TO TELL THE TRUTH     Witte de With's programming and curatorial team sets forth their ideas about cultural politics and the public role of art institutions. The lecture series will kick off with The Danger of Mediocrity by Nicolaus Schafhausen and The Empty Center by Monika Szewczyk. To Tell The Truth will continue in the fall with lectures: What is right and what is left by Juan A. Gaitán; Upstairs, Downstairs by Zoë Gray; and Please by Anne-Claire Schmitz.     Wednesday 18 May, 7 pm THE DANGER OF MEDIOCRITY by Nicolaus Schafhausen Director of Witte de With As debates around public funding for culture continue to rage, it has become clear that today we suffer from the absence of people engaged in the arts who are willing to speak up in defense of ideals. With a few exceptions, this lack particularly afflicts the visual arts and contemporary artists, whose often solitary practice is less suited to mass protest than the fields of theater and cinema. In a political atmosphere increasingly dominated by reactionary rhetoric, cultural institutions are under great pressure to be popular, to be liked, to appeal to the mythical ‘‘masses.’’ As his tenure as director of Witte de With draws to a close, Schafhausen’s talk will explore alternatives to this dangerously simplistic approach to culture and how they are relevant to institutions of contemporary art. Wednesday 25 May, 7 pm THE EMPTY CENTER by Monika Szewczyk Witte de With’s Head of Publications Public discourse of late has been preoccupied with the emptiness of certain contemporary art centers (Witte de With amongst them), which several journalists and politicians have insinuated are void of people and therefore irrelevant. What is at the root of this line of critique? What does it tell us about the political and the journalistic culture that produces it? Proposing a politically constructive way to scrutinize contemporary art institutions, Szewczyk’s talk will argue for their role in shaping a truly open public sphere. This begins with a celebration of ‘‘the empty center’’ – which in part implies an art space that is not void of visitors or of art or of radical ideas, but of a logic that turns people into numbers.     Location: Auditorium, Witte de With Language: English Entry: Free, no reservation necessary         THE END OF MONEY 22 May – 7 August 2011     Press / VIP-preview Friday 20 May 2011 (5 – 7 pm) Performance by Goldin+Senneby at 6 pm Opening Saturday 21 May 2011 (6 - 9 pm) Performance by Goldin+Senneby at 7 pm     The End of Money is a group exhibition about time and value. Bringing together works by a host of international artists, this exhibition and its parallel publication reflect upon the fears, hopes, and expectations associated with the end of money and its ominous consequence: the dissolution of an absolute standard of value. Artists Alexander Apóstol; Pierre Bismuth; Peter Fischli & David Weiss; Zachary Formwalt; Goldin+Senneby; Hadley+Maxwell; Toril Johannessen; Vishal Jugdeo; Agnieszka Kurant; Matts Leiderstam; Maha Maamoun; Christodoulos Panayiotou; Lili Reynaud-Dewar; Tomás Saraceno; Tonel; Vangelis Vlahos; and Lawrence Weiner. Curated by Juan A. Gaitán; assisted by Amira Gad.           For press requests, please send us an email via press@wdw.nl or call us on + 31 (0) 10 411 01 44. Further information on The End of Money and the participating artists you’ll find here. For high resolution images please click here or contact our office via press@wdw.nl.       Witte de With is supported by the city of Rotterdam and the Dutch Ministry of Culture. The End of Money is supported by OCA Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Cyprus and Swiss Arts Council Prohelvetia. or modify userprofile Mail-a-Friend