| Andreas Broeckmann via nettime-l on Sun, 2 Feb 2025 14:06:51 +0100 (CET) |
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| Re: <nettime> Transmedialle intel? |
Hello Ursula, folks, this was posted to the Spectre list yesterday: -------- Weitergeleitete Nachricht -------- Betreff: [spectre] Open letter to transmediale Datum: Sat, 1 Feb 2025 11:47:51 +0100 Von: Aram Bartholl via SPECTRE <spectre@mikrolisten.de> https://openlettertransmediale.onlyoffice.com/s/nPrbbRCPvBNvLbG Open letter to:transmediale e.V. (Filippo Gianetta & Magdalena Ritter) and the advisory board: Nora Al-Badri, Asia Bazdyrieva, Gabriele Horn, and Jussi Parikka.
*Why is transmediale not hiring a new artistic director?*We care about and love transmediale as one of the most important critical and experimental media art institutions in Germany and Europe which reaches out to the public of Berlin and an international audience once a year. The festival is deeply rooted in the city's fabric of the media art community with its many project spaces for almost 40 years. Therefore, we are concerned about the recent changes in the governing structure of the festival.
Nora O’ Murchú, the first female, and now last festival artistic director was surprisingly let go in summer 2024. Her leaving was announced, although many knew of her plans for the coming years of festival editions. Of which several components are executed without her as we speak. The circumstances of her departure remain unresolved and not transparently communicated with the community of artists and participants who have supported transmediale in the past.
At the same time former production team member Filippo Gianetta becomes managing director of the institution, which was initially assumed to be an intermediary position. Filippo Gianetta is also one of only two people (Filippo Gianetta & Magdalena Ritter) on the board of directors of transmediale e.V. according to public records. For several months transmediale promised to release a call for a new artistic director position as soon as possible, while the coming festival’s edition (2025) was announced to be organized by the core team of transmediale (link).
It took another six months until the call was out (it is running currently till Feb 16th (link). But to our surprise transmediale festival is now looking for a lead curatorial position instead of an artistic director. The contract for this position is set for 10 months only (April 2025 - Feb 2026). The intention seems to be to hire a new curator every year for each festival edition. Additionally the call already lists several constraints about the festival structure, like fully removing the exhibition element for next years edition, which seems to leave little freedom for this new position to reflect on transmedia.
Having an artistic director formulate a multi-year vision for transmediale that included artistic formats from exhibitions, to talks, conferences, performances and interventions has been essential to providing reflection on a radically evolving media landscape. This valuable contextualising of societal changes beyond the scope of a single exhibition, conference or theme is what makes transmediale so valuable to our field. To alter this characteristic, and remove a longer term artistic lead seems misplaced in times of radical changes in our techno-social landscapes. It negates the urgency that we all experience within a rapidly evolving culture of censorship, and authoritarianism.
A new artistic lead will likely not move to Germany for a 10 month position, will not obtain job security, and will not get the freedom to take the position this community needs in these dark times. transmediale needs a strong personality with excellent ideas and not a powerless curator who gets hired and fired to just execute the festival in the shape the management decided to please funding.
We urgently ask the advisory board to re-think the structure of transmediale so that the festival remains a relevant voice within the European art scene. We urgently ask the leadership of transmediale to make transparent the basis for the decisions it took around leadership changes, cancellation of the exhibition parts both this year and in upcoming editions.
Signed by: !Mediengruppe Bitnik Aram Bartholl Constant Dullaart Danja Vasiliev Am 02.02.25 um 11:01 schrieb Ursula Damm via nettime-l:
Hi Andreas, hi David, is there now more information available about the transmediale that can be discussed here? I just noticed the call that went out for the curation of the transmediale 2026. It now says there "In 2026, no exhibition is planned alongside the festival“. https://transmediale.de/en/news/open-call-festival-curation-2026 Although I saw this development coming, it is really a sad end that what was once a real festival with an open call and broad participation of young artists has now ultimately become a media-theoretical conference. Is practical work no longer needed? Are discourse and analysis enough? Are curators better than open calls and juries? For me, as someone who grew up in the old, feudal art system, the media art scene became so attractive because it was more democratic and open. Access to exhibitions was not determined by curators and buyers, but by invited jurors from the field. And every young artist could expect their new work to be seen. I would be glad to know I'm not the only one who regrets this loss. Best, UrsulaAm 16/12/2024 um 18:45 schrieb Andreas Broeckmann via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>: Hey David, folks, I know only little about what is going on, but it seems that Nóra left transmediale in the spring, after the last festival. Somewhat implicitly the current situation can be gleaned from the pages on the website, https://transmediale.de/en/about /team /history The upcoming festival appears to be taking shape, so it seems that this story will continue... Regards, -a Am 16.12.24 um 17:14 schrieb David Garcia via nettime-l:Does anyone on the list have any intel on what's happening with Transmediale? I had heard rumours that Nóra Ó Murchú had stepped down from the director role.. But I don't know if that is really the case... The on-line announcement for the 2025 looks pretty thin gruel. But given the state of German economy I imagine they have had some significant cuts. Then of course there was all the cultural politics boycotts etc around Israel's actions in Gaza- West Bank - Lebanon-and now Syria must still be impacting the future of the festival. I ask of because for many on the list it is a very important festival that has done great work in the past and I guess there must be nettime people who can throw some light on the current situation. David Garcia-- # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: https://www.nettime.org # contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org
-- # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: https://www.nettime.org # contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org