LaborAtelier II - 20 Years Berlin University of the Arts

A little more than 20 years ago, the Hochschule der Künste gave itself the name Universität der Künste. The change of name was hardly accompanied by structural changes, but it did complete a development that had already been laid out in the concept of the institution's re-foundation as the Hochschule der Künste in 1975. The Hochschule der Künste, which already had university powers, also pushed ahead with its structural transformation of a university encompassing all the arts into a university, especially after reunification, whereby the interdisciplinarity practised as a matter of course at the institution began to increasingly emerge in the institutional structure as well.

In the past 20 years, the structure of the art university, which is now also indicated in the name, has been filled, lived, developed, negotiated, corrected and expanded. The anniversary event projects the same period of time into the future in a mixture of strategy and near-future fiction:

UdK (2001+20 +20) 2041- Was bist du?

The rapid changes in science and the arts, the overdue critical questioning and revision of traditional paradigms and, finally, global crises and conflicts demand the social responsibility of the art university more than ever. In this context, the task of creating and defending more open spaces for development, in which a creative approach to the unforeseen can be rehearsed, conceived, practised and communicated without fear and in a commitment to experimentation, is a central one: the art of collaboration, of designing innovative, creative spaces through improvisation and, not least, transferring these into adequate institutional structures is nothing less than political art.

Starting from the question of hybrid research spaces in and between science and the arts, which seems almost naïve from a current perspective, we demand future reconceptualisations of our artistic and scientific practice and of our analogue and digital research gestures to explore the conditions of creative collaboration: conditions that can withstand authoritarian violence and Eurocentric heritage, which can help fragility and diversity, as a basic condition of human coexistence in the arts and sciences, to become a reality.

As a continuation of the LaborAtelier series of talks from December 2021, two panels will take place: On the topic of “Strange Strings - Improvisation as Research”, Georg Bertram, Vera Bühlmann, Florian Dombois, George Lewis, Arlette-Louis Ndakoze and Avinoam Shalev will address visible and invisible limits and possibilities of innovative research paradigms. The “Experiment Creative Future” is a format designed by the student Tabea Magura. It gives space to contemplate and reflect: an exploration of the present moment, which shapes the future and the visionary thinking by experimenting with artistic tools. Students’ performances will guide through the experiment while addressing all senses and opening a new dimension: consciousness.

Both panels will be embedded in artistic performances and presentations.

The event will be framed by keynotes from Arlette-Louis Ndakoze and António Damásio.