Schnellkurs Scheitern

„Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.“ Samuel Beckett


Failure is a stranger to no one: it is very much part of our everyday experience and nevertheless often considered as a taboo in contemporary society. With Crash Course Failure brut calls on us to leave our uneasiness and reserves vis-à-vis failure behind and invites artists, thinkers and experts to consider the potential of sustainable failure in their respective fields and also, in relation to social transformation and political change. Lectures, discussions and performances will address failure as a social phenomenon, failure against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and last but not least, failure as a part of experimentation in the art field, or even as artistic practice itself.

Schnellkurs Scheitern is presented as part of the project House on Fire, with the kind support of the Cultural Programme of the European Union.

Programme:

5 to 6.30 pm

Stadtkino
Hans Petter Moland (Oslo)
When Bubbles Burst (Documentary, 2012, 90 min)
In English

The documentary When Bubbles Burst provides a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the global economy, examining the mechanics behind bubbles and crashes and suggesting trends for the future. Nobel laureates, world-class economists, players in the global economic casino and “the little man” give an unflinching account of today's situation and draw fascinating historical parallels.

When Bubbles Burst // 1. trailer from Dinamo on Vimeo.

6 to 6.45 pm & 10.30 to 11.15 pm

brut im Künstlerhaus/Bar
San Keller (Zurich) & Steffi Hofer
PERPETUA (Performance, 45 min)

If language can be learned, it should be possible to unlearn it again. In PERPETUA, the speech therapist Steffi Hofer uses her technique in a reversed way and trains the artist San Keller to create dysfunctions in his verbal skills. www.museumsankeller.ch


7 to 8.30 pm

brut im Künstlerhaus/Saal
Deborah Hazler (Vienna)
Kill Your Inner Boy – Making the Decision to Become a Man
(Performance/lecture, 15 min)
In English

Christian Morris, a successful man known from Deborah Hazler’s last performance Anthropology of Man, gives a motivational lecture in which he introduces easy steps to become a successful and respectable man.

brut im Künstlerhaus/Saal
Ingo Niermann (New York) & Giancarlo Corsi (Modena)
(Talk/presentation, ca. 70 min)

Writer Ingo Niermann and sociologist Giancarlo Corsi introduce their individual positions on how visions often fail in the face of reality and on the relationship of failure and career. After short presentations they will engage in a dialogue dealing with failure as a social phenomenon.. www.thegreatpyramid.de, www.minusvisionen.de


8.45 to 10 pm

brut im Künstlerhaus/Saal
Chris Kondek (Berlin)
Cash for trash (Lectureperformance)
In English

In the upside-down world of “too big to fail” banks can turn their garbage into gold. With smoke and mirrors (and mystical bookkeeping), the faith healers of the banking world lay their hands on the bodies of bad banks and make them good again. The bankers call it “trash for cash”. Using the Spanish bad bank SAREB as an example, Chris Kondek explains the magic of the Good Bank/Bad Bank strategy and how failure is turned into success and shit into gold.

brut im Künstlerhaus/Saal
The Institute of Failure (Presentation, 10 min)
In English

Situated on the ungraspable border between deadpan irony and high seriousness, The Institute of Failure dedicates itself to the documentation, study and theorisation of failure as it occurs in all aspects of human endeavor. Headed by Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment) and Matthew Goulish (Goat Island, Every house has a door) and backed by a team of Honorary Scholars the Institute aims to map the face of contemporary failure in avowedly cross-disciplinary style. Honorary Scholar of the Institute, Sara Jane Bailes, will present a text by its directors, Etchells and Goulish, written especially for (and to) her, and for the event itself. www.institute-of-failure.com

brut im Künstlerhaus/Saal
Sara Jane Bailes (Brighton) & Bernadette Anzengruber (Vienna)
(Talk/audience discussion, 45 min)
In English

What does it mean to “fail” in performance? What can we learn from performances that expose and then celebrate their ability to fail? Sara Jane Bailes, Reader in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sussex and author of the book Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure in dialogue with Vienna-based performance artist Bernadette Anzengruber.


10.30 to 11.30 pm

brut im Künstlerhaus/Saal
Sebastijan Geč & Otto Krause & Milan Loviška (Vienna)
After this, therefore because of this (Performance)
In English

“WARNING: Increased probability of uncertain future events due to the instability of the system. The successive disintegration of the initial set of rules governing structure and behavior might cause resistance and/or headache.”

Performers and choreographers, Sebastijan Geč and Milan Loviška, and stage, costume designer and performer Otto Krause started working as a collective of five, which then was reduced to a fine group of three. After this, therefore because of this was conceived as a post-traumatic reaction to this reduction caused by unexpected turbulences and failures in relations, both artistic and personal.

Concept/Creation/Performance Sebastijan Geč, Otto Krause, Milan Loviška Costumes Otto Krause

A Co-production of Sebastijan Geč & Otto Krause & Milan Loviška and Tanzquartier Wien.


7 to 11.30 pm, durational

brut im Künstlerhaus/Foyer
Die Rabtaldirndln (Graz)
Sterbenswörter (Performance)

The Graz-based performance collective Die Rabtaldirndln gathers the last words of the dying to create a monument of post-its in brut’s foyer. Banal as they might sound, these messages herald the passage into the unknown. Interlaced with songs of mourning and snacks the Rabtaldirndln produce last words, relating the ending of lives to failure in its most transcendental form. http://dierabtaldirndln.wordpress.com/

€ 8/€ 6 with the brutkarte*