The Future of Critique

Everyone is a critic today. But where is critique? We are all experts evaluating each other. But from where do we derive our criteria? Today, every theatre, every museum, every scientific institute is expected to mediate and promote its work– while independent mediation, contextualization, and evaluation are disappearing with the general media. But without criticism, there is no public. Without the public, no arts. Without the arts, no democracy.

Just when the monopolies of criticism have been broken and individual perspectives are finally being given broader scope, criticism is experiencing its greatest crisis. This crisis serves as a lens for the congress ‘The Future of Critique’ to focus on fundamental changes in the public sphere, institutions, and society. 90 international guests from the fields of theatre, music, literature, film, architecture, visual arts, and the media will discuss the future of the public sphere at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin and the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.

Programme

Friday, 18 November 2022
Criticism in a Time of Hypercirculation

From 11 am
Guided tours through the Kanzlerbungalow
with registration

11 am
Meme-Workshop
Cem A. aka @freeze_magazine

11 am
Workshop: Infrastructures of Consent
Julio Linares und Zsófia Samodai

1 pm
Guided tour of the exhibition ,,Die Oper ist tot! Es lebe die Oper!" with curator Katharina Chrubasik

2:30 pm
Welcome and introduction

3 pm
Keynote by New Models
Do You Know Where You Live? Critical Survival 
Caroline Busta and Lil Internet

3:30 pm
New Models in conversation with Kolja Reichert

4:30 pm
Crowd Judgement vs. Expert Judgement
Christian Demand, Julia Grosse, Wolfgang Ullrich
Moderation: Elke Buhr

6 pm
Memes vs. Museums: Criticism after Instagram
Cem A. aka freeze_magazine, Joshua Citarella, Dena Yago
Moderation: Gregor Quack

8 pm
Critical Infrastructures: What Can be Built?
Julio Linares, Laura Lotti, Cassie Thornton
Moderation: Massimiliano Mollona

9 pm
Concert: Arnold Dreyblatt

10 pm
Party with Lil Internet und Eric D. Clark

Saturday, 19 November 2022
The Fall and Rise of the Critical Public

11 am
Keynote by Nikita Dhawan

12 noon
What are the Means of Criticism? What are the Means of the Arts?
Arnold Dreyblatt, Annesley Black, Wilfried Wang
Moderation: Angela Lammert

2 pm
Making Sense vs. Internal Logic: Do Criticism and the Arts Understand Each Other?
Helmut Draxler, Leonie Reineke, Kathrin Röggla
Moderation: Georg Imdahl

4 pm
How to Decolonise Aesthetic Judgement
Eric D. Clark, Marcel Odenbach, Noemi Smolik, Julia Wissert
Moderation: Jörg Heiser

5:30 pm
What Will ‘Subject’ Mean in the Future?
Eva Illouz, Zairong Xiang
Moderation: Ann Cotten

Continuation of the congress at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin on 24 – 26 November 2022

In cooperation with the German section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), the DFG Research Training Group "Cultures of Criticism" at Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Institute for Art and Visual History at Humboldt University Berlin