Festival of Abstract Thought in Berlin | (not) trying to fit in. Thoughts and practices from Warsaw to Berlin
Conversation and Communal Eating with
Barbara Brzezicka | | Filip Brzeźniak-Kujda | Patrycja Rozwora
Festival of Abstract Thought is an interdisciplinary platform working across philosophy, critical theory, social thought, and artistic practice. After ten years in Warsaw, the festival brings its public approach to thinking to Berlin.
Like many other places in Europe Poland is not quite central, not quite Western, but you can’t really call it a margin either. There’s a strong ambition to catch up with the center and even stronger fear of sliding into the periphery. Caught between them we end up full of contradictions and tensions, both looking down on others and being looked down on. Rather than resolving these tensions or trying to fit in, the festival takes the in-between as a position from which to think: embrace being unfit and in-between, seeing what weirdness lives there and what coalitions can be built. What do we see that isn’t visible from the center? What critical ideas, resistances, ecologies, strange solutions, and unfinished paths emerge?
How do we fit into a world that is coming apart? And what happens when fitting in requires learning to describe yourself in someone else’s terms? Starting from Immanuel Wallerstein’s concept of the semi-periphery, together with Barbara Brzezicka and Filip Brzeźniak-Kujda we explore the double binds of aspiring to the centre while fearing marginalisation. Turning the current political fever into philosophical reflection, we take Poland as a starting point for comparisons with other semi-peripheral experiences.
Thinking from semi-periphery means for us also thinking in a semi-peripehric language. Polish is not a language widely spoken, but at the same time it is not viewed as “exotic”. And yet we believe there are concepts in Polish that might shed new light on current problems. Using Barbara Cassin’s framework of “untranslatables” we will show some Polish concepts that we find inspiring.
The evening ends with communal eating, chatting, and exchange, hosted by artist Patrycja Rozwora: Pierogi, Anyone?
Further details on the program and guests can be found on the festival website.
About
Festival of Abstract Thought is an interdisciplinary platform working across philosophy, critical theory, social thought, and artistic practice. After ten years in Warsaw, the festival brings its public approach to thinking to Berlin.
Like many other places in Europe Poland is not quite central, not quite Western, but you can’t really call it a margin either. There’s a strong ambition to catch up with the center and even stronger fear of sliding into the periphery. Caught between them we end up full of contradictions and tensions, both looking down on others and being looked down on. Rather than resolving these tensions or trying to fit in, the festival takes the in-between as a position from which to think: embrace being unfit and in-between, seeing what weirdness lives there and what coalitions can be built. What do we see that isn’t visible from the center? What critical ideas, resistances, ecologies, strange solutions, and unfinished paths emerge?
How do we fit into a world that is coming apart? And what happens when fitting in requires learning to describe yourself in someone else’s terms? Starting from Immanuel Wallerstein’s concept of the semi-periphery, together with Barbara Brzezicka and Filip Brzeźniak-Kujda we explore the double binds of aspiring to the centre while fearing marginalisation. Turning the current political fever into philosophical reflection, we take Poland as a starting point for comparisons with other semi-peripheral experiences.
Thinking from semi-periphery means for us also thinking in a semi-peripehric language. Polish is not a language widely spoken, but at the same time it is not viewed as “exotic”. And yet we believe there are concepts in Polish that might shed new light on current problems. Using Barbara Cassin’s framework of “untranslatables” we will show some Polish concepts that we find inspiring.
The evening ends with communal eating, chatting, and exchange, hosted by artist Patrycja Rozwora: Pierogi, Anyone?
Further details on the program and guests can be found on the festival website.
