part of the cover of the new publication SUNDOGZ by Mark von Schlegell

Talk with Marjolijn Dijkman and Mark von Schlegell (writer and critic, Cologne). Followed by a music set compiled by Marjolijn Dijkman and Amelie Bouvier from the Uncertainty Scenarios Playlist. This playlist is a growing compilation of great songs from different periods of time relating to the future, ranging from deeply pessimistic to highly optimistic. Uncertainty Scenarios is an experimental research project that will unfold over time and will explore the way people throughout history have tried to speculate, predict and anticipate the future.

This event is part of FACT and FICTION, here some information about the whole series of events:

Images of Catastrophe and Projections into the Future, Lenbachhaus
Programs and Events May 19 – Sept 13, 2015

"Apocalyptic notions have always been a central part of the human imagination and continue to influence our thinking today. As long as there has been art, creative minds have worked to visualize these scenarios. That is why images of violence and global catastrophe have deep roots in our collective memory. The contemporary mass media feed us such imagery on a daily basis. How we imagine catastrophic events is largely defined by how actual disasters are reported – and informed,  moreover, by the theatrical and aesthetic qualities film makers give their fictional cataclysms.

We experience catastrophes live and in real time. We are confronted with images that make us eyewitnesses at a distance. Filled with ambivalent feelings, we watch
from a safe remove. At the same time, “worst-case scenario” war games lend a fictional air to our future that indirectly affects our present as well. Cataclysmic fictions in the sciences, in literature, in art and on screen give concrete and tangible shape to a latent and unfathomable menace. In that sense, imaginary-disaster productions may also be read as scenes that afford room for reflection and experimentation with visions, utopian and anti-utopian, and widely different projections of possible futures.

The event series FACTS & FICTION inquires into the representation and perception of disasters and dystopias: Why is it that the contemporary arts – from Hollywood to the fine arts and literature – are much more interested in catastrophes than in a vision of happiness? What makes the apocalypse so thrilling? Why are we so fascinated by the aesthetic of cataclysms and natural spectacles? What does an analysis of these images reveal, and what can we offer in reply to them?"

With: Allora & Calzadilla, Yael Bartana, Christoph Draeger, Guy Ben-Ner, Marjolijn Dijkman, Omer Fast, Jonathan Horowitz, Ho Tzu Nyen, Gabriel S. Moses, Oliver Ressler.

All filmic works are presented for two weeks each in the Georg-Knorr-Saal.

The series is accompanied by an additional evening program on every second Tuesday. Admission to all events is free.