Die Letzten ihrer Art, Design: lange+durach

But what happens, if we realise that in our post-bourgeois society the culture of unions, civic commitment and federal logics are losing their significance? How does this affect art associations?

The way Melanie Gilligan is dissecting the relation between subject and society and is drawing imaginative visions of the future, art association as institution shall be investigated on its sore points and potentials. In allusion to Douglas Adams famous book Last Chance to See we introduce art associations as a species which is threatened, but also particular and especially worth to be rescued. Colleagues and sociologists will examine this species carefully during various events in Bonn, Düsseldorf and Cologne.

The project Last Chance to See and the exhibition Popular Unrest are supported by Rheinland AG, the cultural office of the municipality Cologne, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Galleria Franco Soffiantinto, Turin and koellefolien.

Programme

Sunday 27.6.10, 12 p.m.
Subject and Society
Artist talk with Melanie Gilligan
Venue: Kölnischer Kunstverein, theatre space
Polly Staple, director of Chisenhale Gallery in London, talks with Melanie Gilligan about the background of her new film production Popular Unrest and her approach to work. It will be discussed what are the reasons for individuals to get together and be involved in groups nowadays and how does the relation between such groups and the entire society looks like.
In English.

Wednesday, 30.6.10, 7 p.m.
Altruism as working method for independent art institutions in the Czech Republic
Guided tour through the exhibition and discussion with Noemi Smolik
Venue: Bonner Kunstverein
Stephan Strsembski, curator of the exhibition, and Noemi Smolik, critic and expert of the Czech art world, guide through the exhibition Altruism. Recent art from the Czech Republic and discuss the situation of independent art institutions in the Czech Republic, their history of origins and their approach to work in comparison to art associations in the German-speaking area.

Thursday, 1.7.10, 7 p.m.
Other countries, other institutions
Discussion with Henriette Bretton-Meyer
Venue: Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Art associations are only to be found in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. How do comparable institutions in the rest of Europe appear? And what are the specific qualities of art associations to people who only know them from afar? Henriette Bretton Meyer, director of Overgaden in Copenhagen, discusses with Vanessa Joan Müller.

Wednesday, 7.7.10, 7 p.m.
Art association: today, tomorrow, yesterday
Discussion with Wulf Herzogenrath and Florian Waldvogel
Venue: Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Wulf Herzogenrath, director of Kunsthalle Bremen, and Florian Waldvogel, director of Kunstverein Hamburg, discuss the present perspectives for art associations as institution, fertile crises of the past and models for the future.

Wednesday, 25.8.10, 7 p.m.
Civic commitment as a way out of the crisis
Discussion with Loring Sittler, Zukunftsfonds (Futurefunds) of Generali Germany
Venue: Kölnischer Kunstverein, theatre spaceThe Zukunftsfonds of Generali Germany applies itself to civic commitment and focuses, because of the demographic change, in particular on the commitment of older citizens. In the conversation Loring Sittler will outline to what extent this orientation could be an answer to the recent transformation of the tasks for politics, economy and the civic society. He will also give an introduction to the ‘Engagementatlas 09’. This study was created on behalf of the Futurefunds with the aim to record the reasons behind civic commitment and its possibility of development in Germany.