Against isolation. Caring in difficult times
Lecturers: Katharina Brandl & Friederike Zenker
Tue, 10.11.2020 - Fri, 13.11.2020

Care is particularly important to us in this - for all of us difficult - year. Direct, personal contact is overshadowed by the invisible threat of the corona pandemic, and we have all involuntarily become experts for technologically mediated contact: on video conference platforms such as Zoom, in chats or on the telephone. The COVID 19 pandemic has made it clearer than ever that care work is in crisis. And it has just as clearly led to an awareness of the role that relationships play in our lives.

In the art field, too, the occupation with "Care" has been booming for some time. Whether through a renewed focus on theoretical and practical contributions, for example, which dealt with the intersections between art and reproductive work (Silvia Federici's work or Mierle Laderman Ukeles' Maintenance Art, for example) or through contributions in curatorial studies, which emphasize the common etymological origin of the word "curate" and "care" with the Latin "curare". In the theory study week, we focus on the intersections between ethical and aesthetic questions concerning care. Our approach to the topic is primarily shaped by care ethics and will - spoiler alert! - focus on the thinking of relationality and the specificity of relationships.