News Archive

Berlin certainly is known by now for its glamorous "Berlin Gallery Weekend," which transforms the city in a wondrous assortment of expensive art, international VIP visitors and Monte-Carlo-like weather. A much better-kept secret is Pankow's own version of an arts extravaganza: the Bard College Berlin Open Studios weekend. Starting on Friday May 6 and running through the weekend, Open Studios will enable you to get an insight in the practices of our practicing arts department. This includes the divisions of Drawing & Collage (John Kleckner), Sculpture (John von Bergen), Photography (April Gertler), Video (Dafna Maimon) and Advanced Studio Practice (Daniel Seiple). Student art work from these different classes will be on view during the weekend. A special screening of the Video class will take place in the Lecture Hall on Saturday evening. The Theater class (Nina Tecklenburg) will present their final work one week later, on Saturday May 14. The arts sit at the heart of the Bard College Berlin curriculum, and we would be very happy to share this small but well-rounded end-of-year exhibition with you. Do come. We look forward to seeing you! Program: Friday May 6 – 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm Exhibition opening at The Factory Saturday May 7 – 12 noon to 6 pm Exhibition at The Factory Saturday May 7 – 7 pm to 8/8.30 pm Special Screening Video class at the Lecture Hall Sunday May 8 – 12 noon to 4 pm Exhibition at The Factory Venues: Bard College Berlin - The Factory - Eichenstrasse 43, Berlin-Pankow (map) Bard College Berlin – Lecture Hall – Platanenstrasse 98a, Berlin-Pankow (map) Admission is free

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Thursday April 28, Tracy Colony will present his paper "The Future of Technics: Stiegler on Time and Futurity" during the Faculty Colloquium Series, taking place at Bard College Berlin. Bernard Stiegler is perhaps the most important figure in contemporary continental philosophy of technology. In this talk I first present a brief introduction to Stiegler's understanding of originary technicity. I then trace out the central motif of futurity in Technics and Time and then present Stiegler's own conception of futurity in contrast to those of Heidegger and Derrida. For Stiegler, the recovery of a possible future is not sought in the extra-technological anteriority of the truth of being or the messianic resources of différance, but rather, in the transformation and negentropic re-organization of technological becoming itself. I conclude that Stiegler's rethinking of futurity is a theme which is crucial for the reception of his work in that it brings to light both the singularity of Stiegler's thought and a vital aspect of his project as a whole. Time: Thursday, April 28 at 12.30 pm Venue: Cafeteria Seminar Room

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

In the week of April 25, spread out over four evenings, twelve graduating BA students and one Project Year student will present their senior thesis. Inasa Bibić: Reimagining Iconic Photography From Besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995 Dylan Davis: Sovereignty in Homo Sacer: On the Historiography of Foucault and Agamben Melina Vanni-Gonzalez: The (In)visibility of Slow Violence through Disaster Tourism in Miyagi Prefecture Post-3.11 Dan Xu: The Play of Truth and Death - A Phenomenological Reading of Pontormo's Deposition Yonatan Finegold: Beyond Good and Bad in Genesis and Republic Lindsay Parkhowell: Antigone and the Sublime: Acts of Impossible Affirmation Sebastian Herzberg: Reclaiming our Psychic Health: An Investigation on the Effects of Digital Technology and Mindfulness Shaoul Sussman: Iconoclasm in Hegel's Aesthetics Vita Kurland: Madness, Art and Ideology in Nazi Germany Niv Segev: Naming and Actuality David Kretz: Translational Action at the End of a World Nadezhda Shevchenko: Ruling Beasts: Law, Humans, and Other Animals AbiDemi Williams: Rethinking the Black Diaspora: Deconstructing Black Identity in Diran Adebayo's Some Kind of Black & Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah Time: April 25 through 28, each day starting at 5 p.m. Venue: Bard College Berlin - The Lecture Hall Platanenstrasse 98a - 13156 Berlin (map) Refreshments will be served

