We cordially invite you to the inaugural public lecture by Prof. Dr. Simon Sheikh, Professor of Theory in the field of Critical Theory and Media Philosophy

17.10.24 // 6 pm // Großes Studio, HfG Karlsruhe

Abstract

In art and aesthetics, the notion of the ruin has often been associated with the past, as memories of a former glorious societies, perhaps to be resurrected, perhaps lost forever, but always with a sublime beauty of their own as remnants, as memorials. This romantic notion of the ruin even led to the construction of artificial ruins in park landscapes in Europe throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, something that we can, arguably, see today in the ruins of neoliberalism with abandoned building sites after economic crashes, failed city- and geoplanning, rundown public infrastructures, and ecological disasters.

These sites is but the visible mark of a deeper sense of historical and societal ruination, that puts into question the institutions of the former west and their narratives of progress, and informs us about the ruins of the present on a global scale, politically, socially, and environmentally.

But if, as Paul B. Preciado wrote about the ruins of the burned church of Notre Dame, “the last of a world that ends, and the first of another world that begins” what futures can be built and imagined in our state of ruination? What lives and afterlives are to be had among the ruins?

We look forward to seeing you there! Your HfG Karlsruhe