Six Lectures and One Reading Session

An evening on the “Lecture” issue by TEXTE ZUR KUNST

The December issue of TEXTE ZUR KUNST puts the practice of the lecture front and center. Particularly in lecture performance, a power-critical and subversive approach to the presumed authority and implicit hierarchies of the format can generate productive effects. At the same time, public speaking offers an opportunity to practice what Tavia Nyong’o describes in the issue as an “ethics of listening.” During this evening, TZK invites you to engage with various lecture formats.

In her reading of “The Pleaser, the Killjoy, the Magician,” artist Olga Hohmann takes language at its word and asks: What exactly do you give when you give a speech? Conventions can be given into – or given up, for instance. The encounter between speaker and audience is also a constant yet unpredictable give-and-take. Hohmann, whose texts are written to be read aloud, even offers her audience three lecturers as she performs the characters of her work’s title: the opportunistic speaker, the feminist spoilsport, and the magician-artist.

The video lectures produced for this TZK issue also reflect on the format itself. Artists and scholars Huey Copeland, Isabelle Graw, Lila-Zoé Krauß, Sophie Seita, Julia Scher, and Jan Verwoert all deal with the expectations associated with the lecture. Their videos will premiere at the event.

The issue will be released in stores on December 3 but already be available at the event.

The program will mainly be held in English.

Wednesday, November 20
Betonhalle
Doors: 19 pm / Start: 20 pm
Admission free