The Bet
With an event on Friday night and a program on Saturday from 15 h until late into the night, the performance weekend that takes place both at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and at KW Institute for Contemporary Art presents different artistic positions and theoretical perspectives on the subject of the bet in the economy and society. Speculating is, as always allowed. It will be fun, want to bet?
Program
Friday, 12. 7.13
19 h, Haus der Berliner Festspiele
geheimagentur & Joshua Sofaer: The Improbability Drive. The Decision
After cruising the streets of Berlin for a week, the improbability drive limousine will now drive onto the stage where the results of the test-drives, as well as the most improbable suggestions for the future use of the limousine, will be presented. Its destiny will be decided together with the audience.
Afterwards: Shuttle bus to the KW
21 – 23 h
Reactor: Dummy Button
The new Dummy Button is brought to Berlin, offering us the chance to make a bet on the behavior of others. This is not a game, but rather a continually evolving situation in which we can change our bets midway and effect how things play out.
Michael Portnoy: Abtract Gambling
Abtract Gambling by Michael Portnoy draws on the roots of gambling in rituals and fortune telling. Inspired by gaming devices from different cultures and times, Portnoy's sculptural objects develop a life of their own: leading to dysfunctional, intimate and absurd situations, in which the audience can participate in the gambling.
From 23 h
Film program: You Bet - This is the Future
The performance program will be accompanied by a film program running late into the night, with artistic works about bets, speculation, profit and loss.
Saturday, 13.7.13
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
15 h
Hadley+Maxwell: The House Rules (Betting is for Losers)
What does it mean to include yourself in the game, or to bet on one's own safety and sanity? In their presentation, Hadley+Maxwell continue their research project Economy of Representation through various means.
Approx. 16 h
Cally Spooner: And You Were Wonderful, On Stage
Every bet inevitably contains the seed of its potential failure. Cally Spoonerʼs performance is formally based on the genre of the American musical, and explores the loss of language as a consequence of continual economic and technological progress.
15 – 18 h
Jochen Dehn: Why Stand When You Can Fall
In German
"The law of large numbers" is the term used to describe the stochastic mathematical formulas used in the opaque bets of the financial world. The performance artist Jochen Dehn is less interested in the spoils of these bets than in the concept of "the bet" itself. A bet cannot circumscribe what is possible; it makes conjectures, and tries to create the conditions for challenging the very foundations of calculability.
Approx. 17 h
Daniel Tyradellis & Joseph Vogl: Geld=Wunsch*(Vertrauen/Zeit) (Money=Wish*(Trust/Time))
In German
Money is a medium for the accumulation and postponement of wishes – for the individual as well as for society. The philosopher Daniel Tyradellis and the literary scholar Joseph Vogl discuss the false evidence surrounding money, lending, and outrageous corporate contracts, and place bets on the Greek legacy.
From 19 h
Bus shuttle to Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Program at Haus der Berliner Festspiele with Elena Esposito, Forced Entertainment, Pieter de Buysser, Nikolaus Gansterer, Johannes Kreidler, Saskia Sassen & Richard Sennett, Johannes Paul Raether feat. Ute Waldhausen, Janek Simon, Barbara Matijeviç, Armin Chodzinski & Nis Kötting, Heatsick und Santiago Sierra.
Please find the exact schedule for Haus der Berliner Festspiele from 12.7.13.
The Bet: A Study About Doubt, Contingency and Meaning in the Economy and in Society is a collaboration between Berliner Festspiele/Foreign Affairs and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation).
Kindly supported by the British Council.