15 Acts of Participation
April 7, 2016 | TBA21–Augarten, Vienna
April 7, 2016 | TBA21–Augarten, Vienna
Olafur Eliasson, Green light | An artistic workshop, 2016
Photo: Sandro Zanzinger/TBA21
Photo: Sandro Zanzinger/TBA21
15 Acts of Participation is a public gathering partially celebrating, partially sharing, Olafur Eliasson’s Green light – An artistic workshop. Hosted at TBA21–Augarten, this event pulls together speakers, artists, thinkers, and performers in a diverse program that lasts from noon until midnight.Olafur Eliasson and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza are joined by Atif Akin, Gina Brandlmayr, Damian Christinger, Alexander Ehrmann, Paul Feigelfeld, Rasmus Nielsen/SUPERFLEX, Sandra Noeth, Ben Paine, Johannes Porsch, Andreas Roepstorff, Zavoloka, Daniela Zyman, members of Studio Olafur Eliasson, and the Green light participants in creating a day of events that mirrors the dynamic flows and components inherent to the Green light project itself.
During the three-month Green light project participants and members of the general public engage in Shared Learning, a changing multidirectional weekly program of creative activities and critical discourse at TBA21–Augarten. 15 Acts of Participation offers the public a concentrated version of this vibrant project.
During the three-month Green light project participants and members of the general public engage in Shared Learning, a changing multidirectional weekly program of creative activities and critical discourse at TBA21–Augarten. 15 Acts of Participation offers the public a concentrated version of this vibrant project.
Act 1: 12 noon
Olafur Eliasson and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza: Welcoming and Green light Installation Action
Members of Studio Olafur Eliasson and the Green light participants give instructions and demonstrate the process of assembling a Green light lamp, followed by a collaborative action where a large sculptural ensemble is being created with the Green light modules with Olafur Eliasson and the general public.
Screening: 1–5 pm
Neil Beloufa: Kempinski
Kempinski (2007, 14 min.), a video work by artist Neil Beloufa, explores ideas of the future through a series of interviews conducted on the periphery of Mali’s capital Bamako. The interviewees are dramatically illuminated in the dark night by handheld neon lights, while standing in lush foliage, or amongst clusters of animals. They speculate on numerous possibilities that may lie ahead, dreams like living as the only man among hundreds of oxen, speaking cars, and mobile houses.
Act 2: 1 pm
Testimonies and Memories
To inaugurate the Green light—Shared Learning platform, Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Raqs Media Collective staged a two-day workshop with participants called “Memory and Mobility: On What It Means to Get Up and Go.” Here the results of the workshop are introduced and discussed by the Green light participants, who explore themes of memory, mobility, and the migration of dreams, ideas, stories, and concepts.
Act 3: 2 pm
Communal Lunch designed and prepared by Green light participants.
This communal lunch is composed as a participatory process between Green light participants and some Austrian chefs, orchestrated by the experimental pharmacist Alexander Ehrmann of Saint Charles Apotheke, Vienna and culinary free spirit Gina Brandlmayr.
Act 4: 3:30 pm
Johannes Porsch & Green light participants: What Acts Upon Us When We Are Acting?
This act is part of Johannes Porsch’s 10-week long seminar; which engages with a theatrical setting before the performance has even begun, which rehearses the plot of a play that has not been written yet, but is written through the process of rehearsing. How does acting in concert begin? How does beginning work? What is always already acting while a beginning unfolds?
Act 5: 4 pm
Ben Paine: Public Participation in Crises—Applying Compassion with Wisdom
Drawing on experiences across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East Ben Paine, from the humanitarian NGO Medair, speaks on the (un)wise application of compassion and generosity, and the necessity to avoid pitfalls and harnessing emerging trends and technologies.
Act 6: 4:30 pm
Green light Soccer Tournament choreographed by TBA21
TBA21 and the Green light team invite you to a playful and participatory soccer match located at Augarten park. Please register at augarten@tba21.org
Screening: 5–10 pm
SUPERFLEX: Kwassa Kwassa
SUPERFLEX: Kwassa Kwassa (2015, 18:50 min.) documents the current political situation in the Comoro Islands, located between Mozambique and Madagascar. The film portrays a boat builder on the island of Anjouan, whose boats are used both for fishing and to transport migrants to the neighboring island of Mayotte, a French overseas territory that recently became the outermost region of the EU.
Act 7: 5 pm
Damian Christinger: Eye to Eye—Paulo Freire’s Legacy in the Context of Shared Learning
Following the critical pedagogy of the fabled Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, Swiss curator Damian Christinger, discusses Freire´s ideas of the “Pedagogy of the Opressed” and education as practice of freedom, originally explored during Latin American dictatorships in the 1960s. Christinger asks how Freire’s approaches are implemented in the democratic European contemporary condition and discusses participation and education with Green light participants Kelvin Osazuwa and Milad Amiry contextualizing Freire’s ideas in practice.
