08 May 2013

Kunsthalle Wien: WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do

WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do
Festival
17/5 – 26/5 2013
Daily 2pm – 2am
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
Talks, discussions, films, readings, lectures, performances, concerts, parties

As a prelude to its repositioning, the Kunsthalle Wien is organizing a ten-day festival dedicated to the central issues of our society. WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do draws on Thomas Bernhard's tradition of critical, and sometimes unsettling thinking and transposes it to the present, spreading it through a variety of disciplines so as to work towards a productive analysis of the present.

'I don't like the system!' sings Dorottya Karsay in her music video that has become a Hungarian protest anthem, criticizing the Orbán government's policy and alluding to the 'Like' button on Facebook. 'Like'/'Dislike' could be seen as a metaphor for a mode of communication that has been reduced to agreement/rejection, as is so frequently practiced in virtual as well as in real life.
WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do. This question is deliberately asked without a question mark, and, as such, no singular answer should be expected. Rather, it leaves room for a wide range of statements, explanations, and interpretations. What Would Thomas Bernhard Do does not only work in a scientifically logic or poetical way, but also musically, visually, and, above all, in the togetherness and confusion of a marathon without a pre-determined finish line.

About one hundred practitioners in the visual arts, music, literature, art theory, philosophy, and economics will contribute to the performance of a spectacular and innovative play. Every day, there will be six to twelve acts of different tempos and tonalities. While these are autonomous, they also form part of a unified overall program, unfolding over the course of the ten-day run of WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do. Both the performers – who come together in choreographed sequences and various formats – as well as the audience members, are productively involved in the action. Performances will replace lectures and discussion rounds will be replaced by readings, concerts, talks, and sets by famous DJs. Together, they will open room for interpretation along the fault lines of society. This is framed around a set by American artist Barbara Kruger; an installation by Austrian artist Heinrich Dunst; and a sound piece by Austrian artist Robert Schwarz.

The high points of WWTBD include panel discussions with the star economist Tomáš Sedláček, who described the antithesis of the predominant positivist economic doctrine in his book Economics of Good and Evil; the young writer Helene Hegemann whose book Axolotl Roadkill caused a lot of controversy; and a talk with the renowned historian for architecture, Beatriz Colomina. Conversations between Peter Sloterdijk and Peter Weibel, Markus Schinwald and Erwin Wurm, and Jan Hoet and Ann Demeester, will be both informative as well as impulsive. Readings by the cult Chinese author Mián Mián are as much part of the repertoire of WWTBD as performances by the French artist Saâdane Afif, and the Greek-Belgian multimedia artist Danai Anesiadou.

