Werkleitz Festival 2018 – Fetch and Deliver

Not only is logistics a rapidly growing business sector; it also dictates the pace and rhythm of our time. Based on the motto “Holen und Bringen” (Fetch and Deliver), the Werkleitz Festival 2018 investigated the advent of modern logistics since the beginnings of global commerce. It examined what logistical forms have arisen since and how these are shaping our world today. Using Halle/Leipzig as an example, the festival described the effects of technological advances taking place around the world.

The highlight of the festival has been an exhibition, accompanied by a film, performance and music programme, a colloquium and guided excursions to railway facilities in Halle, for which the Deutsche Bahn participated as a partner. The exhibition featured a series of new artistic positions: The design collective Foundland, for example, develops installations, investigations and visualisations based on archived and personal stories of migration, flight and expulsion. Their artistic works are devised to make suppressed and tabooed flows of movement visible. Candice Lin creates works which poetically investigate colonial history and the history of globally traded goods. Lawrence Lek develops 3-D animations and virtual reality applications. In a new video installation featuring his existing works, he explored what would happen if almost every production and distribution process were managed by technologies.

The film programme offered insights into the ordinary, ubiquitous, but typically invisible processes of logistics. In an accompanying colloquium, experts from the fields of science, art and business have discussed current developments and future processes in data traffic and the transport of goods. Guided excursions have lead audiences to locations in Halle where logistics operations and urban processes of transformation are visible. A week-long workshop with students of various art academies intensified the examination on site. A bilingual festival catalogue with texts by international authors has been presented at the opening.

Artistic director: Daniel Herrmann
Curators: Arjon Dunnewind (NL), Anna Jehle, Sandra Naumann, Konrad Renner, Juliane Schickedanz, Florian Wüst
Artists: !Mediengruppe Bitnik (CH/HR/DE), Mariechen Danz (IE/DE), Doug Fishbone, Foundland Collective (ZA/SY/NL/EG), Hiwa K (IQ/DE), Lawrence Lek (DE/GB), Candice Lin (US), Sebastian Schmieg, Leanne Wijnsma (NL)