Department of Presence
Autumn 2018
In the autumn edition of the museum’s public programme, the Department of Presence invites the public to attend a series of debates, performances, screenings, and special interventions devoted to the changes occurring globally in recent months.
Drawing on experiences with various forms of artistic expression, the space of the department will become a site for encountering and dynamically responding to the reality around us.
1–30 September Pride and Prejudice: New Dignity Practices”
Curator: Natalia Sielewicz
The series “Pride and Prejudice: New Dignity Practices” will address the current tensions around codes of class, racial and sexual identity. Phantasms of marginalized and excluded groups, and their symbolic position in the social and cultural sphere, serve on one hand as the subject of fears and jokes in social settings, and on the other hand as the source of violent appropriations. Along with invited guests—artists Anna Niesterowicz, SAGG Napoli, Mikołaj Sobczak and Wojciech Puś, and critics and researchers Marek Beylin, Olga Byrska, Dr Mira Marcinów, Agata Pyzik, Dr Magda Szcześniak and Jakub Wencel—we will examine what identity policy to pursue in times of division and difference.
15–20 October „What Is to Be Done Under Real Subsumption?”
Curators: Mattin, Paweł Nowożycki
During 5 days we will have a performative reading group on the notion of real subsumption, a notion that explores the level of capitalist appropriation in contemporary conditions. Today it seems very difficult to imagine the possibility of a collective force changing the course of history. In the marxist tradition there has been a long discussion about how much capital has subsumed our potential for antagonism. We will engage with these discussions in an experimental way. During the reading group we will make notes together for an instructional score to be performed collectively on Saturday. We will use ourselves as material for experimentation as a way to bridge the division between theory and practice. Confirmed participants: Anthony Iles, Mikołaj Ratajczak, Marina Vishmidt.
Performative reading group Monday to Friday afternoons and evenings. Collective performance Saturday 20 October.
26–27 October "Workers of Art against Fascism". Session of the Consortium of Postartistic Practices
We have no choice. We must take matters into your own hands. The time has come to refresh memory and awaken political imagination. The grassroots forces of literature and art must work in synch with the rhythm of the present, contributing to the broad front of the struggle against fascism. The Consortium of Post-artistic Practices proposes to organize a nationwide coalition of anti-fascist (post)artistic initiatives that will work on the event to be held in September 2019.
11–12 November "The Parliament of Bodies"
Curators: Paul B. Preciado, Viktor Neumann. Cooperation: Marta Dziewańska, Paweł Nowożycki
"The Parliament of Bodies" is a place of artistic and political activism, seeking out new forms of socialization, and building alliances across various forms of social struggle. The first manifestation of the parliament was held in Athens and Kassel during the public programme of documenta 14 (8 April – 17 September 2017). The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, in cooperation with the Spanish philosopher and transsexual activist Paul B. Preciado and art historian Viktor Neumann, plans to convene the Parliament of Bodies in the context of the current situation in Poland and in opposition to the ideological wars being waged here. In the first open session, scheduled for the night of 11–12 November 2018, we invite the public to attend a lecture by Paul B. Preciado, a discussion with invited guests, and a presentation of associations being formed in Warsaw.
14 September–14 December “Are We Successful in Our Disobedience? Sound and Politics Today”
Presenters: Mattin i Paweł Nowożycki
The radio program “Are We Successful in Our Disobedience?” is an investigation into the new grammars of political engagement used by today’s musical practitioners. Inspired by a 1969 survey published in Source. Music of the Avant-Garde, we are asking contemporary composers, producers, performers and sound artists the lead question once more: “Have you, or has anyone ever used your work for political or social ends?” Our aim is to go beyond the avant-garde niche by questioning the very idea of “new music,” and the white/male/Western perspective reproduced by critics, curators, festivals, institutions and the music industry. We believe that our times marked by financial and environmental crises, the rise of “post-fascism” and anti-immigration politics, make “sound for sound’s sake,” or music as an entertainment practice, incongruous. How can music, or sound in general, take part in the structural changes needed to create more equal and open societies?
In addition to the discursive element (spoken text answers) “Are We Successful in Our Disobedience?” includes sound pieces selected by the invited practitioners. Guests include Terre Thaemlitz, Cedrik Fermont, Raven Chacon, Bill Dietz, Baly Nguyen and Tara Transitory, Jacqueline George of Egyptian Females Experimental Music Session, Gülce Özen Gürkan, Lawrence Abu Hamdan. The list will expand over the coming months. Dates: 14.09, 19.10, 17.11, 14.12.
December "Kinomuzeum: Syria"
Curators: Magda Lipska, Łukasz Ronduda
After experiencing a civil war, artists from Syria – living mainly on emigration and in diasporas – often say that “there is no such thing as Syrian cinema, there are only Syrian filmmakers”. The festival KinoMuzeum: Syria includes discussions and meetings with these artists from Syria. We not only show their feature films, but also political documentaries and politically involved animation. Special screenings will be prepared by Rasha Salti, an expert on Syrian cinema, and Hila Peleg, curator of the Documentary Forum in Berlin.
