Curating Diversity in Europe - Decolonizing Contemporary Music

The symposium “Curating Diversity in Europe”, taking place on- and offline, offers a platform for keeping the discourse on diversity in contemporary music in Europe alive, developing potentials for transformation during a time of limited international encounters and swelling nationalistic currents. The focus of the symposium is on processes and profiles of curating that critically question power structures and eurological patterns of thought, to implement political, collective or participatory strategies in the curatorial decision-making process. Keynotes by Du Yun and Sandeep Bhagwati will be followed by panel discussions on emancipation, decolonisation and “looted music”.

The symposium is planned in a hybrid format. All content (keynotes, panels, chats and networking) will be transmitted live to onsite participants at the Akademie der Künste, and simultaneously via internet to an online audience; content will continue to be accessible after the symposium as online video documentation. With this hybrid format, we want to strengthen the international networking and at the same time enable personal meetings.

The symposium is part of the Sounds Now project co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste Berlin, inm / field notes and Ultima festival in Oslo.

Programme

10:30 am | Arrival
On-site: Arrival and informal meet and greet

11:30 am | Welcome
Welcome by Jeanine Meerapfel (President of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin) and organisers Julia Gerlach (Secretary of the Music Section of the Akademie der Künste), Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen (Artistic Director, Ultima Festival Oslo), Lisa Benjes (Director of the field notes Programme by the inm – initiative neue musik berlin e.V.)

Part 1: Emancipating the Curatorial Process, Curating After Covid-19

11:45 am | Keynote "Multifaceted Curating"
Keynote "Multifaceted Curating" (working title) by Du Yun (Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and distinguished visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, free curator, USA)

12:45 am | Break
On-site: Coffee break
Online: Music presented by cdrk

1:00 pm | Panel I: The Emancipation of Curating
With Stefanie Carp (Director Ruhrtriennale, GER), Artyom Kim (Omnibus Ensemble, UZ), Sharif Sehnaoui (Co-founder and artistic director of Irtijal Festival, RL), Du Yun (Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and distinguished visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, free curator, USA)
Moderation: Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen (Artistic Director, Ultima Festival Oslo)

2:15 pm | Break
On-site: Coffee break

Part 2: Curatorial Profiles and Perspective

3:00 pm | Keynote "Curating Musicking as a Mode of Wakefulness in Interesting Times"
Keynote "Curating Musicking as a Mode of Wakefulness in Interesting Times" by Sandeep Bhagwati (Composer, Curator, Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University Montreal, CA)

4:00 pm | Break
On-site: Coffee break
Music presented by cdrk

4:15 pm | Panel II: Decolonizing the Curating Discourse in Europe
With Sandeep Bhagwati, George Lewis (Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University, USA), Elaine Mitchener (contemporary vocalist, movement artist and composer, GB), Anothai Nitibhon (Vice President for Academic and Research, Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music and free curator, T)
Moderation: Christos Carras (Executive Director at Onassis Cultural Centre - Athens, GR)

5:30 pm | Networking
On-site: Networking Walk
Online: Networking – ZOOM

6:00 pm | Break
Online: Music presented by cdrk

6:15 pm | Panel III: Archives and Transcultural Composition. "Looted Music" and Accessibility
with Carlos Gutierrez (Composer, Artistic Director OEIN, BOL), Lars Christian Koch (Director of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s collections at the Humboldt Forum, GER), meLê yamomo (Assistant Professor of Theatre, Performance and Sound Studies at the University of Amsterdam / NL, RP, GER), Tiago de Oliveira Pinto (UNESCO Chair Holder on Transcultural Music Studies & Head of the Musicology Department of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar and Friedrich Schiller University Jena)
Moderation: Julia Gerlach (Secretary of the Music Section of the Akademie der Künste)

7:30 pm | Open Panel
Exchange about the topics of the day, perspectives for topics in May 2021

8:00 pm | Closing
On-site: informal picnic with a musical intervention in Tiergarten park

More information about the panelists here

The symposium will be continued in May 2021 as part of the “Memories in Music” festival (May 6-9, 2021) at the Akademie der Künste.

We kindly ask you to register for active participation at the symposium by September 15, 2020 at mdzm@field-notes.berlin. The livestream can be followed passively without registration.

Media partner: VAN outernational