Now available: Journal der Künste 18

The two photographic war reports from Ukraine by Johanna-Maria Fritz and Mila Teshaieva permeate the 18th issue of the Journal der Künste. Like continual intrusions into our everyday work, the pictures taken by the OSTKREUZ-photographers both accompany and disrupt the thematic flow of the new issue.

Many of the articles revolve around the overriding theme of the global ecological crisis: in a review of the ReEDOcate Me! symposium, Christian Tschirner uses the historical example of the Edo period in Japan to show how the need for change in our treatment of natural resources can also bring about a new art of sustainable transformation. Ulrike Herrmann advances arguments against the logic of growth. With the video works of the artist Otobong Nkanga, Noam Gramlich in turn sets out to deconstruct our concept of the resource in order to expose the destructive foundations of our media technologies, taking the example of copper mining in Namibia. By way of a literary exploration, Esther Kinsky approaches the nuanced experience of nature in Italy’s post-industrial landscape. In their conversation about tackling the issues of climate protection and sustainability with musical interventions, Carola Bauckholt, Iris ter Schiphorst and Julia Gerlach call for a structural rethink and new forms of action. The utopian practice of a Trond Reinholdtsen and the landscape interventions of Christina Kubisch and Peter Ablinger present specific approaches to this new artistic practice. The overarching question of what a future on this planet can look like for future generations will also preoccupy the Akademie in the years to come.

In the Akademie dialogue with Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, Jeanine Meerapfel spoke about forms of anti-Semitism and the concrete danger from right-wing aggression; an excerpt of the conversation is printed here. In the run-up to the 12th Berlin Biennale, which opens in the two houses of the Akademie der Künste (among other venues) on 10 June, Johannes Odenthal interviews the artist and this year’s curator Kader Attia: his work centres on reflections on the interplay and persistence of colonial and fascist modes of thinking.

The articles from the archive place an emphasis on the experience of exile and resistance during the National Socialist era. Spotlighted here are the composer Friedrich Hollaender, the journalist and resistance fighter Gerhard Leo and the illustrator and cartoonist Milein Cosman, who survived in exile and attest to the historical dimension of the current themes.
Jeanine Meerapfels diary of the trip to Portbou with secondary school leavers from Berlin in the footsteps of Walter Benjamin tells of the concrete practice of an in-depth educational project for a young generation of critical thinkers.

We have awarded our carte blanche twice in this issue: to the industrial designer Fritz Frenkler, who describes sustainability as a matter of design, and to the poet and new director of the Haus für Poesie Katharina Schultens. In her poems, she provides a linguistic record of contemporary upheavals.

You can find the digital version of the 18th issue here.

The Journal der Künste is available in German and English and is free of charge. If you wish to receive the print version of a single issue or if you are interested in a subscription, please send an email to info@adk.de or use the order form.