The Idea of ha'atelier

Encyclopaedic Subjects

ha’atelier – platform for philosophy and art develops an international artistic and theoretical "encyclopedia". Its investigations and topics are not bound by national, ethnic, religious or other territorial belongings, and focus rather on the interface of various phenomena of human creativity and expression in between institutional and public spaces. The workshop's encyclopedic curriculum offers special attention to cosmopolitan Jewish and Islamic traditions. Depending on the thematic perspective, staff of faculty, and a given cultural landscape at hand; ha’atelier concentrically embodies and documents ever renewed facets of artistic and theoretical thinking in various locations in the world. In this way ha’atelier functions as a nomadic structure, whose "flying faculty" comprises an international team of scholars, writers, artists and free agents of culture and public discourse. Its very structure takes on the form of a "pictorial atlas" (Bildatlas) its projects experiment with methods of the contemporary visual arts and cultural sciences, advancing an international presence of performance and discourse on multi-faceted levels.

Topographic Map

The topographic map of ha’atelier presents a cross-facultative and inter-disciplinary approach to the arts and sciences. Taking its point of departure in specific phenoma whose resonance is associated permanently with Jewish, Islamic (and Hellenistic) sensibilities in the arts and sciences, each theme represents by itself a prism of encyclopedic scope. The structure thus emerging makes room for a curriculum, in which any element of study or research may appear in various places in kaleidoscopic order.

Calligraphy

Writing Systems / Pictograms / Choreography / Visual Poetry /
Word – Image – Body

Point and Line

On the Encyclopedic Principle in Rhythm, Architecture, Mathematics and Geometry

Miniature

Figurative Expressions in Language and Art / Negative Theologies / Theories of the Visual, Poetic and Material Representation

Polyphony

Interfaces of the Many Voices / The Migration of Forms in Narrative and Artistic Processes of Transmission

Polis

Urban Contexts for Socio-Political Structures / Universalism and its Fallacies

East West

Political and Cultural Processes of Projection, Appropriation, Misappropriation and Negotiation in Collective Intercourse / Orientalism (and Occidentalism)

The Enemy Exposed

Histories of the Enemy / Manuals of Evil / Processes of Disassociation, Demonization and Annihilation of the Other

Political Utopias

In the Garden of Mankind. Anticipations of Humanity / Counter Worlds / Resistance in Contemporary Art and Literature

Eros

Representations of the Female in Art / Hybrid Forms of Interconnecting and Trespassing / Theories of Touch / Amalgamation / Trespassing Identities through Art and Science

Through the multiple connectivity derived from a few central questions, ha’atelier commits itself to demonstrating the transparency of a variety of art forms, languages, and cultural forms of expression and existence. A migration of forms, narrative material, and artistic expression materializes in kaleidoscopic order. Taking its point of departure in concrete phenomena rather than abstract concepts, ha’atelier respects the integrity of specific bodies and materials, individual images, texts, exhibition pieces, artifacts, music compositions, landscapes, and/or other forms of expression.