Participants include: Saâdane Afif, artist (Berlin); Joonas Ahonen, pianist (Vienna); Danai Anesiadou, artist (Brussels); Barnabás Bencsik, curator (Budapest); Clemens Berger, writer (Vienna); Roger Bundschuh, architect (Berlin); Stefanie Carp, dramaturge Wiener Festwochen (Vienna); Alessio delli Castelli, artist (Berlin); Zita Cobb, Shorefast Foundation (Ottawa); Beatriz Colomina, architecture historian (Princeton); Curt Cuisine, music critic (Vienna); Michael Dallinger, cellist (Vienna); George van Dam, composer and musician (Brussels); Clémentine Deliss, director Weltkulturen Museum (Frankfurt a. M.); Ann Demeester, director De Appel (Amsterdam); Julius Deutschbauer, artist (Vienna); Sepp Dreissinger, photographer (Vienna); Heinrich Dunst, artist (Vienna); Yilmaz Dziewior, director Kunsthaus Bregenz (Bregenz); Harun Farocki, filmmaker (Berlin); Thomas Feuerstein, artist (Vienna); Bernhard Fetz, director Literary Archives of the National Library (Vienna); Krista Fleischmann, journalist (Straß); Gunnar Fras, timpanist (Vienna); Maria Fusco, artist (London); Isa Genzken, artist (Berlin); Liam Gillick, artist (New York); Piero Golia, artist (Los Angeles); David Gross, composer (New York); Krist Gruijthuijsen, director Grazer Kunstverein (Graz); Francesca Habsburg, chairman TBA21 (Vienna); Byung-Chul Han, philosopher (Berlin); Gert Hecher, pianist (Vienna); Helene Hegemann, writer (Berlin); Jan Hoet, curator (Ghent); Lisa Hofer, actress (Vienna); Karl Holmqvist, artist (Berlin); Alfred Höller, taxidermist (Pinsdorf); Carsten Höller, artist (Stockholm); Katja Huber, journalist (Munich); Martin Huber, archive of Thomas Bernhard (Gmunden); Tim Jackson, economist (Surrey); Marien Jongewaard, actor (Amsterdam); Schorsch Kamerun, singer (Hamburg); Dorottya Karsay, activist (Budapest); Sung Hwan Kim, artist (New York); Alexander Kluge, filmmaker (Munich); Kasper König, curator (Cologne); Martin Kratochwil, musician (Vienna); Barbara Kruger, artist (Los Angeles); Herbert Lachmayer, philosopher (Vienna); Erik Leidal, singer (Vienna); Erik van Lieshout, artist (Rotterdam); Geert Lovink, media theorist (Amsterdam); Marko Lulic, artist (Vienna); Martin Markeli, artist (Vienna); Barbara Marković, writer (Vienna); Tom McCarthy, writer (London); Thomas Meinecke, writer (Munich); Robert Menasse, writer (Vienna); Michele di Menna, artist (Berlin); Mián Mián, writer (Shanghai); Thomas Mießgang, journalist (Vienna); Manfred Mittermayer, literary scientist (Salzburg); Matthias Mühling, curator Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich); Rainer Münz, Erste Group (Vienna); Didi Neidhart, music critic (Vienna); Gerald Nestler, artist (Vienna); Merab Ninidze, actor (Berlin/Vienna); Markus Oberndorfer, artist (Vienna); Marcel Odenbach, artist (Cologne); Boris Ondreička, artist and curator (Bratislava); Wolfgang Pauser, philosopher (Vienna); Robert Pfaller, philosopher (Vienna); Patrick Pulsinger, producer and DJ (Vienna); Doron Rabinovici, writer and historian (Vienna); Juliane Rebentisch, philosopher (Offenbach a. M.); Simon Rees, curator (Vienna); Gerwald Rockenschaub, artist (Berlin/Vienna); Willem de Rooij, artist (Berlin); Station Rose, artist (Vienna); Elisabeth von Samsonow, philosopher and artist (Vienna); Sepp Schellhorn, gourmet chef (Goldegg); Markus Schinwald, artist (Vienna); Urs Schnell, filmmaker (Bern); Robert Schwarz, sound artist (Vienna); Yohanna Schwertfeger, actress Burgtheater (Vienna); Tomáš Sedláček, economist (Prague); Ulrich Seidl, filmmaker (Vienna); Peter Sloterdijk, philosopher (Karlsruhe); Biljana Srbljanović, writer (Paris); Gerald Straub, artist and curator (Vienna); Thomas Trenkler, journalist (Vienna); Thomas D. Trummer, director Kunsthalle Mainz (Mainz); Vitus Weh, quartier21 (Vienna); Peter Weibel, artist, curator and director of ZKM (Karlsruhe); Frederick Wiseman, filmmaker (New York); Erwin Wurm, artist (Vienna); Jean Philipp Oliver Viol, composer (Vienna); Erich Zawinul, producer (Vienna); and many more.

Concept: Nicolaus Schafhausen
Dramaturgy: Vanessa Joan Müller
Curators: Cathérine Hug, Lucas Gehrmann, and Nicolaus Schafhausen
Curatorial Assistents: Andrea Hubin, Gareth Long, and Vivien Trommer

External Partners: Wiener Festwochen, Thomas Bernhard Archive (Gmunden) and Private Foundation (Vienna), British Council Austria (Vienna), Embassy of the United States of America (Vienna), Czech Centrum (Vienna), Ministry of Life (Vienna).

#WWTBD #Festival #ThomasBernhard #KunsthalleWien #NicolausSchafhausen #Vienna

For more information and visual material, please feel free to contact: presse@kunsthallewien.at