The curators’ workshop 2015 is to be held in the context of the exhibition “Ape Culture.” Curated by Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg, the exhibition project traces the long cultural and scientific obsession with humanity’s closest relatives. In artworks, documentation, and films, “Ape Culture” examines the way apes and monkeys have featured as signifiers in human representations and civilizational narratives. From the exhibition project fundamental questions of the workshop emerge: What is the role of the documentary? What formats and format developments are needed to realize a project that presents science at an artistic location? What curatorial languages must first be developed to meet academic demands on the one hand and, on the other, to express the findings in cultural terms?

The participating jurors and speakers of SYNAPSE 2015 include, among others, Anselm Franke (curator and Head of the Department of Visual Arts and Film, HKW), Chus Martínez (curator and Head of the Institute of Art at the Academy of Art and Design, FHNW, Basel) Rachel Mayeri (artist, Los Angeles), and Cord Riechelmann (biologist, philosopher, journalist, Berlin).

The network will continue beyond the workshop via the website www.synapse.info.