Part of GGGNHM – guggenheim in munich?

DULDEN – German Orthography and Writing of Law

Guggenheim (GGGNHM), by artist collective God’s Entertainment, designates an inflatable miniature version of Frank Lloyd Wright’s legendary New York building. GGGNHM is a walk-in sculpture in public space that changes the cityscape while simultaneously creating a space for art and encounter.

GGGNHM will be installed in Munich’s city centre, on Max-Joseph-Platz in direct vicinity to the Residenz, the Residenztheater, and the Bayerische Nationaloper im Nationaltheater, during SPIELART Theatre Festival. Munich GGGNHM will open on October 20th, 2023, with the DEUTSCHKURS – GOETHE IN 15 TAGEN (German Course – GOETHE IN 15 DAYS) exhibition and an interdisciplinary supporting programme.

DULDEN

An important object within this exhibition will be the DULDEN – a collective work of German orthography and writing of law. This collects different voices of people and initiatives who criticise existing law, jurisdiction, and the use of German language. At the same time, the DULDEN publishes individual accounts of experiences and absurdities that people had over the wake of their own migrations.

SUBMITTING CONTRIBUTIONS

DULDEN aims to represent as many terms and voices as possible, but it does not claim any completeness. It is the collective work of many authors. This means that anyone can and is allowed to contribute writing.

  • We would like to call for: Experience reports in the form of text, images, comic strips, illustrations, drawings, or QR codes (with, for example, links to a video)
  • Every term is desirable.
  • There are no specifications regarding text length.
  • You may submit text in any language.

DEADLINE

  • You may submit German-language contributions until September 15th.
  • Contributions in other languages (except German and English) will be translated and must therefore be submitted until September 1st.

Authorship

  • The authors’ names will be published with their contributed articles.
  • Articles will only be corrected, abbreviated, or changed after prior consultation.
  • In case of false statements or contradiction, the authors will be contacted.

The Edition DULDEN will be presented as an artwork at GGGNHM and also in the form of a performance. Participating authors will receive one copy each following the SPIELART Theatre Festival.

Please send contributions and questions to: dulden@spielmotor.de

Deutschkurs/ German Course @ GGGNHM

Does everyone speak German? Do you actually speak German? Are you spoken German? Don’t you think it would be about time for a German course?

According to the Duden, a compendium equivalent to the Oxford English Dictionary, a German course is a course in learning the German language. The Duden, the comprehensive handbook of German orthography, elucidates the meaning of individual terms, how they are spelt and pronounced, and it shows their proper situative application through simple examples. About political levels of language in practice, about possibilities, about power and powerlessness, about language barriers, that is where the Duden reaches its limits. The Duden does not know any human beings.

Noam Chomsky perceives language as meaning with sound, Aristotle, on the other hand, as sound with meaning and as a necessary means of distinction between good and evil. Language is something that permeates all aspects of human life and therefore plays a decisive role in a multitude of contexts. The question ‘what is language?’ is as profound as the question ‘what is life?’.

With DEUTSCHKURS, God’s Entertainment attempt to artistically examine the German language in its various manifestations: How is it used and employed? What needs does it serve? What functions does it fulfil? How does it perform, and whom does it serve? DEUTSCHKURS aims to discuss a series of terminological distinctions and to shed a light on the relationship between language and practice in Germany, because a human being’s experience will not be reflected in a dictionary’s terminology, or indeed in that of a single word.

DULDEN – Die deutsche Rechtsschreibung (German Orthography and Writing of Law)

Dulden is a collection of experiences of that which is actually spoken. Dulden does not only comprise theories that focus on the political manifestations of the German language but also language as a sociopolitical phenomenon, as a system of actions and behaviour. Dulden is active examination of language and an encounter between language and humans, referring to the uniqueness of language in reality. Dulden provides details about the inherent power of language and its categories of might and knowledge that certain groups of people are subjected or exposed to.

Dulden is justice of the German language, not defined by a shared origin, by descent or nation, but by a common practice. Not least, Edition Dulden tells of the alphabetic ostracism of the others in Germany, yet without evoking understanding or solidarity in the Germans, but rather by raising the visibility of individual terms in the practice of the people who embody this Deutschkurs and therefore adopt a political course.

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God’s Entertainment

Vienna, July 2023