The Power of Enlightenment – Walking with Kant

To mark the 300th anniversary of Immanuel Kant’s birth year, the Einstein Forum will present an installation by the artists Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway. The Power of Enlightenment – Walking with Kant will run from August 24 to September 25 in the historic orangery on the grounds of Potsdam’s Neuer Garten park. The celebration will also include three international conferences and a host of theater and music performances.

At the center of the program is The Power of Enlightenment – Walking with Kant. Boddeke and Greenaway use their characteristically immersive, opulent, and multimedia-inflected language to comment on Kant’s demand that we use reason to guide our actions. The Einstein Forum invites the public to think about Kant’s most important philosophical ideas amid artistic impressions of light, sound, and movement.

The orangery will also feature several extraordinary performances in September. The first is a play specially written for the occasion by the musician and actor Daniel Kahn. The work is a musical interpretation of Daniel Kehlmann’s best-selling novel Tyll, whose striking portrayal of the pre-Enlightenment world reminds us what we owe the age of reason. The second offering is a new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute by the highly acclaimed British chamber opera ensemble Wild Arts. In addition to three performances in the splendid Hall of Palms, there will be an evening lecture at the Einstein Forum with the philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who will talk about her forthcoming book on opera.

Concept and direction: Susan Neiman, Director Einstein Forum
Exhibit curator: Cilly Kugelmann

The Power of Enlightenment – Walking with Kant
By Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway
Orangery, Neuer Garten, Potsdam
Am Neuen Garten, 14467 Potsdam
Aug. 24 to Sept. 25, 2024, Mon–Sun 11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Admission: €8.50 for adults, €6.00 for seniors, students, and minors

www.einsteinforum.de/en