Opening Weekend: »CRITICAL ZONES«

On Friday, 22 May 2020 at 6 pm, a weekend commences, which will celebrate the opening of the Critical Zones exhibition with a Streaming Festival that has never been done in this form before at the ZKM. On its website and on the ZKM’s YouTube channel there will be live broadcasts of lectures, films, theater performances, guided tours, and talks with artists. Workshops and podium discussions with the public will also take place. A telegram channel will offer the ongoing opportunity to ask questions, contribute comments, and discuss. Together, we will think and talk about the state of our Earth, and via all the ZKM’s channels look toward the horizon of new Earthly politics.

»“Will the ZKM be opening?” No, because the ZKM never closed! It was always open, online. Currently, we are hearing that the museums are open again, which means actually entering the real space of the museums is now possible again. In reality, most museums were open the whole time during the coronavirus crisis; namely, open in virtual space while their real spaces were closed. The coronavirus crisis forced many public facilities to produce new, digital forms of serving the public and to communicate via the telematic media, because the old forms were not operating. Thus, through being obliged to enter the digital sphere it then became clear that today we possess many forms of public spheres.

While the ZKM’s real spaces remain closed, the ZKM stay open in the virtual space of the networks. From 6 April to 1 May 2020, Monday to Friday from 6 pm, the ZKM broadcast the FEMINALE OF MUSIC: FEMALE COMPOSERS, a digital festival to present female composers, from the 17th century to the present, with a changing live program that included interviews and concerts. The ZKM also “opened” the closed exhibition bauhaus.film.expanded in virtual space at least twice a week presenting film screenings, talks with experts, and workshops. The ZKM was “on the air” and thus always open and freely accessible. [...]« – Peter Weibel