SAT | 8.12.

SAT 8.12., 14 – 15.15 h LECTURE
Elena Esposito: “What Do Bonds Bind? The Property of the Future and the Responsibility of the Present” | Followed by a talk with the economist and sociologist Michael Hutter
Debt has always been associated with guilt. Traditionally, however, the guilty one was not the debtor but the creditor – the one who makes a profit selling something that doesn’t belong to him, because it does not belong to men: time. Today the situation is different and guilt is attributed to those who become indebted, maybe irresponsibly. Bonds operate with time, and more precisely with the future: they use the future in the present, hoping to produce a richer future that will also allow repaying the debt. The problem, as the crisis showed, is circularity: in binding the future we bind something that doesn’t yet exist and depends on our present behavior – often deviating from today’s expectations and calculations.

Elena Esposito teaches Sociology of Communications at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. In 2011 she published “The Future of Futures: The Time of Money in Financing and Society.”

SAT 8.12., 15.30 – 16 h READING
Aris Fioretos: “Half the Sun“
What do we owe our parents? What does the citizen owe the state? Aris Fioretos relates the story of a Greek father backwards: from his death in the care home, his life as an expat Greek, back to the time as a young man.

Aris Fioretos is a Swedish author and translator of Greek-Austrian descent. “Die halbe Sonne” is to be published at the end of January 2013 by the Carl Hanser Verlag.

SAT 8.12., 16 – 16.45 h LECTURE
Sigrid Weigel: “Conversions between Guilt and Debts“
Sigrid Weigel discusses the symbolic trade-off between guilt and debt, above all, in relation to the cultural memory in Germany since 1945. Her point of departure is the conversion of guilt into debt in the post-war discourse. The discussion centers on the “encumbered” attitude of the ‘68 generation towards money and the interconnection between money and guilt within the generational discourse and the euro crisis.

Sigrid Weigel is Director of the Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Chairperson of the Humanities Centers Berlin and Professor at the Institute for Philosophy, the History of Literature, Science and Technology at the Technical University Berlin.

SAT 8.12., 16.45 – 17.30 h TALK
Aris Fioretos & Sigrid Weigel

SAT 8.12., 18 – 19 h PRACTICAL TALK
Ralph Bollmann (Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung), Michael Freund (Standard), Ulrike Herrmann (taz – die tageszeitung), Holger Zschäpitz (Welt & Welt am Sonntag): “The Journalism of Crises“
The debates over guilt and debt have not only attracted media coverage in many countries, but have also been influenced and intensified by it. What role is played by journalism in times of economic and social crises? Where does the responsibility of the media lie? How is the appropriate pressure applied to politicians and the financial markets – and how can the growing inability of politicians to address these issues be halted? In a “practice-based discussion” the recursive impact of debt journalism is reflected upon.

SAT 8.12., 19.15 – 20 h CONCLUDING LECTURE
Marcel Hénaff: “Cosmic, Symbolic and Financial Debts: Reflections on Energy Stocks, Equilibrium Differentials, Life and Temporality“
Debts – both symbolic and financial – are tied to a specific date on which they have to be settled: equilibrium must be restored, the lost energy replenished, the endangered life must recuperate. What impact do these human debts have on the global scale, such as in the management of energy reserves? Is there a metaphysical vision? A religious one? And is there a debt of life? Such questions strike at the very heart of the current economies and determine the fate of our societies.

Marcel Hénaff, philosopher and ethnologist, is Professor for French Literature, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. In the tradition of Marcel Mauss he localizes the source of the social in the elementary reciprocal exchange of gifts.

SAT 8.12., 20.30 h CLOSING EVENT
Thomas Macho & Irini Athanassakis
Thomas Macho, director of the “BONDS” project, is Professor for Cultural History at Humboldt-Universität, Berlin. Irini Athanassakis, artistic director of “BONDS,” is an artist and freelance project-maker.

SAT 8.12., 21 h ABSCHLUSS | FINALE
Debt Sound: A DJ dialogue with Detlef Diederichsen (musician, journalist) and Peter Lau (editor “brand eins”)