‍Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art
‍Jazdów 200–467 Warsaw, Poland
+48 22 628 12 71–3 ext. 135

Can dizziness be a resource? What remains after unsettledness and disorientation? And how can we see communities find their balance in uncertain situations? Particularly now, in times of ubiquitous invocations of global crisis, these questions of collective balancing and balancing collectives are more relevant than ever.

The symposium Balancing Togetherness is a further step on a long term artistic and curatorial research into the potentiality of dizziness as a productive part of creative process. It addresses issues of togetherness within the larger theme of dizziness as an artistic resource, and thus contextualizes the exhibition Utrata równowagi which brings together national and international artists’ viewpoints on the experience and reflection of dizziness.

No modus operandi or protocol leads us through life. Thus, time and again we are confronted with states of Taumel (German for ‘dizziness’). This dizziness arises locally and is situational, combining various elements. It can clear, cause a great stir, move heaven and earth: it destabilizes. Dizziness, according to Plato, is creating the constitution of all philosophical thought by destabilizing the basis of knowledge to a state of uncertainty. As such, dizziness is defined as a sensory and mental phenomenon, evoking a troubling disequilibrium. However, the comprehension of individual dizziness cannot be afforded without including the individual’s social and spatial environment and emotional relations. It affects individuals, networks, groups and societies. Clearly, how we navigate a state of dizziness is influenced by the experience, its reflection, and by the resources and responses provided by the surroundings.

The proposed symposium Balancing Togetherness examines phenomenon of dizziness specifically in modes of togetherness. From different disciplinary perspectives the symposium will bring together viewpoints of navigation through, within and out of dizziness. With voices from philosophical to natural scientific, from historical to aesthetic and artistic research it examines inter-relational strategies for navigating states of dizziness productively within physical and social environments.

Friday, December 1st

15:00 Guided tour through the exhibition for the participants of the symposium and get-together

16:00 Introduction Jaroslaw Lubiak: Semantics of Dizziness

16:20 Introduction Anderwald + Grond: What is Dizziness – A Resource?

16:50 Keynote Lecture Harald Katzmair

17:30 Lecture Marcus Steinweg: Dizziness, Togetherness and Inconsistency

18:00 Panel discussion

19:30 Dinner

Saturday, December 2nd

11:00 Mathias Benedek: Collective Creativity?

11:30 Karolina Wiktor: Dizziness in art and life?

12:00 Lecture Anna Kim: Collective Modes of Destruction

12:30 Katrin Bucher Trantow in conversation with Oliver Ressler

13:00 Panel Discussion

14:00 Lunch Break

15:00 Bogna Kietlińska: Dizziness, Togetherness and Cities?

15:30 Karoline Feyertag: Philosophical Basis of Dizziness and Togetherness

16:30 Final Panel Discussion

18:00 Dinner