Synapse Workshop 2013, Presentation by Rich Pell, Center for PostNatural History, Photo: Dante Busquets

2015

SYNAPSE

The International Curators’ Network at Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Workshop

2015

What existing formats and new formats are needed to realize a project that presents science at an artistic location? What curatorial languages must first be developed to meet academic demands on the one hand and, on the other, to express the findings in cultural terms?

SYNAPSE – The International Curators' Network invites to its third curators' workshop at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Up-and-coming curators from Germany and abroad could apply by January 20, 2015. Ten applicants will be selected by an international jury to participate. The five-day workshop (June 30 until July 4, 2015) offers them the opportunity to discuss questions on the relationship between art and science with international experts. A highlight of the program will be the public performance by Coco Fusco (artist and writer, New York) “Observations of Predation in Humans: A Lecture by Dr. Zira, Animal Psychologist” (2013) on July 2, 2015.

The curators' workshop 2015 is to be held in the context of the exhibition “Ape Culture.” Curated by Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg, the exhibition project traces the long cultural and scientific obsession with humanity’s closest relatives. In artworks, documentation, and films, “Ape Culture” examines the way apes and monkeys have featured as signifiers in human representations and civilizational narratives. From the exhibition project fundamental questions of the workshop emerge: What is the role of the documentary? What formats and format developments are needed to realize a project that presents science at an artistic location? What curatorial languages must first be developed to meet academic demands on the one hand and, on the other, to express the findings in cultural terms?

The participating jurors and speakers of SYNAPSE 2015 include, among others, Anselm Franke (curator and Head of the Department of Visual Arts and Film, HKW), Chus Martínez (curator and Head of the Institute of Art at the Academy of Art and Design, FHNW, Basel) Rachel Mayeri (artist, Los Angeles), and Cord Riechelmann (biologist, philosopher, journalist, Berlin).

SYNAPSE is developed in cooperation with Schering Stiftung under the artistic direction of Kirsten Einfeldt and Daniela Wolf.