Boris Nikitin – Power and Vulnerability – Propaganda conversations

At the beginning of every change in the public sphere is a coming out. Whether it is about sexuality, faith, illness, a dissident political conviction, the desire to die, showing a work of art or the expression of a silly thought.

 

A person goes out. Exposes himself, gives himself a voice, be it spoken, written, whispered, cursed or with a deliberate silence. Exposes his body. Makes himself visible, vulnerable – vulnerable. But through this act of sharing, the vulnerability simultaneously undermines a revaluation. It suddenly changes from a supposed lack to an ability: Vulnerability! The ability to be vulnerable, attackable and mortal.

 

In April 2019 the biennial festival “It’s The Real Thing – Basel Documentary Days” will take place for the fourth time. In the run-up to this event, director and author Boris Nikitin will address the question of how we influence reality by exposing, documenting and propagating ourselves. He uses the simplest possible form for this: that of conversation. With one guest at a time, he dives into the experimental grey areas of the public sphere, in which realities are repeatedly tested and invented anew.

 

21. May 2019: Power and Vulnerability VIII

Conversation with Deborah Feldman (author of Unorthodox and Überbitten)

 

12. April 2019: Power and Vulnerability VII

Conversation about sociologies of the self with Didier Eribon (sociologist)

 

15 March 2019:  Power and Vulnerability VI

Conversation about the different view on reality with Peggy Piesche (cultural scientist, expert for feminism & gender democracy at the Heinrich Böll foundation)

 

20 February 2019: Power and Vulnerability V

Conversation about the wounded body as the pop icon of Christianity with Abbott Peter von Sury (Abbott of the cloister Mariastein)

 

22 January 2019: Power and Vulnerability IV

Conversation about theater and propaganda with Milo Rau (director and writer)

 

12 December 2018: Power and Vulnerability III

Conversation about political provocation and erratic reactions with Christian Weissgerber, former neonazi, today cultural scientist, and Vera Lengsfeld, former Green party politician, today editor at “Achse des Guten” and publisher of the “Erklärung 2018”

 

26 November 2018: Power and Vulnerability II

Conversation about the biggest of all coming outs: the wish to die. with Rita Schulthess (suicide assist at the euthanisia organisation EXIT)

 

20 October 2018: Power and Vulnerability I

Conversation about fat, queer, white trans bodies with Dean Hutton (photo journalist, activist and performance artist from South Africa)

 

The Propaganda conversations are co-comissioned by Kaserne Basel

 

Supported by: Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater der Kantone Basel-Stadt & Basel-Landschaft