Summer School

Over the course of two weeks, two practical workshops lasting several days took place led by Vera and Ruedi Baur from Civic city (Paris) and Lukas Marstaller from BNAG.cc (Offenbach/Berlin).

From an artistic and creative perspective, public spaces were examined in which social interaction can be experienced and democratic processes can be initiated. The Summer School was accompanied by a public program of talks and lectures. One of the guests was the Center for Political Beauty (Berlin). The activist collective considers itself a radical branch of humanism and has repeatedly provoked controversy with its artistic interventions. The spatial installation FUNARAL by the German-Turkish artist and architect Daniel Theiler (Berlin) served as the communicative center of the Summer School and a venue for lectures, talks and concerts. The architectural staging of a gas station gave rise to a vision of a place of freedom and gathering. A bar provided visitors with specially labelled Riesling from J.B. Becker and other drinks.

The format of the Summer School aimed at an intensive thematic exploration, an interdisciplinary, intercultural and personal exchange as well as getting to know new places and spaces. With their university origins, access to summer schools is usually restricted to enrolled students. By detaching itself from academic admission requirements, the museum aimed to open up and test access to academic teaching formats. The museum thus took a stand on the question of its accessibility, questioning the way it deals with museum space as well as research, collection, presentation and representation. Established forms of academic knowledge transfer were broken up and renegotiated: What forms of learning and teaching become possible in an institution that is not (yet) a university? What role do the spaces and their atmosphere play in the mediation and production of knowledge? To what extent can the work at museums and universities be intertwined, how does exchange take place?

“I no longer accept the things I cannot change. I change the things I cannot accept.” – This quote, from which both political and creative intent can be read, stems from the civil rights activist Angela Davis. There is a special connection between Davis and the city of Frankfurt. Davis arrived at the reopened Institute for Social Research at Goethe University in the mid-1960s, where she tried to combine the academic with political activism. “To this day, I can only imagine this combination between academia and activism in my work,” says Davis when she returns to Frankfurt in 2013 on the occasion of the Visiting Professorship in International Gender and Diversity Studies established in her honour. Since 2013, the professorship at the Cornelia Goethe Centrum (CGC) at Goethe University has been filled by renowned and committed international researchers such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Amina Mama.

The linking of science and political activism was the starting point of a two-week workshop. Based on the working and research methods of the Scuola del Non-Sapere (School of Non-Knowledge) initiated by Civic city, the workshop explored the topics of intersectionality, anti-racism, women’s rights, prison abolition and global social rights. In the workshop, research, documentation and analysis was carried out, visual implementations were developed and urban interventions were conceived.

The workshop was interdisciplinary in concept and was aimed at interested participants from the humanities as well as from the field of design. The course was divided into two phases: In the first week, the foundation was developed, in the second week the results of the workshop were discussed, reflected on and expanded practically.

A second, more compact workshop format engaged in a dialogue with the rest of the Summer School program by taking up discourses and continuing them visually. The format was also dedicated to spaces, forms and graphic practices in its own experimental way. Together, playful design and production possibilities were investigated and the fringes of graphic design were explored. The intention was to open up new perspectives, provoke the unexpected, follow one’s gut feeling and leave the very subjective paths of least resistance. During two workshop days, the studio was moved into the public space and the urban environment was explored. The impressions were produced intuitively and spontaneously with a risograph. The collective results of the workshop were compiled in a zine that was published at the end of the Summer School.

Monday, 21.8.

6 pm
Performance by Julia Hainz

6.30 pm
Robert Johnson Theory
Nik Nowak in conversation with Patrick Raddatz

8 pm
Anna Hjalmarsson, concert/DJ set
Talks at the bar afterwards

Tuesday, 22.8.

6.30 pm
Antenna Civic city
Talks and bar

Wednesday 23.8.

6.30 pm
Centre for Political Beauty
Lecture

8 pm
Aparde, concert/DJ set
Talks at the bar afterwards

Thursday, 24.8.

5.30 pm
Antenna Civic city
#HannahArendtLectures / #AngelaDavisLectures.
A life free from necessity and the freedom to be free.
Dr. Regula Stämpfli in conversation with Civic city
Talks at the bar afterwards

Saturday, 26.8.

3 to 5 pm
Wine tasting with J.B. Becker, Rheingau
30 minutes each

5 pm
Bertolt Meyer, live concert

Monday, 28.8.

6.30 pm
Where do we come from – Where do we want to go?
What characterises Frankfurt as a city of cultural diversity and how can inclusive spaces enrich coexistence?
Discussion with Ata Macias, Daniel Theiler, Setareh Alipour and Lara Stöhlmacher. Host: Cecily Ogunjobi
Followed by discussion at the bar

Tuesday, 29.8.

6.30 pm
Antenna Civic city
Talks and bar

Wednesday, 30.8.

5 pm
AND.kitchen
Intervention, snacks and lounge

6.30 pm
Democracy in Process – Visions for Tomorrow.
Challenges and perspectives for an active and inclusive co-creation of democracy – How can we develop our society together?
Panel discussion with Matthias Wagner K and others. Host: Anna Scheuermann
Followed by discussion at the bar

Thursday, 31.8.

6 pm
Performance by Abelha Supersónica

Antenna Civic city
Performative politics of design
Christopher Dell in conversation with Civic city

Performance by Anno Bolender and Lou Siebold: uncrumbling:facelessbodies
Artist talks and bar afterwards

Saturday 2.9.

3 pm
Zine release and get-together
Closing at the bar