Fragile Solidarity / Fragile Connections

The international and transdisciplinary artist-in-residence programme at Akademie Schloss Solitude has been presenting critical, alternative approaches to digital media and technology through its “Digital Solitude” programme. Comprised of theme-based web residencies, the programme promotes direct exchange between artists from various countries and lends greater visibility to translocal, feminist and decolonial perspectives on globally pressing issues.

Based on the slogan “Fragile Solidarity / Fragile Connections”, the Academy will host a “Digital Solitude” festival in summer 2022, showcasing alternative network structures and forms of solidarity with others in online and offline venues. The title conveys the self-confident view of many artists who feel more closely connected than ever before thanks to common interests, mutual responsibility and practiced solidarity. In light of a persistently uncertain future, the festival aims to investigate models and applications of solidarity in the World Wide Web. What motivates artists to connect, and what might web-based forms of caring look like under our current circumstances? In a time of increasing divisions due to political and social inequality, the aim is to bridge the distance in a networked world by creating a temporary community, develop practices of solidarity both online and offline, and share these with one another.

Artistic director: “Digital Solitude” network

Artists and speakers: Lark Alder a.k.a. Lark VCR, Agnes Cameron, “die Blaue Distanz” (Franziska Goralski and Anna Erdmann), Castle of Crossed Destinies (Aouefa Amoussouvi, Olivia Berkowicz and Sasha Engelmann), Distributed Cognition Cooperative (Sasha Shestakova and Anna Engelhardt), Grayson Earle, Vedran Gligo, Dina Karadžić, Ana María Gómez López, Nantume Violet, Simina Neagu, Elia Nurvista, Zahra Malkani, Peter Polack, Giorgi Rodionov, Anca Rujoiu, Juan Pablo García Sossa, Gabriella Torres-Ferrer, Danae Tapia, Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga, Kurt Olmstead and others

Festival: Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart: 10 – 14 May 2022