Conference

Borders.
Grenzen und Grenzregionen in der Kunstproduktion und Kunsttheorie
der Gegenwart

Universität der Künste, Berlin

November 24/25, 2022                                                                                                                           

Concept and direction: Alma-Elisa Kittner, Kerstin Meincke, Miriam Oesterreich
 

Borders and migration are inextricably intertwined. Border regions are defined, shaped and formed by migration as such. At the same time, contemporary arts address the conflict-ridden migratory spaces in a variety of ways and question their semantics, modes of action and architectures. Artistic positions and strategies can be effective both in drawing borders and in undermining political, geographic or social social boundaries. These different approaches, reflections and transformations were already the subject of the apéro-table organized by the current speakers of the of the working group with artists, curators and scientists (2021/2022). Based on selected and current projects, the series of events
the event series explored how politically, socially and aesthetically contested border regions in the present - such as the wall between the USA and Mexico, the border between Morocco and Spain, but also inner-German border spaces - are negotiated and narrated using artistic strategies.

The conference refocuses these debates on scholarly discourses and also discusses disciplinary transitions in the engagement with borders. The aim is a methodological and conceptual sharpening of the manifold interconnections between migration, border/s, and the arts. Several questions arise here: With which and on which concepts of borders do contemporary artistic positions work? What role do do concepts of space and architecture play in border negotiations? How have also historical art production and art theory thematized borders? Also the question of the relevance of artistic approaches to political, topographical, and aesthetic borders in a context and aesthetic borders in the context of borders that are often experienced as insurmountable and do not that do not allow for discourse, can be addressed. It is helpful to distinguish between three forms of borders: the notion of the border as a line and marked territory, the border as a border space and the border as border movement. In this context, the crossing of borders can be seen as a permanent process of interrelating, overlapping, interweaving and shifting, because borders constitute because borders are permanently constituted anew and change their shape (Wenzel). their shape (Wenzel). Subsequently, we can ask which art historical terminologies and specific art-historical approaches can be used and which could be further developed - such as the research on the political iconography of landscape (Warnke).

Finally, the focus will also lie on cross-genre and cross-disciplinary issues such as transitions between art, performance, and activism as well as questions of digital border demarcations. Negotiations of terminologies such as the "border aesthetics" developed from border studies (Schimanski/Wolfe) or the "Ent/Grenzen[s]" (Bleuler/Moser) could as well play a role here.