Thursday 07.09.2006
12 a.m.
exhibition guided tour
2 p.m. Weinecksaal / Cinema
SUBJECTIVE TRUTHS
Introduction by Angelika Richter
Ein Wunder
Stanislav Mucha
DE 2000, 7 min,
Polish and German voice over with English subtitles
Saving the World
Maija Blåfield, FI 1999-2005, 55 min,
English and German with English subtitles
4 p.m. Weinecksaal
Artists Talk
with Andrea Büttner and François Bucher
Moderation: Angelika Richter
(in English)
6 p.m. Weinecksaal
Artists Talk
with Korpys/Löffler and Monika Oechsler,
Moderation: Anke Hoffmann
6 p.m.
exhibition guided tour
8 p.m. Weinecksaal / Cinema
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Introduction by Angelika Richter
Kasino 2001
Tobias Kipp
DE 2005, 10:30 min, German with English subtitles
Telemistica
Christian Jankowski
DE 1999, 22 min, Italian with English subtitles
Thank You Jesus for the Eternal Present
Owen Land
US 1973, 5 min, English
Sieben bis zehn Millionen
Stefan Panhans
DE 2005, 5:39 min, German
Praise You
Music by Fatboy Slim, directed by Spike Jonze
GB 2001, 3:40 min
Preacher With an Unknown God Rob
Rob VanAlkemade
US 2005, 16 min, English
No Sir, Orison!
Owen Land
US 1975, 3 min, English
10:30 p.m. Weinecksaal / Cinema
Waking Life
Richard Linklater
US 2001, 99 min, English
10 p.m. Happy Believers Club
Red Skies Over Paradise
DJ Ektoplasma, Berlin
Pursuit of Happiness
Media culture has taken over important functions of religion, such as the offer of interpretation and ritualization models. Narrative interpretations of life, the answer to existential questions of life, and the diverse promises of salvation associated with them are negotiated in media formats ranging from popular cinema films, TV commercials and talk shows, all the way to interactive computer games. The media succeed in suggesting that they can fulfil in a differentiated way the need for (immediate) answers. In addition to their role as forerunner in providing orientation help that points the way for individually coping with everyday life, in the prevailing capitalist market economy, consumption counts as the last certainty of salvation. Shopping becomes a condensed, truthful experience, a new form of life. Ritual acts such as active devotion to the commodity fetishes in the so-called shrines to consumption are to provide the necessary constructions of meaning for the customers: "Consumption is a ritual act that creates the individual truth out of universal commodities."1
However, the phantasmagorias conveyed by media and marketing strategies, the belief in an overarching media authority, as well as the effectiveness of the 'object of value' cannot deceive one about the vacuum in regard to authenticity and emotions. A program dedicated to the sense and nonsense of (media) consumption.
1 Norbert Bolz: Das Konsumistische Manifest. Wilhelm Fink Verlag 2002. p. 113
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