It’s a Matter of Perspective

The perspectives of disabled people change the art world. Every day disabled people are confronted with an environment that is not made for them, and thus develop alternative strategies, techniques and ‘life hacks’ in order to demand their space.

Art offers possibilities to use this creative potential of disability in many different and varied ways. The focus of this year’s symposium is to demonstrate and experience strategies resulting from the potential of disability inclusion. These strategies include ‘access aesthetics’, a technique that perceives the use of features that increase accessibility as a creative opportunity, and humour fuelled by personal experiences of disability.

This creative potential also generates questions that affect culture on a more general level: How can diverse perspectives challenge existing systems and structures off, on and behind the stage? How do they change our understanding of the (im)possible? What hierarchies exist in the realm of the audience, the art world and the cultural sector? How can these hierarchies be broken?

The seventh edition of the IntegrART symposium invites participants to change and exchange perspectives on many levels: discussion panels, table talks, performances, an exhibition and a workshop offer the opportunity to participate actively and to dive into perspectives of and on disability interplaying with art.

Co-direction symposium: Nina Mühlemann and Tanja Erhart