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On May 11 & 12, the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICI) presents the symposium "Untying the Mother Tongue: On Language, Effect and the Unconscious," organized by Federico Dal Bo and Antonio Castore. Daniel Boyarin and Hélène Cixous are the keynote speakers. Faculty member Jeffrey Champlin will be participating in the panel discussion "the Mother Tongue in Literature" with the contribution "I know you can cant". Slips of the Mother Tongue in F. Moten's B Jenkins, on May 12. The conference "Untying the Mother Tongue" intends to re-think affective and cognitive attachments to language by deconstructing their metaphysical and colonialist presuppositions. If traditional constructions of a monolingual speaker, a pure "mother tongue" reveal the ideology of the European nation-state, then today's celebration of multilingual competencies simply reflects the rise of global capitalism and its demand for transnational labor markets. French poststructuralist thought has problematized the notion of a "mother tongue" by dividing it into two discrete elements—the "maternal" and the "linguistic"—and by exposing their metaphysical and colonialist presuppositions. Can something be salvaged of the notion of a mother tongue? What are the remains, traces, or vestiges of a language no longer directly tied to the mother yet resounding with a maternal echo and at the same time manifesting itself as a primary idiom with respect to its affective and aesthetic dimensions? This "residual notion" of a mother tongue supposes that language is indeed a basic human need (like food, shelter, or clothing), since it provides an indispensable access to a symbolic dimension shaping affectivity and knowledge. Time: 11-12 May 2016 Venue: ICI Berlin Christinenstraße 18-19, 10119 Berlin (map)

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Thursday April 14, faculty member Agata Lisiak and Magdalena Nowicka gave a lecture at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. "Unravelling urban rhythms in the migrant experience: Polish migrants in Munich and Berlin" was the theme of the talk which focused on gendered performances in various types of places in the city – the workplace, home and in public space as well as the workings of neoliberalism, and neoliberal time regimes in particular. A more detailed overview of the talk can be found here.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On May 12 & 13, the Berlin School of Economics and Law will organize a workshop entitled "Post-Keynesian Macroeconomics and Modelling." In a two-day program, international speakers will contribute to the debate in a series of panel´discussions. Faculty member Dirk Ehnts will speak on "The euro zone crisis: what would John Maynard do?" For more information. Berlin School of Economics and Law Campus Schöneberg Badensche Strasse 52 10825 Berlin (map)

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

In a wonderfully impromptu way, the Dover String Quartet has accepted an invitation from Bard College Berlin to have an Open Rehearsal at BCB's Factory on April 18, just before their Berlin-debut concert at the Berlin Philharmonic on April 19, with a program of Mozart, Berg and Dvořák. The Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, becoming one of the most in-demand ensembles in the world. The New Yorker recently dubbed them "the young American string quartet of the moment," and The Strad raved that the Quartet is "already pulling away from their peers with their exceptional interpretive maturity, tonal refinement and taut ensemble." In 2013-14, the Quartet became the first ever Quartet-in-Residence for the venerated Curtis Institute of Music. All are welcome to this truly unbelievable event for which we thank Andrés Martínez de Velasco who, besides being BCB's Arts & Admissions Assistant, is also an alumnus of Bard Conservatory and through his composing activities well connected to the quartet. The magic of the famous 'six degrees of separation' ... Time: Monday, April 18 at 7.45 pm Venue: Bard College Berlin - The Factory Eichenstrasse 43, Berlin-Pankow (map) Admission is free & refreshments will be served

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On April 20, the third chapter of the Faculty Colloquium Series will be presented by Laura Scuriatti on the topic of "Vicarious Lives: Collaborative and Fake Autobiographies." Autobiography has received renewed academic attention in the recent decades, eliciting studies dealing, amongst other things, with the ethical aspects of life-writing and its narrative structure based on an alleged "pact" with the reader: the coincidence of author, narrator and protagonist, which usually characterises this type of narratives, has been seen as the source of readerly expectations that autobiographies communicate some kind of truth about the author's life and experiences. There are, however, quite a few texts that, while declaring themselves to be "autobiographies", break the "pact" with the readers, as well as the basic rules of autobiographic narratives: they are, paradoxically, autobiographies of others.But what does it mean to write an autobiography of another person? And why would anybody want to write such a text? What kind of selfhood do these texts produce, and what are the aesthetic and ethic consequences of the appropriation of the voice and life of another? Focusing on a few modernist texts and on Adriana Cavarero's seminal study Narratable Selves, the talk will outline possible, provisory answers to the questions posed by these texts, and their significance for a broader reflection on modernism and life-writing. Time: Wednesday, April 20 at 12.30 pm Venue: Cafeteria Seminar Room

