DISSECT. A Round Table Live Performance — Tomás Saraceno

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 second event will be organized in cooperation with the artist Tomàs Saraceno around the research led by the Material Form Function group and their exhibition Design Lab #13: Material Legacies at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (KGM) in Berlin.

Guests: Arachnologist Peter Jäger, researcher in Cultural Studies Martin Müller, microbiologist Regine Hengge, artist and researcher Alice Jarry, behavioral ecologist Alex Jordan, socio-legal scholar Xenia Chiaramonte, and the spiders of the TA T.

Moderators: Patricia Ribault (weißensee school of art and design berlin), Emanuele Quinz (Université Paris 8/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).

The Dissect events are part of the Berlin Science Week 2022.