 | Conference of Elective Affinities
All the Same – What is valid if everything is valid?
| 60% theory
30% lecture
10% hospitality
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“Equality is a principle that no school of thought that sees itself as emancipated may disregard”, writes Marcus Steinweg. But how can we understand such a project today, considering that the concept of equality is increasingly being used to promote a decision-free culture that levels everything down to one.
Do we find ourselves in a situation of undecided thought and action? In an era of “post-political consensus” (Slavoj Žižek) in which the alternatives offered to us are not real alternatives and in which our options are meaningless? In a trap of “post-modern politeness” (Nicolas Bourriaud) that, due to the well-meaning willingness to recognise the other, refuses all critical judgement? But then how can we approach the other, what criteria can we take to make decisions?
The “Conference of Elective Affinities” is the theoretical exaggeration of this year’s theme of the steirischer herbst festival “All The Same – What is valid if everything is valid?”. We want to foster a culture of diversity by independently answering questions of equality and validity, of standards and options in individual lectures. At the same time, however, it is also a matter of commitment and affirmation: for every guest is invited to speak by the previous speaker – as an expression of perceived closeness, a search for contact, for elective affinity. An act of hospitality: The person inviting explains the reasons for his invitation, thus introducing the person s/he has invited. The invited person is a good guest and, in his/her talk, reacts to the previous speaker, picking up and then passing on the baton of discussion, of thought.
The resulting chain of lectures is thus a playful, but very serious attempt to conceive our modern societies once again as a culture of difference – and, at the same time, to formulate clear-cut criteria for our own choices.
Schedule
11 am Anke Schleper & Florian Malzacher Welcome and short introduction
from 11.15 am lectures
(in German language)
Krassimira Kruschkova (A/BG) "Das Versprechen des Singulären"
Bernhard Waldenfels (D) "Gleichsetzen des Nichtgleichen"
Wolfgang Eßbach (D) "Religiöse Indifferenz"
Michael Hagner (CH/D) "Über die Vorzüge der Schwäche"
1.30 pm lunch break
from 3 pm lectures
(in English language)
deufert&plischke (D) "Twin Drive"
Marcus Steinweg (D) "Politics of the Subject"
Catherine Malabou (F) "Eternal recurrence and the Ghost of Difference"
Alexander García Düttmann (GB) "’For those who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like.’"
Biographies
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With
deufert&plischke (D), Alexander García Düttmann (GB), Wolfgang Eßbach (D), Michael Hagner (D), Krassimira Kruschkova (A/BG), Catherine Malabou (F), Marcus Steinweig (D), Bernhard Waldenfels (D)
Curated by
Anke Schleper (D) &
Florian Malzacher (A/D)
Sat 10/10, 11 am -7 pm
Admission free
Festival centreWith
deufert&plischke (D), Alexander García Düttmann (GB), Wolfgang Eßbach (D), Michael Hagner (D), Krassimira Kruschkova (A/BG), Catherine Malabou (F), Marcus Steinweig (D), Bernhard Waldenfels (D)
Curated by
Anke Schleper (D) &
Florian Malzacher (A/D)
