Symposium
Kino Šiška, May 2022
Programme – 24.5.2022:
16:00–16:30 Anja Naglič (translator and scholar of Kracauer’s work)
16:30–17:00 Marko Jenko (curator and author of the afterword to The Mass Ornament)
18:00–18:30 Miloš Kosec (architect and writer)
18:30–19:00 Magdalena Germek (philosopher and editor)
19:00–19:30 Rok Vevar (writer, historian, and theorist of contemporary performing arts)
Discussion and break
20:00 Film screening: Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit (dir. Wilhelm Prager, 1925), with an introduction and discussion
The idea for the interdisciplinary gathering Ornaments, Masses, and the Emergence of Urban Cultures was prompted by the publication of the Slovenian translation of the seminal work in cultural sociology The Mass Ornament by Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966) (translated by Anja Naglič, afterword by Marko Jenko, */cf. Publishing House, 2021). Kracauer is considered one of the most important, prolific, and critically engaged intellectuals of his time.
Kracauer was an architect, sociologist, philosopher, journalist, essayist, editor, writer, critic, one of the earliest film theorists, and a pioneer of cinema sociology. The wide scope of his work continues to resonate with theorists and researchers from the fields of sociology, philosophy, contemporary dance, visual arts, architecture, publishing, and film. These practitioners gathered around a shared table at Kino Šiška, together with the audience. The interdisciplinary event concluded with a screening of Wilhelm Prager’s feature-length silent documentary film Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit (1925).