Avoiding Utopias – 20th Anniversary of Werkleitz

The Werkleitz Media Festival has marked its 20th edition with an anniversary festival. Established in 1993 shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and on the rise of the World Wide Web, this artists’ collective tapped into the euphoric spirit of optimism in Europe and created a new media arts festival featuring film and video art, fine art, computer art and performances.
Twenty years later, the mood has changed. Deregulated financial markets, dismantled social welfare programmes and economic pressure have transformed the political utopia of European expansion into an economic project. Werkleitz wished to use its 20th anniversary as an occasion to reflect on these social, economic and political developments. What was the role of art then, and what is it now? What has happened to the concept of community and of the collective? How has the presentation of art changed in the age of the Internet?
Twenty curators and theorists have been invited to present newly developed works in exhibitions, films and performance programmes throughout the city of Halle. The questions they brought up have been discussed at length in a symposium and the results compiled in a publication.

Artistic directors: Daniel Herrmann, Marcel Schwerin
Curators: Inke Arns, Martin Conrads, Iris Dressler und Hans D. Christ, Stephen Kovats, Florian Wüst u.a.
Artists: Nevin Aladag (TR), Tamás Kaszás (HU), Kader Attia (FR), John Baldessari (US), Christian von Borries, Peggy Buth, Barbara Caveng (CH), Chto delat?, Egemen Demirci, Loretta Fahrenholz, FM Einheit, Regina José Galindo (GT) u.a.