p.m.
Crowd Judgment vs. Expert Judgment
Social media have elevated everyone to the status of producer, work, and critic. Does this already signify a democratisation of art? What distinguishes this from populism? And what place is left for the educated judgement of individuals?
Christian Demand, Editor of Merkur magazine
Julia Grosse, Artistic director Contemporary And (C&), AICA
Wolfgang Ullrich, Art theoretician, AICA
Chair: Elke Buhr, Chief editor of Monopol magazine, AICA

5:30 p.m.
Break

6:00 p.m.
Memes vs. Museums: Criticism after Instagram
Digitisation invites everyone into the arena of value judgements to fight for the privilege of interpretation. How does that change culture and its institutions?
Cem A. aka @freeze_magazine, Artist and curator
Joshua Citarella, Artist
Dena Yago, Artist
Chair: Gregor Quack, Critic and curator, AICA

7:30 p.m.
Break

8:00 p.m.
Critical Infrastructures: What can be built?
If the accumulation of critical knowledge doesn’t lead to change: What can be built in the real world with artistic and critical thinking?
Fernando-García Dory, Architect and agroecologist, Inland
Julio Linares, Circles
Cassie Thornton, Artist, The Feminist Economic Department
Chair: Kolja Reichert, Bundeskunsthalle

9:00 p.m.
Concert Arnold Dreyblatt
Artist and Composer Arnold Dreyblatt takes over Bundeskunsthalle with electronic instruments and cello: a performative sound installation in the spirit of drone.
Arnold Dreyblatt studied with Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier and La Monte Young in the 1970s. With self-developed instruments and systems of tuning, he has performed with changing formations from the 1970s on. Since 2007, he is member of the Akademie der Künste.

10:00 p.m.
Party: JUDGEMENT NIGHT
10:00 p.m. – Eric D. Clark
0:00 a.m. – Lil Internet
1:00 a.m. – Nastya Muravyova

THE FALL AND RISE OF THE CRITICAL PUBLIC

11:00 a.m.
Keynote: Nikita Dhawan, Chair holder of Political Science with a focus on Political Theory and the History of Political Thought, TU Dresden
Could creative and affirmative artistic practices facilitate transnational justice and democracy, protecting and promoting human rights? Or should art be autonomous and non-purposive and not be put in service of political and ethical imperatives?

12:00 p.m.
What are the Means of Criticism? What are the Means of the Arts?
What do the arts need criticism for, considered how critical they deem themselves? And how can criticism keep up with everything that the arts can do?
Annesley Black, Composer, Akademie der Künste
Arnold Dreyblatt, Artist and composer, Akademie der Künste
Wilfried Wang, Architect, Akademie der Künste
Chair: Angela Lammert, Akademie der Künste

1:00 p.m.
Lunch Break

2:00 p.m.
Making Sense vs. Internal Logic: Do Criticism and the Arts Understand Each Other?
Is it actually possible to translate music, art, poetry into language? And what can evolve once you acknowledge how hard that is?
Helmut Draxler, Art historian, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien
Leonie Reineke, Music critic, SWR2, Deutschlandradio 
Kathrin Röggla, Poet, Vice President of the Akademie der Künste
Chair: Georg Imdahl, Art critic, Kunstakademie Münster, AICA

3:30 p.m.
Break

4:00 p.m.
How to Decolonise Aesthetic Judgment
Western critics continue to interpret Malevich and others without being able to read their texts – and read their own projections into them. What would a global art history look like if the West had not closed it off to the hall of mirrors of its own concepts?
Eric D. Clark, Artist and composer
Marcel Odenbach, Artist
Noemi Smolik, Art critic, AICA
Julia Wissert, Director of Schauspiel Dortmund
Chair: Jörg Heiser, Art critic and curator, Institut für Kunst im Kontext an der Universität der Künste Berlin, AICA

5:00 p.m.
Break

5:30 p.m.
What Will ‘Subject’ Mean in the Future?
The concept of criticism is inseparably linked to the Cartesian model of the subject. What (fluid, collective) forms of subject are revealed in the current transformations of criticism?
Eva Illouz, Sociologist, Hebrew University Jerusalem, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris
Zairong Xiang, Literary theorist, curator
Chair: Ann Cotten, Poet

7:00 p.m.
Feedback: Jina Khayyer

11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
The Valuation Chamber of The Arts Assembly
In the Forum of the Bundeskunsthalle

What is the Valuation Chamber of The Arts Assembly?
It is an assembly in which everyone is invited to be a critic and collectively judge selected cultural objects - be they works of art, of curatorial practice, or any cultural phenomena. Let criticism and the culture of debate be resurrected, if only for three hours!

