‘Aeroponic’ – root systems nourished by air – Acts is the name given to the nomadic Dutch Art Institute’s final Kitchen presentations. Each participant addresses one question, as a practice of engagement.

Here you will find the documentation of Till Langschied's presentation as filmed by Baha Görkem Yalım. The written report is by Giulia Crispiani and it includes a summary of the comments by esteemed guest respondents.

The Best of all Possible Worlds

Till Langschied's question: Is today’s failure energizing the promise of tomorrow?

Till's introduction: Cyber Space, Tumblr, the guest list, the Art World, the DAI, Berlin, Tokyo, Cocoon Club, Loveparade, Breite Strasse 27, Bread & Butter, My Bed, Hare Krishna, Heaven’s Gate, the Grave of Ramses III, Venice, Goa, Koh Lanta, the source of the Ganges, the House of the Dalai Lama

If Marx is right and every GRENZE (boundary) turns into a SCHRANKE (barrier) once I reach it, how can I stop running around in a space that shares the downsides of confinement with the downsides of eternal expansion? All these spaces are not hostile. They are indifferent. But once I am in them I tend to expanded them beyond themselves ad infinitum.

Giulia's report: Four performers in a neoclassical white and silver outfit are singing a cappella the word “utopia”, there are elements in space resembling column like forms, greek temple like, some chairs are tilted in the middle of the temple. The author comes in and tells he fell in love with poetry during this program, so this is a collection of poems relating to utopia. He sits barefoot, and reads, then tears the page off the book and changes position while the choir sings—“The best of possible worlds is giving me nightmares” while they split into pairs and interact with the architecture. The first column comes down, as the performers are helping it down. The poems have to do with some sort of cybernetic life, streaming pool, then love and sadness, intimate themes and feelings. Second column comes down then the third, and the forth. The authors at times recites poetry and at times reads while changes position alternatively—“I am never as lonely when performing collectivity.” Eventually the performers are wearing the columns, resembling classical sculptures and while they walk around dragging the small metal chain they make a soundtrack. “Utopia has to fail because it’s a construct. Demolish the architecture to unleash potential. The only skill that’s really important is knowing how to accessorize.”—He says.

Phanuel Antwi: In the diary there’s an anachronistic point to look into failure, there’s an ability to look back. Failure is something the present can hold. For us to name something as failure requires us to look back, while trafficking into different spaces. Nightmares are not the best of all possible worlds. Rearranging is what the choir was doing. The leap has a similar suspension to David’s work, a leap ad a radical hope. What it means to sermon the past?

Ayesha Hameed:We came up to a brighter room, and everyone is singing around signing utopia. As if we’re coming from Greece, thinking about all the philosophers walking around, holding space inverted to this notion of utopia with nightmares, while spatializing all these elements with white (I think of Jarman and Muñoz), the celestial apparatus coming down can become something else.

Francesco Urbano Ragazzi: By mixing other traditions, lecturer format and a dialogue connected to the topic of failure, if you look at subjectivity and spectacle, you can reshape one with the other. The performance around you, it was a dance against failure, a dialectic between the very personal and the spectacular.

You wrote a psalm, with ethical messages, mentioning what we should believe for our world and our future. I wonder how such a traditional format can be appropriated for other means?

About: Till Langschied

Till Langschied's "The Best of all Possible Worlds" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on July 28th.

Find the overview of all nineteen AEROPONIC ACTS 2023 here: WHERE THE MOON IS UP

In italiano: 

TITOLO: Il meglio di tutti i mondi possibili   

DOMANDA: Il fallimento di oggi sta energizzando la promessa di domani?

Cyber Space, Tumblr, la guestlist, il mondo dell'arte, il DAI, Berlino, Tokyo, Cocoon Club, Loveparade, Breite Strasse 27, Bread & Butter, il mio letto, Hare Krishna, Heaven's Gate, la tomba di Ramses III, Venezia, Goa, Koh Lanta, la sorgente del Gange, la casa del Dalai Lama.

Se Marx ha ragione e ogni GRENZE (confine) si trasforma in una SCHRANKE (barriera) una volta raggiunto, come posso smettere di correre in uno spazio che condivide gli aspetti negativi del confinamento con quelli dell'espansione eterna? Tutti questi spazi non sono ostili. Sono indifferenti. Ma una volta che ci sono dentro, tendo a espanderli all'infinito.