Concept Page
Silent Lectures
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Silent Lectures, at their most basic, consist of people coming together in peace to jointly contemplate in silence something that matters to them: a loss, an injustice or a victory for example.
Each Silent Lecture is delivered by a convener whose task it is to name the ‘thing’ (injustice etc) that is to be contemplated and to act as a focal point for the group during their contemplation.
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Silent Lectures can take place in almost any context, including at political demonstrations, cultural events or religious gatherings, but are in themselves neither political nor religious.
Anyone can give a Silent Lecture. All it takes is an issue and a place where that issue resonates so much it can be summarised in one word and still be understood by many, if not all.
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Photography by Mutaz Salloum
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Example: Nicodemus convened a Silent Lecture at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin (Mitte) on 19 June 2022. The topic he invited people to contemplate was silence itself.
To promote it, he wrote to numerous arts organisations, NGOs and the press. He also engaged with the Jewish community and invited prominent members of that community to participate.
On the day, he arrived early (wearing his white 'Art Nicodemus' baseball cap, so that people would recognise him), greeted the people who 'came for the lecture' and, once everyone had arrived, start with a brief introduction to get people settled in…
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Afterwards, he invited everyone to participate in a discussion at the Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under National Socialism (in Tiergarten), thus enabling those who participated to share their experiences.
The documentation of this event is published in full at unruhe.eu/notes and at silentlectures.org.
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Format: Silent Lectures are site-specific performance lectures and, as such, a form of performance or theatre, where no more than one word or, in exceptional circumstances, a phrase is whispered, shouted or otherwise voiced.
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Beyond that, there is a lot of flexibility. For example, it is often advisable to add an introduction, so that people know what to expect and to allow for a discussion afterwards, so that people can share their thoughts and feelings.
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The Silent Lecture Series
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To promote the concept of Silent Lectures and explore its uses within the context of mobilisation (protest) and healing (reconciliation) strategies within different cultural and political settings, Nicodemus is seeking expressions of interest from anyone willing to host one or more of these lectures.
Our ambition is to co-organise or co-host Silent Lectures on every inhabited continent and to document the entire enterprise for near-time publication on silentlectures.org and unruhe.eu/notes. Subject to funding we also intend to produce a full-colour coffee-table publication with a strong emphasis on documentation and local contextualisation via commissioned essays.
In so doing we hope not only to make a meaningful contribution to support-worthy initiatives around the world, but also to celebrate and document, in all their richness and diversity, some of the defining struggles of our time. To get a dialogue started or request more information, please use the contact form provided here. You can download our Silent Lecture DIY Guide here.
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Thinking In PublicConceived by Nicodemus, Thinking in Public is a performance lecture series, that consists of seven interconnected Silent Lectures.
You can download the prospectus here. |
