4/5 December 2015

The second day of the symposium, on Saturday, 5 December, is taking place at Corner College.

On the occasion of Monica Ursina Jaeger’s solo show Future Archaeologies – Your Assumptions are my Memories at Christinger De Mayo, Zurich, we organise a guerrilla symposium to discuss the possibilities and problems of the “fiction as method – complex”.

Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes. To study history is to study humanity. And to try to foretell the future without studying history is like trying to learn to read without bothering to learn the alphabet.
From: Octavia E Butler: „A Few Rules for Predicting the Future“

When the Venice Biennale claims to discuss “All the Worlds Futures”, it becomes clear that the methodologies of fiction are no longer just part of the artistic practice, but also of curating, social science and global media.


http://www.muj.ch/Symposium


When the Venice Biennale claims to discuss “All the Worlds Futures”, it becomes clear that the methodologies of fiction are no longer just part of the artistic practice, but also of curating, social science and global media.

With accelerated globalization, the concomitant influence of digital culture and its accessible worlds of knowledge, within the last 25 years, disparate cultures, knowledge and art worlds have become interconnected and contemporaneous with each other. There are many co-existing ways of being in time and belonging to it. Thus, while being increasingly aware of being in the present, we are becoming attentive to other kinds of time. As a consequence, we seem to be living in an expanded present. But how far back – and forth – in time does the durational extension of our present reach?

The symposium brings together artists, curators, writers, critics and other voices to explore how fiction could be defined in regard to their practices, whether through the creation of fictional narratives, concepts fabricated around temporalities or the actual challenging of space-time relations.

Organized by artist Monica Ursina Jäger and curator/writer Damian Christinger.

Free entry, no booking required



Programme:

Friday 4 December

Venue: Christinger De Mayo, Ankerstrasse 24, 8004 Zurich

11.00-12.00 Session 1 Artist Talk and discussion: Monica Ursina Jäger in conversation with Kathleen Bühler (curator Kunstmuseum Bern)


Individual lunch



Venue: FRICTION, Nordflügel Gessnerallee, Gessnerallee 8, 8001 Zürich

13.00-13.30 Session 2 and discussion: Heiko Schmid, art historian / curator
13.45-14.15 Session 3 and discussion: Alexandra Navratil, artist
14.30-15.00 Session 4 and discussion: Sarah Zürcher, art historian/curator/critic
15.15-15.45 Session 5 and discussion: Emily Rosamond, artist

Break and informal discussion

19.45-20.45 Session 6 Art and Argument organised / chaired by Aoife Rosenmeyer
with: Daniel Blochwitz, Damian Christinger, Emily Rosamond, Eduardo Simantob


Break and informal discussion



Saturday 5 December

Venue: Corner College, Kochstrasse 1, 8004 Zurich

14.00-14.30 Session 7 and discussion: Eduardo Simantob, author and scenario writer
14.45-15.15 Session 8 and discussion: Stefan Zweifel, critic and curator
15.30-16.00 Session 9 and discussion: Dimitrina Sevova, curator / writer
16.15-16.45 Session 10 and discussion: Roger Buergel, Johann Jacobs Museum and Damian Christinger, curator/writer
17.00-17.30 Roundtable and Conclusions

Locations
Galerie Christinger De Mayo, Ankerstrasse 24, 8004 Zurich
FRICTION, Nordflügel, Gessnerallee 8, 8001 Zürich
Corner College, Kochstrasse 1, 8004 Zurich

Information and Contact
Fiction As Method Symposium Website
Damian Christinger, damian@christingerdemayo.com 079 253 45 28
Monica Ursina Jäger, monica@muj.ch 078 723 83 32