2009 – The Blind Spot Is the Most Recent Past

Program series curated by students of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna together with Diedrich Diederichsen

An exploration and diagnosis of the present are usually understood particularly in the context of art as a future-looking inventory of the here and now. Art history traditionally accepts no objects that are younger than fifty years old. This means that there is a dark spot between 1969 and 2019, which is subjected to no academic enquiry, in particular as the fashions of retro and nostalgia generally only appropriate what is exactly twenty years old (and older periods: the psychedelic 1960s or the leaden and colorful 1970s have already seen several cycles). One of the problems of our approach to time is that projects that have just begun but are only promising long term are abandoned and forgotten, and with this we also lose an awareness of what needs to be done politically and socially. Looking back ten years: what do we know of that today, how did it go on, and is there an archive? 2009 was marked by the financial crisis and a corresponding new and fundamental critique of capitalism, and what remains of that? And: the first Afro-American president took up office. This program wishes to mediate between historical and present knowledge, especially in reference to duration, processes, and successes—as categories of political and project-based thinking.

Part 1: Just Because I Am Cold Does Not Mean It Is Winter

The 2009 song entitled Bloß weil ich friere, ist noch lang nicht Winter (Just Because I Am Cold Does Not Mean It Is Winter) by the band Goldene Zitronen (The Golden Lemons) is an atmospheric reference point for a selection of short films that raise a number of issues specific to that year. Which forms of (political) resistance can still be negotiated and possible in the direct aftermath and shock of the financial crisis of 2008, and how are these changing? Do alternative narrative structures provide a possible counter to the neoliberal logic of appropriation? Are answers to be sought for in the past or can they only be found through a future-looking exploration of new communication technologies?

Program

Melanie Gilligan, Crisis in the Credit System – Episode 1, 2008, 8 min
Steffani Jemison, Maniac Chase, 2008-2009, 3 min
Jean-Marie Straub, Joachim Gatti, 2009, 2 min

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, 2009, 18 min
Jonas Mekas, I Leave Chelsea Hotel, 1967/2009, 4 min
Cyprien Gaillard, Cities of Gold and Mirrors, 2009, 9 min

Nicolette Krebitz, Die Unvollendete, 2009, 15 min
Jon Rafman, Kool-Aid Man in Second Life – Tour Promo, 2009, 12 min
Laure Prouvost, Monolog, 2009, 9 min

Curated and presented by Jacqueline Grassmann, Leonie Huber, and Inga Thiele

Diedrich Diederichsen teachesTheory, Practice, and Communication of contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Most recent publications: Körpertreffer: Zur Ästhetik der nachpopulären Künste, Berlin 2017; Über Pop-Musik, Cologne 2014. Lives in Ottakring and Schöneberg.

This program series accompanies the class 2009 – Ten Years Ago taught by Diedrich Diederichsen at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Part 2 will take place on June 5, 2019