A public symposium about body image, self-optimization, and anorexia
Is the fit and trim body the measure of all things in times of self-optimization and social control? How strong is the media influence on our ideal body image? When do our eating habits become pathological?
These and other questions will be addressed by a symposium entitled “Hunger Art: A Disease between Rapture and Abyss.” Organized by the Schering Stiftung and the Leibniz Association, it will be held at the Berlin office of the Leibniz Association on December 8, 2017, from 9am until 5:30pm. The symposium looks at hunger from the perspectives of neurobiology, medicine, psychology, culture, and the arts.
The symposium is occasioned by Daria Martin’s film A Hunger Artist, which reflects on Franz Kafka’s tale of the same title. The film is the most ambitious work to date of the London-based artist—a complex, multi-layered work of art at the interface of literature, psychology, and science—and will be shown as part of the symposium. A stage impresario presents an artist who is honored, feted, and admired for his forty days of fasting. But when the audience’s interest dwindles, the hunger artist refuses to give up fasting. The intoxicating feelings that mark the beginning of fasting give way to a physical and mental downward spiral. What exactly leads to this downward spiral, and when does the art of fasting turn into a life-threatening disease?
Following an introduction to the physiological and psychological basis of eating behavior and anorexia, with Prof. Dr. Beate Herpertz-Dahlmann, for example, providing insight into the treatment of anorexia, the symposium will look at how language deals with the slim figure, featuring a talk by the linguist Prof. Dr. Ludwig Eichinger. In the afternoon, the audience will gain insight into the artistic work of Daria Martin, who, together with her scientific advisors, will present the various layers and levels of meaning of her film A Hunger Artist. The symposium concludes with presentations by Dr. Maya Götz, from the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television, who will talk about the links between media representations of the body and eating disorders, and Prof. Dr. Robert Gugutzer who will show that anorexia is not an exclusively female disease.
Speakers (in order of appearance)
André Kleinridders, Tatiana Korotkova, Beate Herpertz-Dahlmann, Regina Casper, Ludwig M. Eichinger, Daria Martin, Emily Troscianko, Aikaterini Fotopoulou, Nikola Kern, Manos Tsakiris, Maya Götz, Silja Vocks, Martin Grunwald, Robert Gugutzer
Hosts
Stefan H.E. Kaufmann, Schering Stiftung, Berlin
Matthias Kleiner, Leibniz Association, Berlin
Moderator
Tilman Grune, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Leibniz Institute
In German (conversation with the artist Daria Martin in English)
Free and open to the public. Registration is required by December 1 at anmeldung [at] scheringstiftung.de
Related event: Exhibition A Hunger Artist by Daria Martin
Schering Stiftung, Unter den Linden 32–34, 10117 Berlin
Opening hours: September 14–December 10, 2017, Thursday–Monday, 1–7pm, free admission
