Unfinished Systems of Non—Knowledge PART 2: On Wandering

Unfinished Systems of Non—Knowledge PART 2: On Wandering kicks off on Thursday evening, February 8, at De Waag with an introduction by curator Christel Vesters and a keynote lecture by Sigrid Weigel. Sigrid Weigel will discuss symptomatic figures of knowledge invented by several Jewish-German intellectuals, amongst them: Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin and Sigmund Freud. Finding themselves in a position either off academia or at the margins of their discipline, these authors started to transgress the borders between fields, subjects, and cultures and diverge from conventional methods and narratives based on chronology, typology, and a history of progress. Friday, February 9, 2018 On Friday, February 9, the programme continues at The Trippenhuis organized in collaboration with the Society of Arts / Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. The seminar focuses on Wandering as a mental activity and a prerequisite for experiment, innovation and the development of new ideas. ‘Thinker Laureate’ René ten Bos will explain why it is necessary to avoid shortcuts and quick fixes, and why to embrace a way of thinking that meanders, wanders sideways and sometimes loses track. To come to real solutions for this world, Bos says, undisciplined, wild and moral-less thinking, is a must. In order to explore new avenues, one needs to be open to the unknown and the unforeseen. The session continues with a contemplation of the unknowable and the power of the unknown. Curator and writer Lucy Cotter will talk about her current research on Art Knowledge: Unknowing the Known, which reflects on art’s insistent trajectory from the known to the unknown, bringing about a radical rethinking of how things interact and what they might become. Writer, visual artist and Academy member Maria Barnas will talk about her wander poems, which she has inserted into various urban spaces and which lure their readers to embark on unexpected journeys with unexpected encounters. Saturday, February 10, 2018 On Saturday, February 10, the programme moves to De Waag again, dedicating the afternoon to a renewed and in-depth encounter with Aby Warburg’s long lost Atlas Mnemosyne project. Artists and curators Roberto Ohrt and Axel Heil, founding members of the Mnemosyne Research Group, will recount their insights into Warburg’s Bilderatlas while reflecting on structural concepts such as Wanderstrassen der Kultur and the Ikonologie des Zwischenräume. They are joined by performing and visual artist, Jeremiah Day, who will lead us through landscapes of memory, where the personal intersects the political through an unfolding questioning. The afternoon continues with a lecture by Alena Alexandrova who will explore Batia Suter's Parallel Encyclopedia and its promise of another type, parallel, or diagonal knowledge. On Saturday evening we explore the legacy of the walking practice of the Situationist International. Leading the way is Nick Dunn, professor of Urban Design and Associate Director of the Institute for Social Futures in Lancaster. His latest book, Dark Matters: A Manifesto for the Nocturnal City is an exploration of walking as cultural practice, the politics of space and the right to the city. To conclude two days of wandering, we will join the NIGHTWALKERS for a collective night stroll in the city followed by a discussion about the subconscious relations between the participants and the land they walked on.