The first lecture will take place on Monday, June 23, starting at 10:00 a.m. Its title is:
We desire a symbolic life and get enigmatic constellations
In order to get out of the bracket between dot and echo, between desemantization and resemantization, we have to comprehend the ubiquitous media in its totality: the semantic role of photography and in its technological consequences such as digitization and the role of the Internet. In this permanent hypermedialization of our present, every future is suffocated because it happens only symbolically. But to win a real future, we have to liberate the present from its seductive slag of its medialization. Only when we understand the role Greta Thunberg's home stories play - namely the prevention of real change - can we turn the world around for the better.
The second lecture will take place on Tuesday, June 24, starting at 6:00 p.m. Its title is:
If you address the whole world, you should know your own acre
documenta 15, led by the artist-curator group ruangrupa, was full of books, flyers, leaflets - almost all of them wood and lino prints. Why do we find so many artworks in the most important world exhibition in 2022, executed in the oldest printing process? Why are contemporary artists using a method of dissemination that is antique?
In the 16th century the Reformation and woodblock printing merged together and caused an overthrow of the conditions of the time. This gave woodblock printing a political function that it still has today. The last documenta was dominated by the struggle of the global South against the global North. It was a call to overthrow the existing power and property relations of the whole world. Letterpress is the medium which has his symbolic power from history. Because it has already set a revolution in motion. This impact gives it relevance even though it is not up-to-date in terms of technology.
This political manifestation, the fight for freedom and justice, runs through the entire history of woodcut and linocut. It is the testimony of those who have been forgotten by socio-cultural progress, but who nevertheless raise their voices. Beyond this gesture of rebellion, it also bears witness to a way of thinking and acting that incorporates the context. Woodcuts are always also testimonies to holistic thinking and pleas for togetherness - poetic gems of embedding and co-operation.
