During the recent years, we are confronted with more and more images of protestors undoing monuments that express a colonial or imperialist worldview. These acts of deconstructing monuments became a universally understood symbol of uprising and discontent against the publicly inscribed history. The idea for “Antimonument Extended” - Virtual Reality program aims to create a discussion about the status of such monuments in German speaking societies without physically destroying them. By means of VGA technology users can intervene directly on the scanned version of the controversial monuments. The project is focused on three public monuments in Düsseldorf made by artists formerly on the list of “Gottbegnadeten” (god-gifted) by the National socialist regime. These artists, even after the war, continued to receive large public monument commissions, and they are still in our public spaces. Pop-up workshops will take place in front of these sculptures where visitors can try out the Virtual Reality program. In parallel, artists living in Germany and Austria with immigration background are invited to intervene on these monuments with 3D projection mapping and performance. The concluding exhibition will take place in a gallery where the documentation of these pop-up workshops can be seen, while giving a platform to further discuss the meaning of the project in current context. In this virtual/hybrid conference, the invited artists and organizers will discuss the results of the workshops and reflect on each process.
WHERE?
VIRTUAL / Hybrid
VIRTUAL: ZOOM https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9871178624 (Meeting ID: 987 117 8624)
PHYSICAL: Wild Palms - Gerresheimer Str. 33, 40211 Düsseldorf, Germany
NO NEED TO REGISTER. JUST CLICK ON ZOOM LINK.
WHEN?
August 23, 2023: 3pm-5pm (CEST)
WHO?
Antimonument e.V. is a public charity organization founded in 2017 after an initial call by Shinpei Takeda drawing on his 2015 “Antimonument Manifest” in order to create a platform for the projects at the intersections of art, memory and technology. Website: www.antimonument.de
Artists:
Oscar Cueto (www.oscarcueto.com / from Mexico, based in Vienna)
Manuela Picallo Gil (www.manuelapicallogil.com / based in Vienna),
Alejandra Baltazares (www.alejandrabaltazares.net / from Mexico, based in Düsseldorf)
Navid Razavi (https://vrtx-void.net/ from Iran, based in Köln),
Shinpei Takeda (www.shinpeitakeda.com, from Japan, based in Mexico, US and Germany)
WHAT?
Presentations / Discussions
1.Intro
2.Real-time demo of Virtual Reality program (Antimonument Extended)
3.Presentation of past works of “Antimonument e.V.”
4.Presentation of each artists’s intervention
5.Discussion (per topic?)
-Manufacturing of Antimonument
-Erinnerungskultur / “innere emigration” - intervention by “Auslander” Künstler
-Use of Virtual Reality to engage with invisible history / memory
Organizer: Antimonument e.V.
Kathrin Maurer, Professor for Humanities and Technology, University of Southern Denmark
Jens Herder, Professor/ Virtual Studio Virtual Reality Lab/ University of Applied Science Düsseldorf (vsvr.medien.hs-duesseldorf.de/)
Sponsors: Kunstkommission Düsseldorf, Kunstfonds, Kulturamt Düsseldorf Technical Partner: VS/VR Lab, Hochschule Düsseldorf Exhibition “Antimonument Expanded” (Aug 4- Aug 27) @Wildpalms (www.wild-palms.com)
Please contact Shinpei Takeda for any questions: shinpeitakedaoffice@gmail.com