Universalism, a mode to claim particular views and rules from one culture valid all over the world, has been widely criticized as disguised eurocentrism. Recent concepts have outlined alternative universalisms. Historically, in european as well as in non-european cultures, artists, art movements and artistical concepts have held in common an idea of universalism which has been carrying notions of humanism and political liberation since the declaration of human rights.

Today a multiplied global art market and cultural exchange in literature and theatre put questions of universalism into different perspective. What guiding spirit could be behind the idea of universalisms, in the plural, for art, curating and theatre today? Is it empowering for art to invoke the idea of universalism in order to transcend its perception as local – to speak forcefully in a universal language and claim its critical, or even, utopian potential? May internal paradoxes of universalim be dissolved in newly conceived concepts of transnationalism or cosmopolitanism?

International artists, curators and scholars will discuss these questions with regard to history, theory and current artistic practice with focus on the production and distribution of art from African cultures.

Dealing with the Universal – between history, theory and practice of arts

Universalismen verhandeln – zwischen Geschichte, Theorie und Praxis der Künste

Thursday, 3. 2. 2011
Literaturhaus Stuttgart
Artists in dialogue

20.00
Sami Tchak (Paris/Lomé) and Thorsten Schüller (Mainz)
„La littérature africaine n'existe pas – Die Grenzen der Frankophonie“
Welcome: Françoise Joly

Friday, 4. 2. 2011
Institut Français de Stuttgart

11.00
Rolf C. Hemke (Mülheim): Theatre from the margins of attention – the international work of the 'Theater an der Ruhr'

12.00
Annette Bühler-Dietrich, Rolf C. Hemke, Thorsten Schüller
Discussion on transcultural strategies in the arts

13.00 lunch

14.00
Bärbel Küster (Karlsruhe/Stuttgart): Introductory remarks on contemporary concepts of universalism in the arts

14.30
Nora Sternfeld (Wien): Whose universalism is it? Strategic universalism as agency

15.15
Maguèye Kassé (Dakar): Universalism against ghettoization of arts

16.00 coffee-break

16.30
Artists in dialogue

16.30
Mansour Ciss (Kanakassy) (Berlin/Dakar) and Maguèye Kassé: Réflexions sur un projet d’art: Le ‚Laboratoire de Déberlinisation’

17.30
Catherine David (Paris): Idiosyncrasies ‚locales’ (?) versus présentation et interprétation ‚globales’ (?)

19.00 reception

Stadtbücherei/Wilhelmspalais, Stuttgart

20.00
Lecture

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (New York): The Future as neighbor and vernacular cosmopolitanism

Introduction Saskia Schabio

Lectures in German, English, French.

You are invited to register/Um Anmeldung wird gebeten
katja.klumppilw.uni-stuttgart.de
0711/68583104

Konzeption und Organisation

Dr. Bärbel Küster, Prof. i. Vertr.

Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften, Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe

Dr. habil. Annette Bühler-Dietrich
Françoise Joly
Dr. Saskia Schabio
Institut für Literaturwissenschaft, Universität Stuttgart

In Kooperation mit
Akademie Schloß Solitude; Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum/James-F.-Byrnes Institut e.V., Stuttgart; IfA/Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. Stuttgart, Institut Français de Stuttgart, IZKT/ Internationales Zentrum für Kultur- und Technikforschung, Universität Stuttgart; Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der
DVA-Stiftung