Title: Voicing Responsibility
Location: KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin
Day: July 21, 2012
Duration: 2:39:09
Languages: English and German
Co-Host: Andreas Liebmann

What responsibility lies in culture? How does responsibility come into play in curatorial practice?

Curatorial practice highlights the overlapping of the cultural field – especially art and society. Processes involving the compilation and linking of objects, information, people, and locations, or the expertise in intercultural exchange that have proven to be crucial for the realization of exhibitions are currently being integrated as “core skills” into social, political, and economic fields, which are shaped by globalization and post-Fordism.
In this context the question of responsibility becomes pivotal and furthermore concerns the production of meaning in the moment of presenting and communicating content, the framing gesture of invitation and selection, as well as the establishment of relationships between people and objects. However, what does responsibility mean? Which aspects have to be considered? And: how, why and for whom do we take on responsibility in the cultural field?

VOICING RESPONSIBILITY initiates, together with experts from different disciplines, an impulse for the central question of taking on responsibility in the framework of curatorial processes. On the evening of July 20th 2012, the invited guests and the audience will exchange voices, perspectives, and ideas in the form of table conversations with statements, discussions, and artistic contributions. A communal breakfast with the contributors will elaborate on the topics of the evening and invites to participate in a resuming further discussion.

July 20 — 7 PM: Round table conversations & artistic contributions | Free entrance
July 21 — 11 AM: Breakfast (a.k.a. Dinner) Exchange Berlin | Contribution to breakfast: 10 Euros

VOICING RESPONSIBILITY was organised by:
Well Connected, Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig in cooperation with KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin.
Responsible are: Nicola Beißner, Carolin Hochleichter, Vera Lauf, Sandra Teitge, Edda Wilde.
With contributions of/by: Ul – rich Bernard, Beatrice von Bismarck, Ellen Blumenstein & Daniel Tyradellis, Breakfast (a.k.a. Dinner) Exchange Berlin, Andreas Liebmann, Juliana Piquero, Manuel Scheidegger, Ruth Sonderegger, Joanna Warsza, Agustina Woodgate and further guests
With the generous support of: Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S., Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture, Michael and Susanne Liebelt Foundation, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council