Balancing Togetherness – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Can dizziness be a resource? What remains after unsettledness and disorientation? And how can we see communities find their balance in uncertain si­tuations? Particularly now, in times of ubiquitous invocations of global crisis, these questions of col­lective balancing and balancing collectives are more relevant than ever.

The symposium Balancing Togetherness is a fur­ther step on a long term artistic and curatorial re­search into the potentiality of dizziness as a pro­ductive part of creative process. It addresses issues of togetherness within the larger theme of dizziness as an artistic resource, and thus con­textualizes the exhibition Dizziness. Navigating the Unknown, which brings together national and international artists’ viewpoints on the experien­ce and reflection of dizziness.

No modus operandi or protocol leads us through life. Thus, time and again we are confronted with states of Taumel (German for ‘dizziness’). This dizziness ari­ses locally and is situational, combining various ele­ments. It can clear, cause a great stir, move heaven and earth: it destabilizes. Dizziness, according to Plato, is creating the constitution of all philosophical thought by destabilizing the basis of knowledge to a state of uncertainty. As such, dizziness is defined as a sensory and mental phenomenon, evoking a tro­ubling disequilibrium. However, the comprehension of individual dizziness cannot be afforded without including the individual’s social and spatial environ­ment and emotional relations. It affects individuals, networks, groups and societies. Clearly, how we navigate a state of dizziness is influenced by the experience, its reflection, and by the resources and responses provided by the surroundings.

The proposed symposium Balancing Together­ness examines phenomenon of dizziness speci­fically in modes of togetherness. From different disciplinary perspectives the symposium will bring together viewpoints of navigation through, within and out of dizziness. With voices from philosophical to natural scientific, from historical to aesthetic and artistic research it examines in­ter-relational strategies for navigating states of dizziness productively within physical and social environments.