Images that mean the world

A conference about the limits of representation in politics, media and theater

Representation works as follows: First we separate, but then
we try to create identity beyond this separation.
Boris Groys

Who represents whom, by what right, in what way – these are the questions that aim at the heart of a society and that are asked more and more in the last years. Not only in politics, but also in media and arts, who represents whom and how is a central question. In theater, the artistic medium of representing human beings and stories, a controversy has arisen about who and what can and should be (re-)presented on a stage: On the one hand, stories of the white middle class are still dominating the programs also of the independent theaters, on the other hand, there are increasing discussions – especially when theater works are openly confronting the problem of representation – about the limits of representing the other.

In this context, the conference “Images that mean the world” raises the question about the limits of representation in politics as well as in the media and in theater: How can we develop new forms of representation, which aren’t a permanent repetition of artificial boundaries? Which forms of structural empowerment and redistribution are possible? What are the limits of speaking out for somebody, of somebody, as someone different – and where is it an adequate medium of learning to understand? What would be agonistic forms of representation in arts and politics? Is it wrong, to get an idea of something? Can images still mean the world?

• SAMSTAG
  • June 20
• 11am
  • Welcome
    Florian Malzacher
• 11.15am
  • The Tear Catcher
    On Representation as a Matter of Doing and/or Showing
    Keynote by Tirdad Zolghadr
• 12pm
  • It is Easy to Say, What an Institution Should not be
    New Models of Institutional Self-representation
    With Yvette Mutumba, Jonas Staal, Ahmet Öǧüt
    Mod.: Joanna Warsza
• 1.30pm
  • Lunch Break
• 2.30pm
  • The Necessity of Political Representation
    From Anti-Representational Movements to Syriza & Podemos
    A conversation between Oliver Marchart & Chantal Mouffe
• 3.30pm
  • Coffee Break
• 4pm
  • The Art of Representation
    Performance, Method Acting, Blackfacing… who can play whom?
    With Monika Gintersdorfer, Joy Kristin Kalu, Malte Jelden, Vassilis Tsianos
    Mod.: Oliver Kontny
• Mülheim an der Ruhr
  VHS Mülheim, Foyer
  Admission free
  Language EN

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