02 2022
MULTIPLICITY. A Conference on the Future of Cultural Politics in Europe
25-27 February
Casa Invisible, Casa Azul, Málaga
Co-organized by European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
“[I]t is only when the multiple is effectively treated as a substantive, "multiplicity," that it ceases to have any relation to the One as subject or object, natural or spiritual reality, image and world.”
— Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus
Multiplicity means that cultural politics is always about politics and culture of the many. Not an elitist high culture for the few, not a touristic cultural politics for the tourists, not a homogenized traditional culture for the right wing. But a multitude of cultural production coming from a multitude of off-spaces, socio-cultural centres, free theatre groups, small concert spaces, techno-political networks, free radios, critical bookstores, disobedient publishing platforms…
Multiplicity, from le pli, the fold, means that the cultural producers are not only a multitude: they are manifold. So there is another dimension, and each singularity has its own folding, its own envelope, its own surround. In line with these specificities, cultural politics and administration must provide specific support and funding for spaces, equipment, labour in the cultural field.
Multiplicity also means that the city consists of multiplicities. Never one, never unified, always many subsistential territories. The multiplicities of the city rupture the homogenization of the city as a brand, which is always reductive and excluding, in order to open up what truly marks a city: the multiplicity of singularities that give life to it.
registration for the events in Málaga: multiplicity.lainvisible.net/inscripcion
(No registration is required for the audio stream.)
PROGRAMME
FRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY
12.00, La Casa Invisible
Multiplicity of cultural policies
In Spanish language
Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, artistic director, Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne (zoom)
Monika Mokre, president, European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, Vienna (download English translation of the talk)
Hito Steyerl, artist, Professor of Experimental Film and Video, Berlin University of the Arts (zoom)
ruangrupa, artistic directors of documenta fifteen, Jakarta [zoom]
18.00, La Casa Azul
Philosophies of Multiplicity I
In English language
Kike España, researcher in Urban Theory, Málaga
Gerald Raunig, Professor of Philosophy, University of the Arts, Zürich
Isabell Lorey, Professor of Queer Studies in the Arts and Sciences, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne
Stefan Nowotny, Professor of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London, London
SATURDAY 26 FEBRUARY
12.00, La Casa Invisible
Multiplicity of knowledge production
In Spanish language
Eva Morales, Professor, School of Architecture, University of Málaga
José V. Iranzo Benito, Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Málaga
Florencio Cabello, Professor, Faculty of Communication, University of Málaga
18.00, La Casa Azul
Philosophies of Multiplicity II
In English language
Boris Buden, philosopher and cultural critic, University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Nanna Heidenreich, Professor of Transcultural Studies, University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Brigitta Kuster, Professor of Cultural Research and Film Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin
Film Program
SUNDAY 27 FEBRUARY
12.00, La Casa Invisible
Multiplicity of art institutions
In English and Spanish language
Gabriele Gerbasits, Director, IG Kultur Österreich, Vienna (zoom)
Manuel Borja-Villel, Director, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Bernard Blistène, Honorary Director, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris
Elo Vega, Rogelio López Cuenca, artists, Málaga
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES
Manuel Borja-Villel is director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (since 2008). He graduated in Art History at the University of Valencia, studied at Yale University, Fullbright Scholarship, Kress Foundation Fellowship, Master of Philosophy and PhD in Art History at the City University of New York. He was director of Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona since its inauguration (1990-1998) and director of the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) (1998-2008).
Bernard Blistène is honorary director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou in Paris. He was director of the museums of Marseille (1990-1996), General Inspector of Artistic Creation of the Delegation of Plastic Arts of the French Ministry of Culture (2002-2009), deputy director (1996-2002) and director (2013-2021) of the Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou in Paris. He has curated the Biennale of Sydney (1984), the Biennale of Alexandria (1991), the Aperto international section of the Venice Biennale (1990) and the Jerusalem Biennale Art Focus (2008).
Boris Buden is a writer and cultural critic based in Berlin. He studied philosophy in Zagreb (Croatia) and received his PhD in cultural theory from the Humboldt University in Berlin. In the 1990s he was editor of the Zagreb-based magazine Arkzin. He has participated in several research and art projects in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and the United States, including Documenta XI. He teaches at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His latest publication is Transition to Nowhere: Art in History After 1989, Berlin 2020.
Florencio Cabello holds a PhD in Communication Sciences and is Professor of Audiovisual Communication Technology at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the University of Malaga. His teaching and research focus on cooperative ways of doing things inspired by the software and free culture movements, with the perspective of building a commons in the communicative and cultural domains. He is the coordinator of the Translations project of the Laboratorio del Procomún at Medialab-Prado.
Kike España is an architect and holds a PhD in urban theory. He works as editor and translator for Subtextos, in the Suburbia bookstore and as a researcher in the Overtourism City project at the School of Architecture of the University of Málaga. He participates in La Invisible and the Fundación de los Comunes. His latest publication is the book Die sanfte Stadt, Vienna: transversal texts 2021.
Gabriele Gerbasits is co-director of IG Kultur Österreich, the Austrian network of cultural initiatives, and has successfully coordinated numerous cultural projects funded by the European Union. She has served on the boards of the European Network of Cultural Centres (ENCC), the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH), the Austrian Society for Cultural Politics and The European Network for Active Participation in Cultural Activities (AMATEO).
