DISSECT

Part round table, part live performance, a multidisciplinary debate with works of contemporary art and design, staged in a public interactive setting.

Critically referencing classic anatomy lessons—like that of Doctor Tulp, portrayed by Rembrandt in 1632—Dissect is an updated theatre for the analysis and discussion of contemporary works of art and design in the presence of the works. We ought to not be talking about things, but rather with them, combining words, gestures, and objects in a public dispositif specifically designed for such an interactive process. Created by Samuel Bianchini and Emanuele Quinz at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD), Dissect aims to restore more lively forms of exchange than the so-called »roundtable«, to spark radically multidisciplinary debates, and to grapple with the very objects of the discussion.

On November 2nd and 4th 2022, two Dissect events will take place at Tieranatomisches Theater (TA T) in Berlin. The first one will feature the work Amygdala of contemporary artist Marco Donnarumma in connection to the research led by the group Cutting of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU). For the second event on November 4th, go here.

Guests: anthropologist Joffrey Becker, theatre scholar Maaike Bleeker, art historian Horst Bredekamp, computer scientist Johann Habakuk Israel, neurosurgeon Thomas Picht, and philosopher Margrit Shildrick.

Moderators: Patricia Ribault (weißensee school of art and design berlin) and Samuel Bianchini (EnsAD).

Organized by the Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity. Image Space Material at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, in partnership with the Chaire Arts & Sciences of the École polytechnique, the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD)—Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), and the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso; the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, and the Tieranatomisches Theater.

A project developed by the Reflective Interaction research group at EnsadLab (EnsAD’s laboratory). Scenography designed and directed by Samuel Bianchini, with Adrien Bonnerot and Pernelle Poyet (object design), Annie Leuridan (light design), Sylvie Tissot (software engineering), and Brice Ammar-Khodja (video).