PURSUIT: FAILURE
SYMPOSIUM

5-7 November 2010
Schererstrasse 9 / 11
@ Institut für Alles Mögliche & secondhome projects
13347 Berlin-Wedding

ALL WELCOME.
Friday performance free // Sat & Sun: 1 day €5 / 2 days €7
Free for Speakers & OPEN SLOT Participants

FAILURE is essential to all greatness, not merely in providing its contrast but as an essential part of the processes of growing, experimenting, learning and living. We cherish the ever failing C. Chaplin or Homer S. for their Sisyphusian predicaments, we quote Beckett, film in obsolete media and yet at the same time few artists dare to embrace the option of artistic practice as failure itself.

The FAILURE symposium was a weekend of talks, presentations, experiments and cups of tea with artists, writers, performers and other folk from Berlin and abroad about their encounters with failure, both in their own practice as well as within the wider realm of the artistic profession and its modes of presenting itself. The symposium was intended as an informal platform for exchange and debate. We therefore wanted to welcome artists, writers, walkers, talkers, makers and other curious people to listen and speak.

An Open Slot had been reserved for those who decided to present at short notice.

The Symposium was the third stage of SEVERAL PURSUITS debut pursuit ‘FAILURE’ for which we gathered positions and reflections to explore meaning and possible potential of failure in contemporary visual arts. In times of omnipresent crisis such as a failing economy and a collapsing art market (and potentially fading self-esteem of those involved making art) we wrote a CALL FOR REJECTS when launching the project in 2009. Many artists have thereafter submitted images and accounts of works of art that they have themselves rejected yet hung onto. A full archive of these REJECTS can be found online here or in the publication for the symposium which is available as a download below. Following this another CALL was spread online in 2010 – inviting more thinkers to submit texts and other written documents that deal with the concept of failure and its reflection in creative practice. The FAILURE symposium has emerged out of these submissions and the further pursuit of topics raised in them.

The FAILURE symposium was kindly hosted at Institut für Alles Mögliche http://www.i-a-m.tk & secondhome projects http://www.oursecondhome.de/projects/ in Berlin-Wedding and was supported by Quartiersmanagement Pankstrasse (which in turn is being supported by the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal State of Berlin as part of the program »Zukunftsinitiative Stadtteil« section »Soziale Stadt»).

Thursday/Donnerstag, 4 November / 20h

Radio Broadcast
PURSUIT: FAILURE (IN THE WORKS)
A radio play by / Ein Hörspiel von KitSum Chengis, Vancouver, CA
Pi-Radio: UKW88,4 MHz
www.piradio.de for online stream

Friday/Freitag, 5 November 19 h

INSTRUCTED PERFORMANCE
Andrew Lampert, NYC, USA & William Rose, Leeds, GB

Refreshments available / Barbetrieb

Saturday/Samstag 6 November (11 – 19 h)

Welcome & Introduction / Begrüßung & Einleitung
V Bührer / P Hanson, SEVERAL PURSUITS, Berlin

QUESTION TIME
Conversation & Discussion / Gemeinsamer Vortrag und Diskussionsrunde
Alex Eisenberg, David Berridge and Mary Paterson, London, GB

RAUMSPURENSUCHE im Wedding – ein Spaziergang mit Gelegenheiten zum Lunch
SPACES & TRACES (Wedding) – a walk with lunch opportunities
Pauline Hanson, Berlin

PURSUIT: FAILURE (IN THE WORKS)
A radio play as listening station with set up kit by / Ein Hörspiel als Hörstation mit Aufbauplan von KitSum Chengis, Vancouver, CA

OPEN SLOT: Snippets from here and there / versch. Beiträge aus Berlin und anderswo

1. Kerstin Karge / arttransponder, Berlin spoke about CHANCES OF CRISIS – a Berlin networking project for independent art spaces which initiates a.o. round table discussions & workshops / sprach über CHANCES OF CRISIS – BEWEGUNGEN AUS EINEM INSTABILEN FELD einem Netzwerkprojekt für unabhängige Kunsträume in Berlin das u.a. Round Tables Diskussionen und Workshops sowie einen Blog initiiert und koordiniert

2. Moritz Wiedemann, Berlin read from his book / las aus seinem Buch SELBSTPORTRAIT

3. Lothar Gröschel, Berlin introduced the ideas behind the neighbourhood guided tour program of / stellte die Ideen hinter den Stadtteilführungen von NÄCHSTE AUSFAHRT WEDDING vor

GLITCH STUDIES MANIFESTO // COLLAPSE OF PAL
Presentation & Performance / Vortrag mit anschliessender Performance
Rosa Menkman, Amsterdam, NL

Bar open / Getränke erhältlich

Sunday/Sonntag 7 November (11 – ca. 17 h)

PROJECT POETICS
Presentation & Workshop / Vortrag & Workshop
David Berridge, London, GB

BOOM CITY
Project Presentation / Projektpräsentation
Mariana Madeira, Faro, Portugal

MISS B’S SALON
Discussion Event / Thematische Gesprächsrunde
Ruth Beale, London, GB & Guests

Other Contributions / Weitere Beiträge

STRATEGIES OF AVOIDANCE
Stefan Riebel, Berlin / Leipzig, Germany

FAILURE PUBLICATION

A publication with contributions by the participants and others is available as a pdf here /
Heft mit Beiträgen der Teilnehmer und anderen ist hier erhältlich

Photo credits: Stefan Riebel, Rosa Menkman