Curatorial Statement

“Can I gently take my turn to speak? Can I speak without taking a turn? Without violence, without abuse? Instead, the question would be: can speech coexist amicably, fraternally, with me, with us? Very quickly, very soon, the exercise of speech becomes an exercise of power. From childhood on, obviously.” (Anne Dufourmantelle)

Anne Dufourmantelle’s book In Praise of Risk denotes a basic attitude towards the world: the call to not let our present be coopted by the patterns of previous experiences, but to allow space for uncertainty. The symposium takes up this idea in the context of participatory art. Without taking on a final or clearly defined form, this art opens up to its observers, who become participants, even actors. And it blends with other artistic or political articulations. Thus, participatory art invites us to speak in uncertainties, about the unforeseen.

Alia Rayyan and Beate Söntgen, curators