Storytelling might well be the oldest art form. Public lectures are a fundamental aspect of universities, public speeches are essential to politics, while narratives are crucial for the emancipatory potential of the arts. Rhetoric was a cornerstone in education until just a century ago, when the rise of scientific positivism side-lined the liberal arts. Does lecture performance have the potential to serve as a meeting point for critical humanities?
We will look into lecture performances by, among others, John Cage, Andrea Fraser, Hito Steyerl, Laurie Anderson, and Christian Nyampeta, and consider diverse aspects of the power of shaping discourse between performers, audiences, and contexts of the presentation. The subject of distribution of luck will serve as a starting point for experimenting with the mediality of performing knowledge and ideas. Through group sessions and individual consultations, the participants will get the chance to approach their artistic practices anew and experiment with the medium’s agencies of plurivocality, disorientation, and estrangement vis-à-vis “the known”. Our aim is to create an environment where participants can think critically about their practices through a narrative lens.
key data
- Venue
- Festung Hohensalzburg
- Date
- 3. – 15. 8. 26
- Teaching language
- English (German, Polish, French and Russian possible)
- Participating fee
- 670 Euro (reduced 495 Euro)
- Requirements
- English will be the working language of the course.
- Maximum number of participants
- 20
Mirela Baciak
Mirela Baciak serves as director-curator at the Salzburger Kunstverein. Previously curator at steirischer herbst festival in Graz and Public Art Munich, she has developed new artistic commissions and performative formats that question political imaginaries. She has held fellowships and residencies across Europe and Asia, and is a board member of the Austrian Association of Curators.
Exhibitions
Curated solo exhibitions
2025 Esben Weile Kjær: thousands of small explosions at the same time, Salzburger Kunstverein. Mikołaj Sobczak: Moon, Sun, Mercury, Salzburger Kunstverein.
Tania Gheerbrant: Social Insecurity, Salzburger Kunstverein.
2024 Vasilis Papageorgiou: Sunseekers or Dimming the Sun or, Salzburger Kunstverein.
Curated group exhibitions
2025 The Museum of (Non)Restitution, Salzburger Kunstverein in cooperation with Salzburg Museum (co-curated with Katja Mittendorfer-Oppolzer & Susanne Rolinek).
2024 The Color of Energy, viennacontemporary; Salzburger Kunstverein.
The Myth of Normal. Chronic Contradictions, Salzburger Kunstverein, conceptualized with Kunstverein Hannover.
2023 Suspension of Disbelief, TANK Shanghai.
Publications
Baciak, Mirela, "Traveling Nostalgia: On the Sculptural Praxis of Luīze Nežberte", in: KUNSTHALLE Wien Prize 2025, Vienna, 2025.
Baciak, Mirela, "The Calculus of Disposability", in: Debt, ed. Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas, Distanz & Salzburger Kunstverein, Berlin / Salzburg, forthcoming 2025.
Interview with Esben Weile Kjær, in: AUTRE Magazine, AUTRE Editions, Los Angeles, 2024.
Baciak, Mirela, "Institutional Hospitality and Care Against All Oddities", interview in: PW Magazine, 2024.
Brachzetis, Alexandra, "Don’t We Look A-Like, text on Notebook", in: Tanzquartier Wien Online Journal, Vienna, 2024.
Baciak, Mirela, "Are We Under the Same Sun?", in: Vasilis Papageorgiou: Sunseekers or Dimming the Sun or, Mousse Publishing & Salzburger Kunstverein, Milan / Salzburg, 2024.
Denis Maksimov
Denis Maksimov curates and teaches contemporary art, global histories, and interdisciplinary humanities. His research focuses on transhistorical traditions of performing knowledge, heritage, and future conceptualisations in epic, rhetoric, and lecture performance.
He is a founder of Lecture Performance Archive and lecturer at Joseph Backstein’s Institute of Contemporary Art. Most recently, he served as a curator of art and programmes at Pushkin House, London, and held curatorial fellowships worldwide.
Website
Exhibitions
Curated solo exhibitions
2025-2026 Cosmic Calls, Jitish Kallat, Pushkin House, London.
2025 _n Haus, Arsen Zhilyaev, Pushkin House, London.
2024-2025 Spinning Tales, Aziza Kadyri, Pushkin House, London.
2023 Precarious Elements Terraforming: Hollow Earth, Stifled Fire, Thin Air, Thick Water, Liva Dudareva, Pet Projects, Athens.
2022 To Half Sell a Duck, David Bernstein, Keiv and The Breeder, Athens.
Curated group exhibitions
2022 Between Objects, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki.
Overwhelming Majority? Art, Society and War in Contemporary Russia, a group exhibition, Shtager Gallery, London.
Otherness, Desire, the Vernacular, Carlos Motta and Jaanus Samma, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn.
2020 Cyber-PiraMMMida, the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale “How Will We Live Together?”.
Publications
“Heritage Unbound? Futures, Queer Politics and Performance of Memory” (with Michael Haldrup) in: Arts, Heritage and Performative Politics, ed. Laima Nomeikaite, Lars Frers and Michael Haldrup, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025.
“On Hydropolitics: from Elefsina to the World” in: Mystery 42. Futuring Waters: A Speculative Manifesto for and from the Water of Elefsina, ed. Jenny Marketou, Athens: Eleusis 2023 European Capital of Culture, 2023.
“(ALERT) Ghosts: Avenir Institute” in: (Note)Book: Is Everybody In? The Ceremony is About to Begin, ed Nadja Argyropoulou, Athens, 2023.
“Making Pyramids Disappear: Faux Horizontalism and Wild Capitalist Topologies of Speculation” (with Michal Murawski, David Roberts, Maria Mileeva) in: Speculation, ed. Marina Vishmidt, London: MIT Press, 2023.
“Imperare in Chao: Russian Dramaturgia and Political Media Technologies” in: Dopamine Fast – Minimo Globaled. Júlia Ayerbe, Lisbon: Galerias Municipais/EGEAC, 2022.
