24 Oct 2012

guest_*talk by Jochen Becker at F+F Zurich

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Wednesday, 31 October 2012, 7 pm
Jochen Becker: Never Expect Power Always
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'Power' in Nigeria—where the utilities provider NEPA only supplies electricity sporadically and private generators are necessary self-help devices—means both electric power and political power. The 'Redeemed Christian Church of God' at the Holy Ghost Camp on the outskirts of Lagos has both, so that it can accommodate up to a million followers under a church roof that shines from afar. Tony Allen, a longstanding band colleague of the legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, interpreted the initials of the national utility company in a song as 'Never Expect Power Always'.
Jochen Becker will talk about 'African Nights' and urban religiosity as well as about modernist church art and the light of the enlightenment.
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Jochen Becker (*1962), author, lecturer and curator, Berlin. He is the editor of many books on urban themes, such as 'Urban Prayers' (2011), a founding member of 'metroZones – Center for Urban Affairs e.V.', as well as artistic director of the Exhibition and Research Project 'global prayers. redemption and liberation in the city', initiated in 2009.
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Art & Church – The Guest_*Talks Series 2012/13
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The new guest_*talks series by the F+F School of Art and Media Design Zurich is devoted to the theme of art and the church. In various lectures and moderated panel discussions, a subject is sounded out that, in the end, is as important as it is compelling. How does the historically evolved and significant relationship stand today between art and church, a relationship that is no longer a matter of course and has become in part problematic? On what current basis does an association exist between the church as an institution and a concrete site and art? And why—in view of the existing breaches in this relationship—are artists still ongoing in their interest in liturgical ceremonies, rituals and representational techniques? We are interested in the question of the meaning, the possibility and the function of contemporary art inside the church as well as within the liturgy.
In addition, there is the phenomenon of so-called 'free churches' that, as partly worldwide denominations, have over the past years acted in an interventionist way in social and political spheres, i.e., places where, since the 1970s at the latest, art has also been active; these sometimes para-religious groups have launched representational forms that operate in a pop-cultural, aesthetic, as well as economist way. And vice versa, also of interest in this series is the church as a secularized site for parties and events and the ensuing dialectic relationship of stipulation and use, while in the meantime consecrated churches have recently become headline news when they operated as a platform for artistic actions.
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Full informations: 
ffzh.ch/download/report/1249_2_f+f-guest%20talks_2012-13_media-release_e.pdf

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Upcoming guest_*talks 
Wednesday, 28 November 2012 - Christoph Sigrist, theologian, pastor at the Grossmünster Zurich and lecturer at the Theological Faculty of the University of Bern; and Gregor Tolusso, theologian, priest at the center city rectory of the Holy Trinity in Bern: Picture Lust & Picture Frust – On Liturgical Life with Art.
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Place
Evangelisch-methodistische Kirche Zürich 4,
Stauffacherstrasse 54, 8004 Zürich.
The events are open to the public and entrance is gratis.
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Time
The bar opens at 6.30 pm. Lectures begin at 7 pm. 
Events last 1½ hours.
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