Moderation: Jina Khayyer (artist, poet and journalist) 
Jury: Angela Lammert (Akademie der Künste), Marita Muukkonen (Artists at Risk), Kolja Reichert (Bundeskunsthalle), Ivor Stodolsky (Artists at Risk), Ellen Wagner (German AICA)
Based on a concept by Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Mukkonen

The rules, a.k.a. the Charter of the Valuation Chamber of The AA
Watch previous iterations of the Valuation Chamber (scroll down for the videos)

Languages: German and English
Entrance and participation is free!

10 am – 4 pm
Workshops (internal)
with Max Linz, Carolin Naujocks, Florian Neuner, Georg Seeßlen, womynofcolors_spacemakers

From 11 am
Guided tours through the Picture Cellar
(registration: kongress@adk.de)

12 pm
Guided tour through the exhibition "Provenance Research"
(registration: kongress@adk.de)

6 pm
Welcome and introduction
Johanna M. Keller, Eva Kraus, Paloma Nana

6:30 pm
Performance: Karin Sander
In höchsten Tönen Ensemble Mosaik

7 pm
Keynote by Senthuran Varatharajah
Ein Text ist ein Gott in Trümmern

8 pm
Transversal Criticism
Elke Bippus, Jimmy Robert
Moderation: Anh-Linh Ngo

WHO GETS TO CRITICISE WHOM FROM WHAT POSITION?

11 am
Keynote by Julieta Aranda, John Miller

12 noon
Broadcasting vs. Criticism: The Ubiquitous Logic of Amplification
Kate Brown, Holger Liebs, Alex Scrimgeour
Moderation: Julia Voss

1:30 pm
Guided tour through the exhibition "Provenance Research"
(registration: kongress@adk.de)

2:30 pm
Spaces and Economies for Criticism
Martin Schüttler, Rüdiger Suchsland
Moderation: María Inés Plaza Lazo

4:30 pm
Criticism under Political Pressure
Danson Kahyana, Sara Nabil, Barış Seyitvan
Moderation: Marita Muukkonen, Ivor Stodolsky

7:00 pm
Workshop Reports
Carolin Naujocks/Florian Neuner, womynofcolors_spacemakers, Georg Seeßlen/Max Linz

7:30 pm
Form vs. Context
Nikita Dhawan, Heinrich Dunst, Tal Sterngast
Moderation: Klaus Speidel

9 pm
Party
with Eric D. Clark

HOW HAS THE ROLE OF CRITICISM CHANGED?

11 am
Statement: Art Criticism as a Language-Game
Robert Kudielka

11:30 am
The Participatory Artwork
Torsten Michaelsen (Ligna), Hanno Rauterberg
Moderation: Dorte Lena Eilers, Christine Wahl

2 pm
Snackability, deep Reading and…?
Mara Delius, Berit Glanz, Linn Micklitz, Jutta-Müller Tamm
Moderation: Ulrike Draesner

3:30 pm
Sojourn in (Language-) Material: Critical Modes of Writing
Ines Geipel, Isabel Mehl, Verena Lueken
Moderation: Beate Söntgen

5:30 pm
Resume: New Models

6 pm
Where’s the public in the Metaverse?
Mat Dryhurst, Niklas Maak, Hito Steyerl
Moderation: Joshua Citarella

WILL THERE BE A LIVE STREAM?
Yes, it will be available from 18 November at www.bundeskunsthalle.de/kritik and www.adk.de/kritik.

WHERE WILL THE CONGRESS TAKE PLACE?
From 18 to 19 November 2022 at the Bundeskunsthalle and from 24 to 26 November at the Akademie der Künste. All contributions can also be followed in a live stream. 

WHAT LANGUAGE WILL BE SPOKEN?
German and English. The entire programme will be simultaneously translated.

HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE?
Admission is free. Registration via buchung@bundeskunsthalle.de for Bonn and kongress@adk.de for Berlin. The number of visitors in Bonn is limited to 300, in Berlin to 200. 

WHY IS MY NAME NOT IN THE PROGRAMME?
A list of all the living people who have rendered outstanding services to criticism would go beyond any scope. Many could have sat on the podiums. The line-up is the result of numerous conversations among members of the Akademie der Künste and with the art critics’ association AICA Germany and the DFG graduate college "Cultures of Criticism" at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. With this congress, the Akademie der Künste, the Bundeskunsthalle, and their partners are sending a cultural-political signal for the necessity of critique. May many more formats follow. 

ARE THE WORKSHOPS OPEN?
The workshops on 18 November in Bonn are open to everyone (registration via buchung@bundeskunsthalle.de). The number of participants is limited to 15 people each. For the workshops and working meetings in Berlin on 24 November, the limited number of 15 participants people each has already been reached. They were conceived by members of the academy, the Junge Akademie, and partners. The results will be presented to the public on 25 November at 7:00 pm.