Symposium: (un)Common Grounds - Reflecting on documenta fifteen

23 Sep –
24 Sep 2022

Symposium: (un)Common Grounds - Reflecting on documenta fifteen

(un)Common Grounds is a two-day hybrid symposium, gathering a network of thinker-speakers to discuss the issues raised during the 100 days of documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany. Together with invited artists from documenta fifteen and museum practitioners, cultural historians as well as activists, we share and learn from different perspectives, experiences and observations of the exhibition. We will be joined by the members of Indonesian collective ruangrupa, who curated this year’s edition.

About the forum

documenta fifteen is an international exhibition held every five years in Kassel, Germany. For this edition, the appointed curators ruangrupa aimed to create a place for art beyond current funding systems and existing European cultural infrastructures. During the exhibition, art is brought back to daily life for communal learning, collective remembrance and trans-cultural solidarity that contributes to the progressive development of our ecosystem.

Towards the end of documenta fifteen, Framer Framed, the Society of Arts and the Van Abbemuseum organises a two-day hybrid forum, (un)Common Grounds, on 23-24 September on the following four topics: Politics of Memory in a Changing State: documenta fifteen, Colonial Legacies and Entangled Histories; Lost in Translation: Discussing Art’s Place in a Polarised Public Discourse; (re)Claiming Identities: Shaping and Framing Archives in an Institutional Context; and Other Ways of documenta-ing: Democracy, Inclusion, and Decolonised Models of Art.

While the forum is largely inspired by the exhibition, the topics relate to far wider issues affecting people and communities all over the world. These issues are interlaced with contemporary forms of racism, colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchal structures. The forum wishes to act both as a conceptual space to think through debates raised during the exhibition period, and a platform carrying on the lumbung spirit — to continue with open conversations on “how to learn, share, and live together with people from different yet interconnected cosmologies.

Confirmed presenters and communities include
Ade Darmawan, Alexander Supartono, The Black Archives, Benjamin Seroussi, Charles Esche, Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, David Duindam, Esther Captain, Eyal Weizman, Fernando Garcia Dory, Florian Cramer, INLAND, Jonas Staal, Kerstin Winking, Lara Khaldi, Layal Ftouni, Mitchell Esajas, Mirjam Shatanawi, Mohanad Yaqubi, The Question of Funding, ruangrupa, Reem Shilah, Subversive Film, Taring Padi, Wayne Modest, Yazan Khalili, Zippora Elders, THE PALACE OF FLOWING WATER.

The two-day forum will take place at Framer Framed at the Akademie van Kunsten in the Trippenhuis, Amsterdam, and consists of four panels, a screening program, and an open conversation with participants online and in person.

The language is English. Free entry.

Documentation
A videoregistration will be made available here.
A review by Jack Segbars has been published on Metropolis M.

Program

The program booklet can be downloaded here

DAY I – 23 SEPT 2022, 13:00-18:00
Location: Framer Framed, Oranje Vrijstaatkade 71, Amsterdam

Panel I: Politics of Memory in a Changing State: documenta fifteen, Colonial Legacies and Entangled Histories
Panel 2: Lost in Translation: Discussing Art’s Place in a Polarised Public Discourse

DAY I – 23 SEPT 2022, 19:00-21:00
Film Screening
Location: Framer Framed, Oranje Vrijstaatkade 71, Amsterdam
A conversation between Subversive Film (Reem Shilleh and Mohanad Yaqubi) & Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide.

Films to be Screened:

Land Day
Japanese version, 48 min, 1983
original film by Ghaleb Shaath, 38 min, 1978

Kufr Shuba
a film by Samir Nimr, 35 min, 1975

DAY II – 24 SEPT 2022, 13:00-18:00
Panels at the TRIPPENHUIS
Location: The Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal 29, Amsterdam

Panel 3: (re)Claiming Identities: Shaping and Framing Archives in an Institutional Context
Panel 4: Other Ways of documenta-ing: Democracy, Inclusion, and Decolonised Models of Art

(un)Common Grounds: Reflecting on documenta fifteen was initiated by Framer Framed and co-organized by Akademie van Kunsten (Society of Arts), and the Van Abbemuseum. The programme is realised with the support of the University of Amsterdam, namely: Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES), Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA) and Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM).

(un)Common Grounds: Reflecting on documenta fifteen takes place on the same days as the Platform BK Solidarity Camp in Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons (Utrecht). We embrace the synchronicity of the urgencies addressed by both events and stand in solidarity with each other. The full program of (un)Common Grounds will be live-streamed at Casco. Posters and programs of the Solidarity Camp will be presented at Framer Framed and Akademie van Kunsten.

Graphic Design: Chen Jhen