By and with: Felix Stalder
Felix Stalder
Exploding the Box
Part of the festival “The Mole Keeps on Digging. Animals / Politics / Performance”
- Dialogue
German /
Whistle-blowing (which is different from leaking) is an emergency measure for those who still believe that power should be accountable and its agency transparent to those affected by it and have the power to chance it. This might also explain why there are so few leaks in undemocratic societies as such an assumption makes no sense there. Thus, whistle-blowing is a last-stop attempt to save democracy, to explode the black box for the people to peer into it.
But the effects of the leaks have been limited. Chelsea Manning served years in solitary confinement, Assange and Snowden are forced into exile, and Antoine Deltour, the source of the Luxembourg Leaks that detailed massive tax evasion inside the EU, is to this day the only person who was sentenced because of these leaks. Few politicians had to resign, but one of the architects of this system remains the president of the European Commission.
The problem is, there is no ‘people’ in the sense of the Greek word ‘demos’, as in democracy, anymore. There are only people left, atomized human beings who are, behind their back, sorted into all kinds of groups while trying to maintain some kind of identity within ever shifting networks.
We therefore have to think about creating new mechanisms that sustain collective actors and new institutions that make use of the work of the whistle-blower.
Cast
Dates
Past
Credits
Supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
Location
HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Four relaxed seats are available in the first row of HAU2. Tickets for wheelchair users and accompanying persons can also be booked via the ticketing system. If you need help, please contact our Ticketing & Service team at +49 (0)30 259004-27 or send us an email to
tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de.
