• Fri 25 03 – Sat 31 12 2022 •
On Violence

with ELSA DORLIN, DENISE FERREIRA DA SILVA, STEPHANO HARNEY, MAURIZZIO LAZZARATO, DANIEL LOICK, FRED MOTEN, VANESSA EILEEN THOMPSON
curated by MAX JORGE HINDERER CRUZ, MARGARITA TSOMOU

While historical, hegemonic and repressive forms of violence are increasingly the focus of ongoing debates – whether on colonial continuities, structures of patriarchy or contemporary capitalism – acts of resistance are more and more frequently being characterised as violent and thereby delegitimised: ‘Cancel culture’, ‘Political Correctness police’ or ‘destruction of monuments’ are just a few of the associated, polemically charged battle cries.

But what is considered legitimate and what is considered illegimate? At what point is it acceptable to use counter-violence against sexist, racist, extractivist or economic forms of violence? In the joint discourse series On Violence, the Akademie der Künste der Welt (Academy of the Arts of the World, ADKDW) and HAU Hebbel am Ufer are starting an analysis of current forms of expression of hegemony, dominance, surveillance, discrimination and physical control.

On Violence explores the issue of what it means to talk about violence at the beginning of the 21st century, while also searching for the connections between the various forms of its materialisation. A series of lectures and talks will discuss visible and invisible, institutional and structural forms of violence as well as concepts such as self-defence, anti-colonial violence, revolutionary violence, hate speech and symbolic violence.

The format of the series is divided into three parts: renowned thinkers give an online lecture within the framework of the Decolonial Studies Program (DSP) of the ADKDW. Afterwards, the lecture will be discussed in a live event in front of an audience at HAU1 and on adkdw.org and later published in book form. It will be moderated by the curators of the series Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz (ADKDW) and Margarita Tsomou (HAU). In order to deepen the content of the lecture series through shared reading and discussion, the ADKDW aditionally invites all interested parties to a Reading Group.

A cooperation of Akademie der Künste der Welt (Academy of the Arts of the World, ADKDW) and HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Supported by the Alliance of International Production Houses funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).