An Evening For Our Favourite Sceptics

This is the era of post-truth and alternative facts. Pathos has completely dominated ethos and logos in all public discourse. Everything is a conspiracy and truth is discredited in a few tweets. Social media is slowly replacing our news sources and rumors have taken lives. The easier it has become to communicate, the more difficult it has become to come to grips with what is real and what is fake news.

Im Zweifel für den Zweifel: Die große Weltverschwörung(In doubt for the doubt: The great world conspiracy) is an ongoing group exhibition at the NRW Forum in Dusseldorf, that highlights the power of conspiracy stories and inspires critical doubt. We often miss out on a critical part of the famous saying by Descartes – I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am (Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum). Doubt is indeed the origin of wisdom but it’s also the origin of wild conspiracy theories. A false star, surveillance technologies, photo forgeriesand forensic research– in the exhibition, the lines between truth and fiction are purposefully blurred.

On the  24^thSeptember, Zeitgeist Ventures organized an exclusive viewing of this exhibition as a part of the Zeitgeist Series, which focuses on the cultural influences shaping our future. The exhibition was attended by friends, family and partners, who spent an evening through a web of fears, dreams, contradictions, doubts and nonsense spun by the curated works of international artists.

One of the highlights of the exhibition was the installation “Fake Star” created by Julius von Bismarck, Richard Wilhelmer & Benjamin Maus. They meticulously created an illusion of a star, that twinkled at the onlookers, making them question their own eyes. Richard Wilhelmer, who has worked closely with Zeitgeist ventures, took the group through his ideas and shared some illuminating insights on the making of his fascinating artwork. The evening was spent reflecting on the great conspiracies of our times and how far have we come in our capacity to doubt when everything we know is now tinted by it. It is, of course, impossible to doubt we doubt. However, to what extent this process leads us to the truth is far from clear.

We are hoping to create more such experiences and events to explore the intricacies of our conspiratorial minds. #ClubOfIdeas #TheTimeIsNow