Peer to Peer

A Month of Media Art in North Rhine-Westphalia

01.09. – 02.09.2023

Nature and technology are often considered to be opposites. Their actual relationship turns out to be much more complex. There is barely a corner on Earth that has not already been marked by human presence: The majority of Earth’s land surface has been cultivated or developed, most of the great rivers have been dammed or diverted. Our food production binds more nitrogen than all other ecosystems on Earth combined, and we emit more carbon dioxide through traffic and energy production than volcanoes do. Humans are the main driving force behind the extinction of species. While technology served to survey or control nature in earlier periods, we now need to control the mastery of nature to ensure a human future on the planet.

For the opening of the Peer to Peer event series at the FFT, media artists, scientists, and activists present perspectives on the relations between nature and ecology, infrastructure and the Anthropocene as well as between digitisation and the relationship between humans and other species.

The programme encompasses, among other points, the “Art and Activism” workshop with climate protection activist and author Hanna Poddig, a video installation by artists Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani and a city walk to the so-called Ingenhoven Valley – green architecture in Düsseldorf’s city centre, meant to overcome the contradictions between city and landscape, traffic and the public sphere. Those and more works, all created as part of the Medienkunstfonds and Medienkunstfellows programmes, will be presented.

Together with the artists involved, among them Jan Lemitz, Hauke Heumann, and Anja Vormann as well as curators Juliette Bibasse and Julia Kaganskiy, we will discuss aspects of ecosystems and climate policy regarding current questions in media arts. Additionally, Anan Fries’ new production will be presented, while the programme will be rounded out musically by Amalopa, a platform for diasporic club and pop culture.

medienwerk.nrw extends an invitation to explore the diverse media arts landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia through Peer to Peer in September 2023. The event series will open at the FFT before journeying on to Cologne, Havixbeck near Münster, and Essen. Among the presentations will be the projects funded by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia from the Medienkunstfonds and Medienkunstfellows programmes.

medienwerk.nrw is a network for media arts and digital culture in North Rhine-Westphalia. It consists of more than 25 institutions, among them art associations, museums, exhibition venues, festivals, performing arts production spaces, archives, and universities. FFT Düsseldorf is a member of medienwerk.nrw.

Timetable

Friday, 9/1/2023.

3 to 5.30 p.m. „Communication Guerrilla: Subversive Creative Actions“ Hanna Poddig (workshop).
5.30 to 11 p.m. „The Alchemy of Clouds“ Nina Fischer & Marian El Sani (installation).
6 p.m. Welcome and ceremonial opening: Jochen Link, Kathrin Tiedemann, Fabian Saavedra-Lara, Klaas Werner
7 p.m. „Ways into the Anthropocene“ Bergit Arends (Keynote)
8 pm „Resurrect in Peace (R.I.P.)“ Anan Fries (Performance)
21.30 p.m. DJ set with Yaya

Saturday, 9/2/2023.

11am „Sight Green. To the rising valleys and green hills of the city“ Hause Heumann, Jan Lemitz, Moritz Hannemann (city walk).
2pm „The Alchemy of Clouds“ Nina Fischer & Marian El Sani (installation).
2:30pm „Behind the Hedges. Image Politics of Urban Design“ Anja Vormann, Laura Oldörp, Hauke Heumann, Moritz Hannemann, Alexander Konrad and students of the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (lecture).
3 p.m. „Re-Imagining Public Life – Revisited,“ Anja Vormann, Laura Oldörp, Hauke Heumann, Jan Lemitz, Moritz Hannemann (talk)
4:30 p.m. „Art, Activism and Shared Strategies for Climate Justice“ (talk).
6:30 p.m. „Technologies and Artifacts of Planetary Care“ Daphne Dragona (talk).
8pm „Resurrect in Peace (R.I.P.)“ Anan Fries (performance)
9 p.m. Artist Talk

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