Read-In Series 2014

Saturday 10 January 2015 , 3 PM

Sit-In by Oxford students, 1973

—

The Read-In Series is a collaboration between the Willem de Kooning Academy and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, for the minor Critical Studies. During this program students are encouraged to sharpen their personal vision on the social relevance of art and culture through confrontation with theories, concepts and explanatory methodologies from the philosophical tradition of the ‘critical theory’. The central theme of the 2014-2015 academic year is the concept of ‘emancipation’ in response to the provocative 1996 book by Ernesto Laclau Emancipation(s). In this series of controversial essays, the influential Argentinean political theorist, who passed away earlier this year, advances an idea of ‘radical democracy’ based on an antagonist theory of permanent struggle for power.

—Partners

Willem de Kooning Academie

The Read-In Series consists of four close-reading sessions and a concluding symposium organized by the students of the minor. Based on texts submitted by Yoeri Meessen (curator Education & Theory, Witte de With), Florian Cramer (lecturer, Creating010) and Catherine Somzé (Critical Studies coordinator) students will dig into the literature from the tradition of the critical theory and from the so-called ‘Frankfurt School’ more particularly. The texts have been selected to highlight different forms of and perspectives on the subject of emancipation.

Following the close-reading sessions, students will be invited to submit ideas for speakers who represent their vision of the texts and who will be approached to contribute to the final symposium held in January. The speakers can be both artists and designers as well as experts from other disciplines. During the closing symposium named after the Laclau’s book, the four speakers will give their views on the subject of emancipation, and go into debate with the students and the audience.

The final symposium is open to the public and free for students of the Willem de Kooning Academy. Students from other schools and others interested are welcome after registration. For more information please contact [email protected].

Read-In #1 – Political emancipation

Wednesday, the 24th of September 2014, 3 pm – 5 pm

Location: Witte de With, Witte de Withstraat 50 Rotterdam.

The first close-reading session will be dedicated to the theme of class emancipation. It will focus on Karl Marx’s 1843 essay ‘On the Jewish Question’. In this essay Marx lays the theoretical foundations for his materialist conception of history and his critique of capitalism. He states that political freedom always requires economical equality.

Read-In #2 – Cultural emancipation

Wednesday, the 8th of October, 3 pm – 5 pm

Location: Witte de With, Witte de Withstraat 50 Rotterdam.

The second close-reading session will be dedicated to the theme of fear culture. It will be centred on the classic text by Max Horkheimer en Theodor W. Adorno, ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ from their book Dialectic of Enlightenment. In this controversial essay, the two leading thinkers from the Frankfurt School sketch an image of modern popular culture as a form of mass deception based on fear mongering and in favour of capitalist interests.

Read-In #3 – Social emancipation

Wednesday, the 5th of November, 3 pm – 5 pm

Location: Witte de With, Witte de Withstraat 50 Rotterdam.

The third close-reading session will be dedicated to the role of aesthetics in social emancipation. It will focus on Herbert Marcuse’s 1977 book The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics. In this work, the influential founding member of the Frankfurt School rejects Marxist aesthetics and gives a prominent role to beauty in the process of social emancipation.

Read-In #4 – Intellectual emancipation

Wednesday, the 19th of November 2014, 3 pm – 5 pm

Location: Witte de With, Witte de Withstraat 50 Rotterdam.

The fourth and last close-reading session will be dedicated to the emancipation from traditional critical thinking. It will focus on Jacques Rancière’s ‘The Emancipated Spectator’ from his 2009 eponymous book. In this essay, the post-Marxist French philosopher argues for a radical questioning of the premises upon which most critical aesthetic theory has been based.

Symposium – Emancipation(s)

Saturday, the 10th of January, 2015

The program of the symposium will be determined by the students during the Read-In Series, more information will follow.