Blue Skies

The growing impact of technology on life as we know it brings changes to our bodies, our communities and the environment – what can we do? How can we understand and shape these changes collectively?

Unbridled technological advances and radical developments in biochemical research are increasingly interfering with life itself: hybrids of machine and organism are already reality, technical interventions and materials becoming one with the body. However, the latest developments in genetic engineering promise to make humans modifiable before birth. The foundations of our existence and of our social and public coexistence are changing profoundly. In the alluring technological promises of big corporations, the freedom to make the body, social dynamics and our environment completely shapeable and changeable sounds like a universal solution. Others fear a hopeless social scenario in which the individual's power to act falls victim to comprehensive technical reductions, mathematical operations and filtered knowledge. But how or in what forms might critically nuanced responses to these polarizing positions find expression?

Over the course of five days, PACT and medienwerk.nrw shine an investigative light on active interdisciplinary perspectives on new narratives, speculative visions of the future and alternative practices in the company of international artists, scientists, activists, publicists, students and audience members.

With contributions from:

Exhibition, Performances & Workshops

acting in concert, The Agency, Aliens in Green, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, FAM_, Lamin Fofana, knowbotiq, Labsa, Xavier Le Roy, Mary Maggic, Špela Petrič, Paula Pin, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Johannes Paul Raether, Rimini Protokoll (Stefan Kaegi) & Thomas Melle, Silke Schönfeld, Jenna Sutela, Nguyễn + Transitory

Discourse

Marie-Luise Angerer, Madeleine Böckers, Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky, Gabriele Gramelsberger, Jens Hauser, Oliver Kuchenbuch, Justus Pötzsch, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Tabita Rezaire, Emilia Sanabria, Senthuran Varatharajah, Paula-Irene Villa

MusicAsita Shirali, COOL FOR YOU, Odete, tryniti, N7zza

Admission to the talks, lectures and workshops (registration at info@medienwerk-nrw.de), concerts, exhibition and party is free!

Full programme

Festival Opening

WED 10.07.Welcome addresses, keynote lecture & opening of the exhibition

18.30-20.30 hWelcome and introduction

Dr. Hildegard Kaluza (Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW)Fabian Saavedra-Lara (medienwerk.nrw)Stefan Hilterhaus (PACT Zollverein) Impulses of the artistsBig Stage

21.00 hMünchner Kammerspiele, Rimini Protokoll (Stefan Kaegi) and Thomas Melle ›Uncanny Valley‹PerformanceSmall Stage

22—22.30 hknowbotiq / Lamin Fofana ›Genesis Machines — La Pompa Agricultura Transsubstantia‹Live-Set Studio 2

Concept: Stefan Hilterhaus, Fabian Saavedra-Lara Team Büro medienwerk.nrw: Kirsten Möller, Nada Schroer, Mary Shnayien, Klaas Werner, Sonja Wunderlich In cooperation with medienwerk nrw

Supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

The office of medienwerk.nrw and the festival ›Bodies in Trouble — Körper in Aufruhr‹ are supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (the office is hosted by Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund). Supported within the framework of the »International Visitors Programme« of the NRW KULTURsekretariat.