2024 is the 300th anniversary of Immanuel Kant’s birthday. A century ago, it was
common to blame modernity for all the woes of society. Today it’s considered
progressive to reject the Enlightenment and its accomplishments. Were
Enlightenment thinkers nothing more than naive optimists? Did they idolize
technological progress while advocating reason’s dominion over nature? Or,
worse still, were they racists and colonialists who flaunted the universal values
they purported to espouse?

To celebrate the greatest philosopher of the Enlightenment, the Einstein Forum
will host a series of events through September. Kicking off our Denkfest is a
conference, Enlightenment on Trial, presenting the case against the
Enlightenment along with arguments in its defense. The idea of putting the
Enlightenment on trial stems from Kant himself. He often wrote of the tribunal of
reason, and one of his greatest concerns was the charge that freedom of thought
would lead to nihilism. Abandoning the Enlightenment, as so many urge us to do
today, means not only abandoning efforts to cultivate our capacities for reason,
but also three principles at the core of any progressive worldview: a commitment
to universalism over tribalism, a belief in a hard distinction between justice and
power, and a belief in the possibility of progress itself.

The Einstein Forum will host a program of events to engage the general public in
discussions of these questions. Central to the program is an installation by the
artists Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway. The Power of Enlightenment –
Walking with Kant will run from August 23 to September 25 in the historic
orangery on the grounds of Potsdam’s Neuer Garten park. Over the installation’s
five spaces, Boddeke and Greenaway use their characteristically immersive,
opulent, and multimedia-inflected visual languages 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 installation’s lavishly conceived spaces wrestle with universal ideals described
by Kant and other thinkers of the Enlightenment. Foremost among them are
freedom and human dignity, which underpin the fundamental values of open
democratic societies – values that need to be reinforced more than ever today.

Visitors will begin their walk with Kant in the philosopher’s study, during the Age
of Enlightenment. They then embark on a journey through the old hierarchies of
Church and Monarchy, whose dogmatism and absolute control Kant’s philosophy
helped topple. Next visitors encounter the wind and weather of change followed
by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, who continue to drive fear into even
atheist hearts. The final space is devoted to hope. Can we find it in a ravaged
world?

The orangery will also feature several extraordinary musical performances in
September. The first is a play specially commissioned 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 set of performances 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 with the philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who will talk about her
forthcoming book on opera.

Concept and direction: Susan Neiman
Exhibit curator: Cilly Kugelmann

Installation:
The Power of Enlightenment – Walking with Kant
By Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway
Place: Orangery, Neuer Garten, Potsdam
Runtime: August 24 to September 25, 2024, Mon–Sun 11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Admission: €8.50 for adults, €6.00 for seniors, students, and minors
Vernissage: August 23, 2024, 6:00 p.m.
Finissage: September 25, 24, 6:00 p.m.
Press preview: August 21, 2024, 11:00 p.m.

Other events at the orangery:
Sept. 13 / Sept. 14 / Sept. 15, 7:00 p.m.: Herr der Luft, by Daniel Kahn and Daniel
Kehlmann
Admission: €15 for adults, €10 for seniors, students, and minors

Sept. 19 / Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. & Sept. 22, 2 p.m.: Die Zauberflöte, by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, performed by Wild Arts
Admission: €35 for adults, €20 for seniors, students, and minors

Sept. 20, 7:00 p.m., lecture by Martha Nussbaum at the Einstein Forum, Potsdam
Admission is free