The book »Complaint!« by Sara Ahmed (Duke University Press) published in September 2021 formed the starting point for the seminar led by Vertr.-Prof. Dr Birte Kleine-Benne. The publication is a collection of oral and written testimonies about complaints and the attempts of those addressed to avert them. Ahmed observes that a gap exists between what a complaint is supposed to set in motion and its actual outcome.

As part of the course, the participants first read Ahmed’s book, then addressed the topic from an art-theoretical and artistic perspective. Among others, the project explored whether an artistic field of work could be developed that would for example allow for »institutional critique« (a form of conceptual art that focuses on criticisms of museums, galleries, private collections and other art institutions) and »investigative art« to be considered together with artistic forms such as installations, interventions, performances, films, painting and internet art.

A blog (https://cptv.artnextsociety.net) has been set up in response to this consideration of the topic of complaints that currently comprises 182 individual entries by seminar participants that are continually being updated. Beside text/photo/motion picture montages (https://cptv.artnextsociety.net/2022/04/01/field), videos (https://cptv.artnextsociety.net/2022/03/30/just-listen) and drawings (https://cptv.artnextsociety.net/2022/01/24/inhabiting-the-complaint-about-feeling-it-in-your-body), posters (https://cptv.artnextsociety.net/2021/11/09/on-being-stopped-a-7-a4-posters-serie), documentations of performances (https://cptv.artnextsociety.net/2022/03/28/therapeutical-steps-for-a-self-care-while-going-through-a-complaining-process-of-any-nature-2-6), animations (https://cptv.artnextsociety.net/2022/03/04/to-complain-is-to-become-more-visible-and-thus-more-vulnerable) and much more have been published on the blog.

From the end of July 2022, the 182 blog posts published so far will gradually be presented one by one on the Twitter channel »BetriebssystemK« (https://twitter.com/betriebssystemk): selected quotes from and/or details of the artistic debates that have arisen will summarise the focus of the respective post. A continuously evolving online exhibition of the materials developed will gradually be created in this way. Interested readers are warmly invited to participate in the topic-related academic discourse on the topic of complaints and to react directly to the positions presented.

In case of questions, please contact Vertr.-Prof. Dr. Birte Kleine-Benne, History & Theory of Art (birte.kleine-benne[at]uni-weimar.de).