Celebrating 50 years of Kraftwerk, this digital conference intends to explore the history of Europe through their concept albums (“Autobahn,” “Trans-Europe Express,” “Radioactivity,” “Man Machine,” “Computer World”). The project will take the shape of an e-conference at Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel and a dedicated radio program/musical tribute on movement.radio by its producers and dj’s.
Kraftwerk’s music expressed a particular mid-century futuristic imaginary, ample with social expectations about a brighter future of more peace, equality and prosperity. This future ‘utopia’ is perhaps our present, a time that these past expectations gradually deflated through a process that Mark Fisher has described as “the slow cancellation of the future.” The results of this process can be witnessed in our present dystopias of a less united Europe, characterized by endless crises, and a lack of vision of a (common) future.
"50 Years Kraftwerk – Europe Endless" aims to revisit Kraftwerk’s artistic output and re-contextualize it within a 21st century aesthetic and sociopolitical discourse. Setting nostalgia aside, this tribute to the band’s thematic and musical palette, can be a vehicle to revisit an era of progressive ideas and important social transformations in post-war Europe, an era that not only shaped but still informs our present.
What can these narratives convey to our societies, currently experiencing a blurring of the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres, and a cancelled future? Could we transform their meanings outside their ecosystem and involve them into a 21st century critique?
With: Uwe Schütte, author of the book „Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany”; Daniel Miller, label boss of Mute Records; Jens Balzer, pop critic; David Stubbs, author of the book “Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany”; Lisa Blanning, author; and Yannis-Orestis Papadimitriou, journalist.
PROGRAM
1ST PANEL
19:00-20:00 | Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel
– Daniel Miller (Mute Artists)
– Uwe Schütte (author of “Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany”)
Moderated by Yannis-Orestis Papadimitriou (journalist)
2ND PANEL
20:00-21:00 | Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel
– David Stubbs (“Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany”)
– Jens Balzer (pop critic, author)
– Lisa Blanning (author)
Moderated by Yannis-Orestis Papadimitriou (journalist)
"50 Years Kraftwerk – Europe Endless" is curated by DETACH for
movement.radio.
Produced by Onassis Stegi in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Athen.
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