About

Even as the uncertain societal impacts of a global pandemic start to manifest, America in the past four years [as of 2020] has been gripped by a panoply of divisive and disruptive events, from disputes about historical monuments to mass shootings, from online election interference to a presidential impeachment, and more, all occurring amidst a growing threat of violence from fringe groups in the population. Populist movements are on the  rise, and people are disconcerted.  

Is it appropriate in times like these to seriously consider the possibility of a rise in authoritarian rule, or even, eventually, totalitarian rule? What are the warning signs that these forms of government might emerge and gain traction, as they did in Europe during the 30’s and 40’s? Are there unique characteristics of our world today that  make these outcomes possible or even likely? Is there anything that we can do about it? How are artists and thinkers responding to the political moment? 

Join us on June 8th, 2020, for an online digital salon, hosted by the Goethe Pop Up Seattle, to discuss these timely, important, and fascinating questions. We will explore the topic through the lens of two crucial mid-century philosophers, Hannah Arendt and  Vilém Flusser, both German-speaking Jews who fled the Nazi totalitarian regime in Europe. Arendt, in her monumental classic on the “Origins of Totalitarianism”,  explored many facets of these movements in Germany and the Soviet Union. Flusser looked deeply at our technology driven media culture, and he developed a concept of  “the apparatus” to help understand the functioning of our current world. 

“Unsettling the Apparatus” will bring together Arendt scholar Samantha Rose Hill and  Flusser scholar Andreas Ströhl, who will present some of the key ideas of each of these  theorists. We will then hear from and see work by artist-theorists Anne Beffel and  Brazilian born Simone Osthoff, to learn something about how artists respond to their  individual political moments. Finally, we will round out our discussion with Hasaan  Kirkland, an independent art curator, who will help us to pull these ideas together from a curator’s perspective. 

• Samantha Rose Hill, Assistant Director of the Hannah Arendt Center and Visiting Professor of Political Studies at Bard College, New York 

• Andreas Ströhl, Director Goethe-Institut Washington D.C., Regional Director Goethe-Institut North America 

• Anne Beffel, Professor, Visual and Performing Arts, Michigan Tech • Simone Osthoff, Professor, Art and Critical Studies, Penn State 

• Hasaan Kirkland, Independent Curator, Professor of Fine Art, Seattle Central College and Renton Technical College