Nanna Heidenreich is a researcher, curator and translator based in Berlin and Vienna. She works as professor for Transcultural Studies at the University of Applied Art in Vienna. She was curator of the Berlinale's Forum Expanded program, worked as a researcher and curator for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Now is the time of monsters. What comes after nations? and Soundtracks). She was part of the anti-racist network Kanak Attak, and is a member of the network of critical studies on migration and border regimes (kritnet).
Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz is artistic director, Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne. He worked as director of the Museo Nacional de Arte and is the cofounder of El PCP (Programa Cultura Política) in La Paz, Bolivia. For 2023/24, he will be academic director of the Programa de Estudios Independientes (PEI) at MACBA, Barcelona. His latest book is La Deuda con la Belleza. Textos 2019-2021 (La Paz, 2022).
José V. Iranzo Benito is a professor at the Faculty of Communication and Fine Arts of the University of Malaga. His research career covers theory and practice in the field of avant-garde audiovisual practices. His audiovisual work has been shown in institutions and festivals of international relevance, such as the Museo Nacional Reina Sofía or the World Wide Video Festival in The Hague. He is currently researching on performative audiovisuals.
Brigitta Kuster is an artist and cultural researcher, mainly interested in visual and film studies, postcolonialism and migration and border studies. She works as a junior professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her work takes the form of texts, research projects, exhibitions and film approaches. She is a reviewer for several scientific journals, the European Research Council, the FWF Austrian Science Fund and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Her latest book is Grenze filmen: Eine kulturwissenschaftliche Analyse audiovisueller Produktionen an den Grenzen Europas, transcript 2018.
Rogelio López Cuenca is an artist with a degree in Philosophy and a PhD in Fine Arts. He was one of the founding members of the artistic collective Agustín Parejo School (1982-1997). In 2019 a retrospective exhibition has been dedicated to his work at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid). His most recent works are: Málaga 1937 (2007), Mappa di Roma (2007), Gitanos de papel (2009), Mapa de México (2010), Ciudad Picasso (2011), Saharawhy (2012), Valparaíso White Noise (2013), Mármoles con caracteres extraños (2015) Los bárbaros (2016), Las islas (2019), CNQSTDRS (2021).
Isabell Lorey is a political theorist, professor of Queer Studies at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Her latest publications in English are State of Insecurity. Government of the Precarious, London: Verso 2015 and Democracy in the Political Present. A Queer-Feminist Theory, London: Verso 2022, in Spanish Estado de Inseguridad. Gobernar la Precariedad, Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños 2016 and Democracia en presente, Buenos Aires/Málaga: Tinta Limón/Subtextos 2022, upcoming.
Eva Morales is an architect and professor at the School of Architecture of the University of Málaga. Partner and co-founder of Cotidiana S.C.A. Co-founder of the architecture studio Lapanadería (2003-2013). Lapanadería projects have been finalists in Europan 11, First Prize Arquía Próxima 2010, finalist in the X Biennial of Spanish Architecture 2009, nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies Van der Rohe Award 2009, Finalist in the FAD Awards 2008.
Monika Mokre is a political scientist and works as Senior Researcher at the Institute for Cultural Studies and History of Theatre, Austrian Academy of Sciences. She is president of the eipcp, European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, and of the Works Council of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She has been representative of Austria in the COST Action "Constitution Making and Deliberative Democracy" and vice-chair of the Advisory Council on Cultural Diversity of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO.
Stefan Nowotny is a philosopher. He works in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research focuses primarily on questions of political theory, the complexities of translation and the entanglements of historical and contemporary epistemologies and imaginaries. Among his numerous publications, he is co-author of Übersetzung: Das Versprechen eines Begriffs, Vienna and Berlin: Turia + Kant 2009 and Instituierende Praxen: Bruchlinien der Institutionskritik, Vienna: transversal texts 2016.
Gerald Raunig is a philosopher. He has been a member of the Board of the European Forum for Arts and Heritage (EFAH, today Culture for Action), musician and coordinator of several transnational (artistic) research projects, supported by the European Union (republicart, transform, Creating Worlds, Midstream). His most important books in English are Art and Revolution (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e)/MIT Press 2007) and Dividuum. Machinic Capitalism and Molecular Revolution (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e)/MIT Press 2017), both forthcoming in Spanish in 2022.
ruangrupa is a Jakarta-based collective established in 2000. They are artistic directors of documenta fifteen in Kassel. As an artists’ collective, ruangrupa has been involved in many collaborative and exchange projects, incl. Gwangju Biennale (2002 & 2018) and São Paulo Biennial (2014). In 2016, they curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016 in Arnhem, NL.
Hito Steyerl is a filmmaker, visual artist, writer and innovator of the essay documentary. She works as professor of Experimental Film and Video and co-founder of the Research Center for Proxy Politics at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2007 she participated at the documenta 12, in 2013, 2015 and 2019 at the Venice Biennale, and in 2017 at the Skulptur Projekte Münster.
Elo Vega is a visual artist and researcher, PhD in Arts and Humanities Research. In 2021 she obtained the Residency Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome. She has participated in collective pedagogy projects and exhibitions, mainly around the construction of history, memory and identities, in numerous cultural institutions in Europe and Latin America, including CCCB Barcelona, MACBA Barcelona, Museo ICO Madrid, MNCARS Madrid, Museu Picasso Barcelona, IVAM Valencia or MUSAC León.