UTOPIA. Keep on Moving
“Utopia is on the horizon.
I take two steps. It moves two steps away.
I go ten steps closer
And the horizon moves ten steps further away.
So what is utopia for?
For this. For moving on.”
(loosely based on Fernando Birri and Eduardo Galeano)
In a time plagued by wars and upheavel, the Akademie der Künste is dedicating itself to the subject of utopia. Akademie President Jeanine Meerapfel has invited the artistic sections of the Akademie to participate in this programme dedicated to historical and contemporary utopias for imagining better futures.
Who today still believes in the power of utopias to create a new – a fairer and more social – world? The long-term consequences of failed utopias from East and West mark the present. Against this backdrop, the five-week programme of events and exhibitions explores the nature of political, social and artistic utopias. Based on the dystopian present, old utopias will be rethought. The utopian is rediscovered in the gaps and open spaces, in the marginalised, in the forgotten, to pose the question of open horizons and agency in a closing world. Art itself creates utopian spaces.
At the opening on 19 April, Akademie members Aleš Šteger, A. L. Kennedy and Uwe Timm will discuss their thoughts on utopia – in dialogue with musical interventions by Elena Kakaliagou.
Exhibitions
19 Apr – 26 May, Hanseatenweg, Studio Lobby
Rabenbären by Karla Kowalski
The animals/monsters exhibited by Karla Kowalski evoke images of creatures that once existed or are yet to be.
3 – 26 May, Pariser Platz, Foyer, Blackbox, Lift
Part of the programme is an exhibition in the historically-charged Akademie building on Pariser Platz. Argentinian curator Diana Wechsler chose artworks and installations that question and rethink our various concepts of utopia and their possible role in our society.
Videos and installations by Kathrin Röggla and Leopold von Verschuer, Christin Berg, Ingo Dunnebier, Gabriela Golder, Ali Kazma, Kapwani Kiwanga, Enrique Ramírez, Regina Silveira
Tue – Sun 11 am – 7 pm
Free admission
Sunday, 5 May
11 am
Curator's Tour with Diana Wechsler
KUNSTWELTEN Workshops for children and teens
Events
Friday, 19 April, Hanseatenweg
7 pm, Opening
Thoughts on Utopia
With Aleš Šteger, A.L. Kennedy, Uwe Timm and Jeanine Meerapfel
Music: Elena Kakaliagou
€ 6/4
Saturday & Sunday, 20 – 21 April, Hanseatenweg
from 2 pm
UTOPIA. Films from Latin America and elsewhere
Based on five films, Cuban film historian Luciano Castillo Rodríguez traces Latin American cinema's political and aesthetic awakening and social utopias.
Introductions and talks with Luciano Castillo Rodríguez and Claudia von Alemann (in Spanish and German)
Ticket € 6/4, Day pass € 12/9
Friday, 3 May, Pariser Platz
6 pm
Utopian Dimensions
Exhibition opening
With Jeanine Meerapfel, Kathrin Röggla (Vice-president of the Akademie der Künste), Diana Wechsler (Curator)
Music: Ensemble Broken Frames Syndicate
Free admission
8 pm
Reading by Carolin Emcke from her book Was wahr ist. Über Gewalt und Klima
Followed by a talk with Jeanine Meerapfel
€ 7.50/5
Saturday, 4 May, Hanseatenweg
4 pm
Building Blocks of the World, Children's Requests
Theatre performance by 4th grade of Hermann-Boddin-Grundschule, Berlin Neukölln
Stage adaption by Gesine Bey, based on a story by Andrea Bajani and Brecht's poem Bitten der Kinder (Children's Requests)
Free admission
5 pm
Concrete Utopias – Eva von Redecker and Wolfgang Kaleck
How can rethinking the concepts of freedom and human rights help us find concrete strategies to make our world a better place?
Lectures by Eva von Redecker and Wolfgang Kaleck
Followed by a talk
€ 7.50/5, Day ticket € 12/8
7:30 pm
New Forgotten Utopias
Akademie members and literature fellows scrutinise forgotten and new utopian narratives and social concepts.
With lynn t musiol, Nazanin Noori, Katharina Schultens, Sophie Seita and Steloolive
€ 7.50/5, Day ticket € 12/8
Sunday, 5 May, Pariser Platz
5 pm
Write On – Intervention
Exiled authors from the “Weiter Schreiben” (Write On) project engage with the exhibition at Pariser Platz in multilingual literary-performative interventions.
With Dima Albitar Kalaji, Atefe Asadi, Ahmed Awny, Milad Khawam
Free admission
Tuesday, 7 May, Pariser Platz
7 pm
The Utopia of Peace
Jeanine Meerapfel and Erdmut Wizisla dicuss Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus and the power and ambivalence of Walter Benjamin's view of historiography
and
Lea Wohl von Haselberg talks with Moshe Zimmermann about the Middle East conflict and the utopia of peace
€ 7.50/5
Monday, 13 May, Pariser Platz
7 pm
Akademie Dialogue: The Necessity of Confidence
How do we remain or become confident in these fragile times?
Talk with Gabriele von Arnim and Jeanine Meerapfel
€ 7.50/5
Tuesday, 14 May, Hanseatenweg
7 pm
The Utopia of Kibbutz Education
Lecture, Talk and film excerpts about the Kibbutz Movement as both utopian ideal and a tangible reality.
With Meron Mendel and Yael Reuveny
€ 7.50/5
Wednesday, 15 May, Pariser Platz
7 pm
Protocols of the Future
Reading performance by Arnold Dreyblatt with excerpts from the documentation of the founding of the Free International University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research (1973-78).
With Nele Hertling, Nanne Meyer, Helke Misselwitz, Ulrike Rosenbach, Karin Sander, Iris ter Schiphorst and Victor Pavel (Narrator)
€ 7.50/5
Thursday, 16 May, Pariser Platz
7 pm
Why Utopias Anymore?
Utopian social concepts in the work of Uwe Timm
Reading and discussion with Uwe Timm and Martin Hielscher
Saturday, 25 May, Hanseatenweg
7:30 pm, Closing
Underground Birds
A journey from the underground back to life for the actresses of the Afghan Simorgh Theatre.
Theatre guest performance by the KULA Compagnie with the women artists of the Simorgh Theatre, Herat, Afghanistan (with German and English surtitles)
Direction: Robert Schuster
€ 15/9
With the kind support of the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Akademie der Künste.
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