In collaboration with the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting (YPAM), V/A – Various Artists presents a discussion with Terre Thaemlitz on Tuesday, December 14. The event will take place at 7 PM local time (11 AM CET) at BankART KAIKO in Yokohama, as well as online via the platform Swapcard. V/A readers who would like to take part in the event can register by sending an email to editors[at]various-artists.com, stating their first name, surname and email address.

Why is the concept of “liveness” in culture still as pervasive? Why do we stubbornly hold on to it even in times of a global pandemic? Why are the means of production and presentation of digital audio and music still reliant on conservative notions of originality, creativity, and authorship?

Japan-based performer, DJ, and composer Terre Thaemlitz has been preoccupied with questions like these for more than two decades. She consistently and relentlessly draws attention to the fact that the persistence of notions of authentic self-expression, of originality and authenticity in art and music, go hand in hand with essentialist identity politics. For the artist, the cultural, economic, and aesthetic dependence on “liveness” is one of the results of this conceptual alliance.

The discussion will be hosted by YPAM’s program officer Tomoyuki Arai and V/A’s editors Remo Bitzi and Marc Schwegler. The talk will be in Japanese and English and will feature various audio sequences. V/A readers who register via email (see above) will receive the relevant access data ahead of the event.

We very much look forward to a first opportunity of taking part in the discourse and debate about cultural, artistic, and cultural-political realities within the framework of this event.