Act 8: 5:30 pm
Atif Akin: On Modularity and Code in the Context of Mobility
The animated presentation by the artist, designer, and curator Atif Akin reflects on the contemporary condition of mobility through the lens of architecture, museology, genealogy, genetics, and code. Contemplating spatiotemporal specificities, the intention here is to try to establish a framework in the context of contemporary art that can be used to reevaluate the current perspective and shift it toward a point of anti-crisis.
Olafur Eliasson and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza: Welcoming and Green light Installation Action
Members of Studio Olafur Eliasson and the Green light participants give instructions and demonstrate the process of assembling a Green light lamp, followed by a collaborative action where a large sculptural ensemble is being created with the Green light modules with Olafur Eliasson and the general public.
Screening: 1–5 pm
Neil Beloufa: Kempinski
Kempinski (2007, 14 min.), a video work by artist Neil Beloufa, explores ideas of the future through a series of interviews conducted on the periphery of Mali’s capital Bamako. The interviewees are dramatically illuminated in the dark night by handheld neon lights, while standing in lush foliage, or amongst clusters of animals. They speculate on numerous possibilities that may lie ahead, dreams like living as the only man among hundreds of oxen, speaking cars, and mobile houses.
Act 2: 1 pm
Testimonies and Memories
To inaugurate the Green light—Shared Learning platform, Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Raqs Media Collective staged a two-day workshop with participants called “Memory and Mobility: On What It Means to Get Up and Go.” Here the results of the workshop are introduced and discussed by the Green light participants, who explore themes of memory, mobility, and the migration of dreams, ideas, stories, and concepts.
Act 3: 2 pm
Communal Lunch designed and prepared by Green light participants.
This communal lunch is composed as a participatory process between Green light participants and some Austrian chefs, orchestrated by the experimental pharmacist Alexander Ehrmann of Saint Charles Apotheke, Vienna and culinary free spirit Gina Brandlmayr.
Act 4: 3:30 pm
Johannes Porsch & Green light participants: What Acts Upon Us When We Are Acting?
This act is part of Johannes Porsch’s 10-week long seminar; which engages with a theatrical setting before the performance has even begun, which rehearses the plot of a play that has not been written yet, but is written through the process of rehearsing. How does acting in concert begin? How does beginning work? What is always already acting while a beginning unfolds?
Act 5: 4 pm
Ben Paine: Public Participation in Crises—Applying Compassion with Wisdom
Drawing on experiences across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East Ben Paine, from the humanitarian NGO Medair, speaks on the (un)wise application of compassion and generosity, and the necessity to avoid pitfalls and harnessing emerging trends and technologies.
Act 6: 4:30 pm
Green light Soccer Tournament choreographed by TBA21
TBA21 and the Green light team invite you to a playful and participatory soccer match located at Augarten park. Please register at augarten@tba21.org
Screening: 5–10 pm
SUPERFLEX: Kwassa Kwassa
SUPERFLEX: Kwassa Kwassa (2015, 18:50 min.) documents the current political situation in the Comoro Islands, located between Mozambique and Madagascar. The film portrays a boat builder on the island of Anjouan, whose boats are used both for fishing and to transport migrants to the neighboring island of Mayotte, a French overseas territory that recently became the outermost region of the EU.
Act 7: 5 pm
Damian Christinger: Eye to Eye—Paulo Freire’s Legacy in the Context of Shared Learning
Following the critical pedagogy of the fabled Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, Swiss curator Damian Christinger, discusses Freire´s ideas of the “Pedagogy of the Opressed” and education as practice of freedom, originally explored during Latin American dictatorships in the 1960s. Christinger asks how Freire’s approaches are implemented in the democratic European contemporary condition and discusses participation and education with Green light participants Kelvin Osazuwa and Milad Amiry contextualizing Freire’s ideas in practice.
Act 8: 5:30 pm
Atif Akin: On Modularity and Code in the Context of Mobility
The animated presentation by the artist, designer, and curator Atif Akin reflects on the contemporary condition of mobility through the lens of architecture, museology, genealogy, genetics, and code. Contemplating spatiotemporal specificities, the intention here is to try to establish a framework in the context of contemporary art that can be used to reevaluate the current perspective and shift it toward a point of anti-crisis.
Intermezzo: 6 pm
Olafur Eliasson: Baroque Baroque Book Presentation and Signing
Act 9: 6 pm
Sandra Noeth: Bodies of Evidence
The dramaturge and researcher Sandra Noeth presents Bodies of Evidence. “Borders are many things. Material, architectural, constructed, symbolic, felt, fictional and memorized, embodied, lived, always already there—always yet to come. And still: it always starts in the body. This act is dedicated to all bodies in, as, of evidence.”
