Moderated by: Lucas Gehrmann
“My parents hated what they called ‘doing nothing’ (…) because they could not imagine that it would be something an intellectually active person would know or could afford to indulge in,” wrote Thomas Bernhard about boredom which, in Austria, is lovingly termed ‘Fadesse’. By definition it arises from enforced inactivity, chronic lack of challenge, or monotonous activity. Time stretches into infinite emptiness and the meaning of life collapses. Why is it so difficult to stand boredom? What intellectual approaches do artists and philosophers have to boredom? Can it be understood as a social phenomenon that is a reaction to forms of decadence and abundance? Or is it possibly encouraged by the thirst for knowledge and interest? Elisabeth von Samsonow discusses with Marko Lulić the forms of productivity and social disintegration that are currently connected with the term boredom.
Marko Lulić (*1972) is an artist. He lives and works in Vienna. He has held exhibitions at Frankfurter Kunstverein, 21er Haus in Vienna, and Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Rome. In 2010 Lulic was awarded with the Preis für Bildende Kunst der Stadt Wien.
Elisabeth von Samsonow (*1956) is an artist and a professor of philosophy and anthropology at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. She lives and works in Vienna and Hadres.