Konteksty (Postartistic Congress)
6–9.06.2024 at Floating University, Berlin

 

Konteksty (Postartistic Congress) is an assembly of postartistic practitioners – people, who instead of distinguishing between what art is and is not, explore what can be done with art today- a and a public programme that emerges from the activities offered by the participants, consisting of lectures, screenings, performances, workshops, reading and listening sessions.

Previous iterations of the Postartistic Congress were convened in the village of Sokołowsko in Poland, piggybacking on the renowned performance festival Konteksty, and the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. They showcased practitioners who don the “invisibility cloak” – they do not so much disappear, as make their work recognisable as “something else” (e.g. climate activism, education, beekeeping, political campaigning, poetry etc.). The postartistic assembly is a way of doing things with art – however, it’s not about what it is but rather how it is (made). Hence, the participants of the congress keep art alive by indulging in collective work, self-organizing and self-learning, exchange of knowledge as well as situated and embodied practices. 

 In one of his flagship texts, Art in the Postartistic Era (1972), the Polish critic and art theorist Jerzy Ludwiński wrote: “It is highly likely that today we are no longer dealing with art. We simply overlooked the moment when it transformed into something entirely different, something that already escapes our capacity to name it. Beyond any doubt, what we are dealing with today has a greater potential.” That same year, on the other side of the ocean, Allan Kaprow noted the following observation in his essay The Education of Un-Artist. Part 1: “Non art is more art than art art”, concluding the text with the lament: “Artists of the world, drop out! You have nothing to lose but your professions.” Are we ready to move on?