100 Ways of Thinking 2018

Why can't computers come up with jokes? Is making music a form of thinking? And doesn’t it take at least two to think about something? How does thinking actually work and what if it no longer works? These and other questions will be addressed at the 100 Ways of Thinking exhibit. For ten weeks, the University of Zurich and Kunsthalle Zürich were celebrating a science festival. “100 Ways of Thinking” was an exhibition, a festival, and a meeting place. It transformed Kunsthalle Zürich into a laboratory –for research, art, and teaching – and it was dedicated to the creativity and great diversity behind the term 'thinking'.

The focus was on an exhibition dealing with forms of thinking from various cultures of knowledge and artistic practices. In the expectation of seeing art, scientific lectures, objects or experiments were perceived from a different perspective. The playing field has thereby been expanded. As the University took up residence in the Kunsthalle, attention was shifed to the way knowledge is produced and to the spaces of thinking; as a result, the visitors' sense of the varieties, permeabilities and modulations was sharpened.

The festival was drawn on diversity and persistence, but also on impermanence and uniqueness. A rich  program of varied events has complemented the exhibition and also served as a mediator of the encounter. Kunsthalle Zürich has been a stage for multiple interactions: between science, art, and culture; between the search for meaning and the meaning of aesthetics; between a retrospective an anticipatory outlook; and between people from different backgrounds who share a sense of curiosity. 

Curated by Daniel Baumann and Katharina Weikl.

Made possible through support from the Stiftung Mercator Schweiz and organized by Graduate Campus and Kunsthalle Zürich.