Spike ePaper (Issue 45): The Event

9/11. The Greek referendum. Tonight’s opening. The many events that have nothing to do with spectacle or even remain invisible. The event holds the promise of the collective encounter; it is ubiquitous and rare. When does it begin: on Facebook, when you step through the door, or when the live-stream is running? Or perhaps only when something happens that can no longer be undone? To find answers, we asked curators Vincent Honoré and Barbara Steiner, theorist Benjamin Noys, and artist Kenneth Goldsmith. We invited the curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, artist Tino Sehgal, and the new director of the Münchner Kammerspiele Matthias Lilienthal to a roundtable discussion to talk about whether the aura of the art object is now attached to the event. Is a new cultural form emerging that can change the structure of society?