Interwoven Bodies: The Art of Assembly XXV

How do we deliberate before and beyond language? How do we create relations without words? How are our bodies determined by the spaces we are in? The Art of Assembly is a nomadic series of talks and conversations exploring the potential of assembly in activism, art, and politics. This 25th edition of The Art of Assembly takes place in the context of Michael Kliën's "Parliament," a social choreography in which citizen-performers work in silence to hold council amidst the elemental phenomena and fundamental concerns of collectively-lived experience. This event will also be livestreamed on The Art of Assembly website (art-of-assembly.net). It is coordinated by Kate Alexandrite and presented by the Laboratory for Social Choreography at the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Host: Florian Malzacher is a curator, writer, and dramaturg. His current projects include Training for the Future (with Jonas Staal). He was artistic director of Impulse Theater Festival in Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Mulheim/Ruhr (2013-2017), and co-curator of the multidisciplinary arts festival steirischer herbst in Graz/Austria (2006-2012). Among his numerous publications are "Truth is Concrete: A Handbook for Artistic Strategies in Real Politics" (2014, with steirischer herbst); "Not Just a Mirror: Looking for the Political Theatre of Today" (2015); "Empty Stages, Crowded Flats: Performativity as Curatorial Strategy" (2017, with Joanna Warsza). His book "The Art of Assembly: Political Theatre Today" was published in English in 2023. His books and essays have been translated into fifteen languages. Guests: Political philosopher and literature theorist Michael Hardt, who together with Antonio Negri coined the term "multitude" to describe a "multiplicity of singularities acting together": a network that is neither homogeneous nor self-identical. Visual artist Pedro Lasch, Director of the Social Practice Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, who works with choreographies of festive gatherings, multi-platform social communication, and other artworks created through interaction. Literature scholar Corina Stan, who shows that relations are not only constructed by proximity, but also by interpersonal distances that have shaped ethical thinking throughout modernity.