Olafur Eliasson: Baroque Baroque Book Presentation and Signing
Act 9: 6 pm
Sandra Noeth: Bodies of Evidence
The dramaturge and researcher Sandra Noeth presents Bodies of Evidence. “Borders are many things. Material, architectural, constructed, symbolic, felt, fictional and memorized, embodied, lived, always already there—always yet to come. And still: it always starts in the body. This act is dedicated to all bodies in, as, of evidence.”
Act 10: 6:30 pm
Olafur Eliasson and Andreas Roepstorff: In Conversation
Olafur Eliasson and the Danish anthropologist and scientist Andreas Roepstorff discuss the social conditions of our particular time and investigate the Green light platform as an experimental form, a site creating new spaces for human interaction.
Olafur Eliasson and Andreas Roepstorff: In Conversation
Olafur Eliasson and the Danish anthropologist and scientist Andreas Roepstorff discuss the social conditions of our particular time and investigate the Green light platform as an experimental form, a site creating new spaces for human interaction.
Act 11: 7 pm
Rasmus Nielsen/SUPERFLEX: Rock the Boat
Was Zeus the first human smuggler and where would we all be if the boarder police had caught his first passenger Europe who came from modern day Lebanon and ended up on the shores of the Greek Island of Crete. And why do we need to go to the Indian Ocean – a question explored in the film Kwassa Kwassa, on view in the screening room – to explore this question further? Straight and seasick answers presented by Rasmus Nielsen of SUPERFLEX in the form of words and moving images.
Rasmus Nielsen/SUPERFLEX: Rock the Boat
Was Zeus the first human smuggler and where would we all be if the boarder police had caught his first passenger Europe who came from modern day Lebanon and ended up on the shores of the Greek Island of Crete. And why do we need to go to the Indian Ocean – a question explored in the film Kwassa Kwassa, on view in the screening room – to explore this question further? Straight and seasick answers presented by Rasmus Nielsen of SUPERFLEX in the form of words and moving images.
Act 12: 7:30 pm
Olafur Eliasson and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza: The Will to Act is a Renewable Resource!
In a conversation, Olafur Eliasson and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza discuss how art and artists can respond to ecological and social issues, taking as examples TBA21’s general focus on sustainability and the Green light project’s commitment to bringing attention to contemporary political struggles and to the state of the environment.
Olafur Eliasson and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza: The Will to Act is a Renewable Resource!
In a conversation, Olafur Eliasson and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza discuss how art and artists can respond to ecological and social issues, taking as examples TBA21’s general focus on sustainability and the Green light project’s commitment to bringing attention to contemporary political struggles and to the state of the environment.
Act 13: 8:30 pm
Communal Dinner
The second act of communal dining consists of oriental and local foods offered from various food stands in Augarten, under the direction of Alexander Ehrmann and Gina Brandlmayr.
Act 14: 9:30 pm
Paul Feigelfeld: Whose Crisis? / Refugee Phrasebook
The media theorist and curator Paul Feigelfeld discusses – in light of the prevailing rhetorics of “crisis” – the Refugee Phrasebook, an open collaborative project providing important vocabulary to refugees, helpers, and citizens everywhere. The materials are adaptable for local needs and distributed with open licenses to foster communication between refugees, citizens, and helpers all over Europe and the world.
Communal Dinner
The second act of communal dining consists of oriental and local foods offered from various food stands in Augarten, under the direction of Alexander Ehrmann and Gina Brandlmayr.
Act 14: 9:30 pm
Paul Feigelfeld: Whose Crisis? / Refugee Phrasebook
The media theorist and curator Paul Feigelfeld discusses – in light of the prevailing rhetorics of “crisis” – the Refugee Phrasebook, an open collaborative project providing important vocabulary to refugees, helpers, and citizens everywhere. The materials are adaptable for local needs and distributed with open licenses to foster communication between refugees, citizens, and helpers all over Europe and the world.
Act 15: 10 pm
Zavoloka: Euromaidan Revolution
Sound artist Zavoloka plays live a set from her album Volya, dedicated to her home in the Ukraine. The word volya means freedom and will. Inspired by the Ukrainian winter revolution (2014–15), the album is blood and fire. The set is based on field recordings of metal rhythms from the riot-torn streets—the sounds of burning police cars, gas grenade explosions, and a Molotov cocktail symphony—the liberty napalm of transformation.
Zavoloka: Euromaidan Revolution
Sound artist Zavoloka plays live a set from her album Volya, dedicated to her home in the Ukraine. The word volya means freedom and will. Inspired by the Ukrainian winter revolution (2014–15), the album is blood and fire. The set is based on field recordings of metal rhythms from the riot-torn streets—the sounds of burning police cars, gas grenade explosions, and a Molotov cocktail symphony—the liberty napalm of transformation.