Florian Thamer
In the universe of art history, the works of men are often regarded as the great planets. The artists often seem condemned to orbit around them like satellites, sometimes closer, sometimes further away and seemingly without any chance of ever reaching the centre themselves. In this logic, the work of the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) has also been downgraded. In 1906, she created what was probably the first abstract painting ever - years before her male contemporaries Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian claimed these titles for themselves. But Af Klint's abstract painting has often been treated like a stroke of luck, accidental and unplanned. In contrast, the paintings of her male contemporaries are considered the result of well-earned achievement and intellect. Af Klint's attempts to publicly exhibit her works during her lifetime failed due to structural discrimination and were deliberately prevented by denigrating her – as a crazy woman: she remained unmarried and childless throughout her life and loved in lesbian relationships. In addition, since her youth, she showed interest in spiritualistic and occult practices, such as seances, which were not recognised in a male society, which was fixated on reason and rationality. As part of Nocturnal Unrest, a one-hour zooméance will resurrect the spirit of Hilma af Klint. In a critical-spiritualist session, we want to disrupt the phallocentred historiography and make it explode. During the three-part ritualised lecture, a video work will be shown that playfully intertwines Af Klint's works with visualisations of invisible natural phenomena, translating her images into a specially conceived cosmos of sounds. Who was this woman at Lake Mälaren who shot her work into the future as if in a time capsule? Who trusted in coming generations and thus in people who had not yet been born?
For the 12 participants we will send a "Séance Starter Kit" by post. Therefore, please provide your postal address when registering.
—> More informations about the event and the entire festival programme via Nocturnal Unrest
Infos
Language: German
Registration closes on the 17 May, up to 12 participants.
Sponsors and Supporters
Nocturnal Unrest ist eine Kooperation des nOu-Kollektivs und Ladiez e.V. Kulturelle und Politische Bildung für Frauen, des Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, der feministische philosoph_innen Frankfurt und dem Hafen 2 Offenbach.
Gefördert durch Fonds Soziokultur im Rahmen des Programms Neustart Kultur der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, das Goethe Institut, das Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, die Hessische Theaterakademie, Frauenreferat und Stabsstelle Inklusion der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, dem QSL Fonds und dem AStA der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main sowie durch die Crespo Foundation.
More Information
Biografie
Flo Thamer studied Theatre Studies and Modern German Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin. He is currently a research assistant at the International Research College Interweaving Performance Cultures. In 2012, he co-founded the independent theatre collective EGfKA, which is located at the intersection of (theatre) art, theory production and political activism. Together with Tina Turnheim, he developed the Theater der Sorge, a highly regarded production model for politically made political theatre. In 2013 he founded the AV session collective Flimm, which experiments with hybrid fusions of analogue and digital sound and image production.