Office Hours of the Ministerium für Mitgefühl (Ministry for Sympathy)

The minister asks: is this solidarity or is it trash? – Over the course of half-hour 1:1 meetings, we will ask each other questions about the topic of “solidarity”. In doing so, the language game of question & answer follows a precise choreography. This strict form allows very open contents. The minister is no smarter than the person sitting across from her and she will follow wherever the journey is leading. Her questions are questions that open up a shared space for contemplation and reactivate the ability to empathize. Is solidarity a kind of contract? How do you learn it and from whom? How? Should solidarity become a subject students have to study at school? What power relationships does it preserve and protect? How does solidarity sound to East German ears? The minister has a lot of questions and few qualms about asking them.

With: Ministerium für Mitgefühl (The Ministry for Sympathy)