There Is No Alternative. On July 7 and 8 Trump, Putin, Erdogan, Merkel and their colleagues come together for a chat in Hamburg, accompanied by as much police as you can fit in one city, sealing off large parts of it. Toss out the summit, but where to? As if it were feasible. As there will be talking whether we like it or not we plan to invite for talks ourselves, yet under a wholly different premise: There Is No Time. We have to talk about the present if there is to be a future. While large-scale demonstrations will hopefully dominate the city we will create a stage for live discussions, a broadcasting headquarter and nodal point for discursive exchange. Far away from the fun fair of hopelessness we’ll subvert the topics of the G20 to ask what is actually meant by its participants when they utter phrases such as “building resilience”, “assuming responsibility” and “addressing displacement”. It’s not enough to be exasperated over some head of states’ haircut or rude personality. There is already an abundance of well-meant satirising of such things, yet it keeps missing it’s supposed target: Where does the newly aroused enthusiasm for protectionism and nationalism come from, as it’s establishment opponents sound equally hollow and nostalgic? Why does the prospect of automatisation cause more grievances than euphoria as one might infer that it will lead to more leisure time for everybody? Is there still such a thing as Greece? The euro-zone? How long until the irreversible warming of this planet is finally averted by competent experts? When does depression become a social phenomenon? And how does all of this relate to the G20?
The TINT There Is No Time program shown on more than 30 screens in public spaces around Hamburg
Design for the Living World, HFBK 