WHAT’S URGENT?

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The first day of the »Driving the Human« Festival gives an insight into the cooperation project and opens up the wide variety of questions and topics of the following two-day program, including welcome speeches, project presentations, statements and performances.

From Friday 6:30 pm CET until Sunday evening, the festival was broadcasted online, including panel discussions, film screenings, lectures, performances, talks, workshops, and an activation program. The audience was invited to take part in the live discussion via a Telegram Group, connecting and collecting ideas and asking the panelists and participants questions.

Program

For the entire festival the Workshop »THERE ARE BIOCOMPOSITES GROWING IN MY GARDEN« by Kim André Lange & Bio Design Lab was offered via live stream and especially at Instagram @biodesignlab_hfgk. (Due to legal reasons, this contribution was not recorded.)

Welcome and Introduction to the Program
Barbara Kiolbassa (art mediator ZKM), Julien McHardy (researcher, curator)
Welcome by Jan Boelen (rector of HfG) and Peter Weibel (CEO of ZKM)
Music and visuals by Alba G. Corral & Tutu (Due to legal reasons, this contribution was not recorded.)

Presentation of the exhibition project »Critical Zones« at the ZKM
Daria Mille (curator at ZKM)

The awareness of an existential threat to our collective conditions of existence leads to the necessity of finding various ways of coping with Earth’s critical situation and reconfiguring how we orient ourselves. Exploring new modes of coexistence between all forms of life, the exhibition »Critical Zones« at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe provides an orientation with which to discuss the ecological and sociopolitical challenges of our times.

Project presentation of the »Bio Design Lab« at the HfG
Lisa Ertel, Ina Grabosch, Julia Ihls, Anne-Sophie Oberkrome (HfG alumni and students) are investigating local resources and sustainable possibilities of redesigning and rethinking production methods. The »Bio Design Lab« of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design introduces several formats to discuss practical and sustainable visions for the future.

Voices of the Festival
What are the urgencies of our times?
Short statements of the panelists and participants who discussed the urgencies of our times in six sections on Saturday and Sunday.

Statement and Performance
Vivien Tauchmann, »Self-As-Other-Training: Smartphone (1)«

Vivien Tauchmann produced five »Self-As-Other-Trainings« that were shown throughout the festival. The »Self-As-Other-Trainings« address the necessity of educating our bodies through the decontextualization of these silent exclusions and the active embodiment of the »other« in choreographed storylines in order to evoke critical self-reflection and eventually provoke behavioral change. Her work seeks to demonstrate that empathy is not only a rational capability, but also a physical state of mind through which we can reshape our connections to people beyond our known scope.

Project presentation
Hans Ulrich Obrist, »IT’S URGENT! Part II«

The idea for the poster series »IT’S URGENT! Part II« was to create new, less predictable situations, eschewing classical exhibitions in favor of other modes of display and visibility, thus producing new forms of exchange, encounter and social space, opening up to new audiences. It is an exhibition model that Hans Ulrich Obrist started (with Christian Boltanski and Betrand Lavier) in 1993 with »do it«. Obrist presents his project and puts 62 posters of »IT’S URGENT Part II« on display.

Film screening
Melanie Bonajo, »TouchMETell«, 2019, HD video film, 25 min, courtesy the artist & AKINCI (Due to legal reasons, this contribution was not recorded.)

Melanie Bonajo and a group of children aged 6-8 investigate how they experience their own body and physical contact with others. Bonajo uses open interview techniques and kinesthetic forms of play which take place in a soft, fuzzy, cuddly and multi-colored landscape of different formed objects. Bonajo wants to initiate a discussion about boundaries, gender roles, physical autonomy and intimacy and the lack of physical contact in this digital age.

Music and visuals by Alba G. Corral & Tutu (Due to legal reasons, this contribution was not recorded.)

Driving the Human Festival: Friday Livestream

Driving the Human Festival
November 20–22, 2020

Organized and hosted by ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design

The »Driving the Human« cooperation is initiated and coordinated by four institutions: acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, the international mentoring program Forecast, the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

»Driving the Human« is supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment.