Start: 13:00hrs

3 Conversations with: Ger Groot, Dutch philosopher and writer. He wrote and performed two ambitious eight-hour-long lecture series: The Human Tone, an overview of philosophical ideas that have shaped the modern individual, and Modern French Philosophers. Both lectures formed the basis for our conversation; Alana Jelinek, Australian artist and writer of the book This is Not Art: Activism and Other "Not-Art"; Alexandra Blättler, Swiss art historian and curator of the exhibition series New Existentialism. And one essay by: Jan Verwoert, German musician, critic, writer and lecturer on cultural theory. 'A Crude Read of True Resolve: On the road from a masculinist death-cult to an incentive to begin living'. 

What this new issue is about:

Today existentialist values have become popular values. Self-realisation, self-awareness, we all must live an authentic life. In that respect existentialism has penetrated deeply into our culture. At the heart is a simple plea to take responsibility for our lives and it is up to us to create meaning. ‘You are free, therefore choose, that is to say, invent!’ Sartre says. We are what we make of ourselves and we cannot abdicate this responsibility and leave it to an authority. That’s a heavy load, which people are eager to escape.

Existentialism says all human interaction is conflict, and we are lonely, competitive individuals. 

But it is also a freedom philosophy, a narrative of agency, emancipation and responsibility. It influenced every single one of us through cinema, literature, and art. But if our purpose in life is to have our unique individual project, how can we engage with others and transform what is so personal and subjective into something magical that lifts everyone?

Fucking Good Art is a travelling magazine or editorial project for research in-and-through art by Dutch artists and non-academic free-style researchers Robert Hamelijnck and Nienke Terpsma. Fields of interest are: oral history, anthropology, documentary, investigative art and journalism, counter-cultures, anarchism, self-organisation and DIT do-it-together strategies, and models outside the art market.

http://www.fuckinggoodart.nl

*KURATOR

Alte Fabrik

Klaus-Gebert-Strasse 5

CH – 8640 Rapperswil

Switzerland