Contradiction Studies

Für Widerspruch sorgen. Impulse and Talk

Carolin Zieringer (RTG Contradiction Studies)

03/14/2024 7:00 pm

Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst | Teerhof 21, 28199 Bremen

It is almost a commonplace that we live in contradictory times. But what does it mean to take social contradictions seriously? Which contradictions must be endured – and which not – in a democracy? Is every form of contradiction already emancipatory, and if not, where do we draw the line? How does contradiction become a collective, democratic practice that is not limited to a “yes, but…”?

Carolin Zieringer investigates these and similar questions from a radical-democratic and queer-feminist perspective. Taking Jala Wahid’s play with ambiguities and emotions as a starting point, Carolin Zieringer sets out to discuss how we can remain open to contradictions and uncertainties in a world permeated by exclusion and violence, what role care plays in this, and when it is structurally impossible to care.

As part of the exhibition
Jala Wahid: I Love Ancient Baby

Please find more details at the GAK Homepage

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driver

“Contradictions are an important driver of scientific practice and knowledge.”

Norman Sieroka
problem to be solved

“Contradiction is not primarily a problem to be solved but a motor we cannot do without.”

Martin Nonhoff
paradox

“The basis of law is not an idea as a systematic unified principle but a paradox.”

Andreas Fischer-Lescano
sustained engagement

“The history of Western philosophy can be understood as a sustained engagement with contradiction.”

Norman Sieroka
relational

“At first I thought contradiction was always a relational thing; but the more I ponder it, the more I think contradiction creates relation.”

Ingo H. Warnke