With Melanie Roumiguière (Head of Visual Arts Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD)
If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag delves into the artistic scenes in West Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall, based on the history of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. Launched in 1963, the residency program brought international artists to West Berlin as a signal against the “cultural isolation” of the city. An exhibition in three chapters – at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), daadgalerie, and Galerie im Körnerpark – accompanied by events at Akademie der Künste and other venues examines the role of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in nurturing artistic practices and networks during the Cold War and investigates the program’s cultural and political orientation. The focus is on the activities of the Artists-in-Berlin Program, which was initiated 60 years ago by the U.S. Ford Foundation and subsequently continued by DAAD from 1965 onward, particularly with regard to the political motivations that drove efforts to internationalize the […]
Wtih Emre Busse, Julian K. Glover, Jule Govrin, Reba Maybury, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Amber Jamilla Musser, and others
Concept: Kathrin Busch, Susanne Huber, Christian Liclair
Coordination: Silvia Koch, Susanne Mierzwiak, Michaela Richter
How does aesthetic pleasure derived from artistic encounters relate to erotic and sexual pleasure? 18th-century philosophical aesthetics made a clear distinction between aesthetic pleasure – representing refined spiritual experiences and forming the basis of critical value judgments – and sexual pleasure – a manifestation of physical attraction and primal, carnal instincts. Immanuel Kant’s notion of “disinterested pleasure” in beauty is notably devoid of erotic interests. According to Kant, sexuality was inherently suspect, as it could lead people to use others as a means to satisfy their own sexual “appetite.” In his Aesthetic Theory, Theodor W. Adorno criticized Kant’s transcendental aesthetics, which detached itself from personal desires, as a form of “castrated hedonism, desire without desire.”
Meanwhile, Pierre Bourdieu contended that philosophers’ rejection of physical pleasures serves […]