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

The Student Perspective Series continues this semester with a talk by Alona Cohen (BA 1, Israel/Germany) entitled "The bathroom floor feels safe - on anxiety, panic attacks and growing up." Alona Cohen describes her topic as follows: "In a liberal arts community, in which we are encouraged to question everything, dealing with anxiety is enviable. In such a small community knowing how to handle a panic attack is a priceless tool and I would like to take the opportunity given by the Student Perspective Series to talk about it. I will be talking about my experience with anxiety and panic attacks, what actually happens when a panic attack occurs, and what a friend/ bystander can do to help." Time: April 15 at 5 pm Venue: Bard College Berlin - Lecture Hall Platanenstrasse 98a - Berlin-Pankow (map)

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College faculty member, Elizabeth M. Holt will present the next Berliner Seminar of the research program "Europe in the Middle East - The Middle East in Europe" that will be held on April 13. The theme of the seminar is "Palestine, Propaganda and Resistance Literature in the Cold War." The seminar will be introduced and moderated by Refqa Abu-Remaileh and will take place at the Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin. For more information on the seminar and on the Forum Transregionale Studien, please visit their website.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Monday, April 11, Pankow-based journalist and activist Anna Alboth will hold a talk entitled "Work and Activism Beyond the Public-Private Divide" at Bard College Berlin. The lecture is organized as part of the Berlin Internship Seminar, led by Agata Lisiak, but is open to all students. Anna Alboth is a press journalist, blogger, and activist. She has worked for various media in Poland, including the country's biggest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza and has been involved with the Young Journalists' Association Polis and the European Youth Press. Most recently, she has led several highly successful initiatives helping refugees in Berlin and beyond. Time: Monday, April 11 at 10.45 am Venue: Bard College Berlin - Lecture Hall

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Friday April 15, the Pufendorf Gesellschaft will screen the movie "Boom Bust Boom" at Bard College Berlin. Terry Jones (Monty Python) mixes expert insight, animation, puppetry and song to explain economics to everyone. Why do crashes keep happening? Why are students taught crashes do not happen? Will we ever learn from our mistakes? Co-written by Theo Kocken, entrepreneur and professor of risk management. With contributions from Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman, Robert J. Shiller, Paul Krugman, journalists John Cassidy and Paul Mason, actor John Cusack and the rhesus monkeys of Puerto Rico. After the movie, Dirk Ehnts will host a discussion. Time: Friday April 15 at 7.30 pm Venue: Bard College Berlin - Lecture Hall Platanenstrasse 98a - Berlni-Pankow Free and open to the public & refreshments will be served

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Wednesday April 13 at 7 pm, Dutch artist Guido van de Werve will hold an artist talk at Bard College Berlin in the Lecture Hall. Guido van de Werve was born in the Netherlands and joined the famous Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam after having studied music, industrial design, classical archeology and Russian. Van der Werve started as a performance artist and through registering the performances, became interested in film and cinematography. Gradually he also started to add music (his own), text, atmospheric scenes and sports. These elements have become an integral part of the work. His first film "Nummer twee, just because I'm standing here doesn't mean I want to" was made in 2003 and set the standard for future work. Guido van de Werve's music as well as his work have been performed and shown at exhibition spaces, museums and concert rooms around the world. In 2010 the artist initiated the annual Running to Rachmaninoff Run, a 55 km run, which he will execute every year until he is physically unable to do so. For his work "Nummer veertien Home," he completed a 1000 mile triathlon. Needless to say that he is an avid runner and triathlete. For more complete information, please visit Guido van de Werve's website. Time: Wednesday, April 13 at 7.00 p.m. Venue: Bard College Berlin - Lecture Hall Platanenstrasse 98a, 13156 Berlin Admission is free and refreshments will be served

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |