Book Publication

“Schon seit Längerem ist ein gewisses Unbehagen am strengen, wissenschaftlichen Regelwerk und seinen damit verbundenen Restriktionen zu erkennen. Immer stärker kommt der Wunsch auf, sich einem bestimmten Gebiet intuitiv zu nähern und was würde sich dafür besser eigenen als das große Feld der Kunstproduktion? Einen lesenswerten Beitrag lieferten im vergangenen Jahr Silke Bake, Peter Stamer und Christel Weiler (als Herausgeber) in ihrem kleinen Büchlein „How to collaborate“ ab. Darin gehen sie der Frage nach, wie man durch neue, höchst kreative Ansätze spartenübergreifend zusammenarbeiten kann. Schon alleine das Lesen ist höchst vergnüglich, findet man darin doch rein gar nichts wissenschaftlich Verklausuliertes, sondern vielmehr anschaulich formuliert, wie grenzübergreifendes Denken und Zusammenarbeiten heute stattfinden kann.”

Michaela Preiner, European Cultural News

How to Collaborate? 

Questioning Togetherness in the Performing Arts 

edited by Silke Bake, Peter Stamer and Christel Weiler

How to Collaborate? investigates the conditions and the challenges of collaboration in philosophical, artistic, cultural and political practices.
The question of the relevance of collaboration has led contemporary theory to develop ideas for an alternative production of knowledge, which is informed by a communitarian ethos or societal relevance. Yet the practice of working with one another often comes under the influence of assumptions and expectations that lie outside one’s own disciplinary scope: this anthology presents a variety of such experiences and narratives. The book takes its origin in the project A Future Archeology, launched in 2013, in which artists and architects from Europe and the Arab world came together for a performative building and research project. In the subsequent series of dialogues How to Collaborate? (2014), some members of the group, joined by various experts, discussed theories and practices of collaboration, and the challenges they present for art, philosophy and politics. The essays and images collected in this publication elaborate on the opening question, pushing even further into the fields of ethics, aesthetics, politics, and practices of collaboration.

With contributions by Silke Bake, Alice Chauchat & Siegmar Zacharias, Bojana Cvejić & Margarita Tsomou, Manfred Füllsack, Nicolas Galeazzi & Nikolaus Gansterer, Claudia Heu & John Jordan, Peter Stamer, Christine Standfest, Bettina Vismann, Christel Weiler


How to Collaborate? – Questioning Togetherness in the Performing Arts

Edited by Silke Bake, Peter Stamer, Christel Weiler

Graphical concept and typeset: Katrin Schoof

Published at Passagen Verlag Vienna

Published with the friendly support of the Berlin Capital Cultural Fund and the International Research Center ‘Interweaving Performance Cultures’, Freie Universität Berlin