The Bet – a study on doubt, contingency and meaning in economy and society

Given that the future’s uncertainties cannot fully be grasped, even with the seemingly foolproof calculations of probability theory, we dive into two days of speculative artistic and theoretical experimentation on the theme of the bet. With the belief that purely mathematical economic models are no longer sufficient to even approximately understand the complex structures and conditions of our societies, for these two days we devote ourselves to examining the bet as an undervalued phenomenon of our present. We launch the cooperation between Berliner Festspiele / Foreign Affairs and KW Institute for Contemporary Art with a weekend of performances spanning theatre, art and theory that will be accompanied by two exhibition projects at KW: “Suspense” and “The Defenders Part 3” by William Forsythe, and the group show “Connect Four: The Bet”.

We begin by inviting you to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele early on Friday evening for the finale of the most improbable improbability drive of all times, which we will celebrate with geheimagentur & Joshua Sofaer on the main stage of Berliner Festspiele. At 9 p.m. at KW, we open a bet-themed performance weekend during which visitors can participate in a casino by Michael Portnoy and Reactor’s betting shop for time. A film programme will end the evening in the inner courtyard of KW.

On Saturday we once again await you at KW, at 3 p.m.; for a double kick-off with Jochen Dehn and Hadley+Maxwell. Afterwards, Cally Spooner presents a musical, and then Daniel Tyradellis speaks with Joseph Vogl about his equation “Money=Desire*(Trust/Time)”.

The evening programme at Haus der Berliner Festspiele begins at 7 p.m. in the main hall with an introduction to betting and fate by Elena Esposito and Nikolaus Gansterer. The Italian sociologist demonstrates the treacherous pitfalls of observing and constructing the future.

If, in the hours that follow, you ever wish to depart from the prognoses of Forced Entertainment taking place in the main hall, an evening filled with wagers and speculation, visual and performance art, theory and play await you throughout the entire Berliner Festspiele grounds.

On the side stages, Richard Sennett and Saskia Sassen will speak about the macroeconomic consequences of speculation in our globalized societies, before Giuseppe Chico and Barbara Matijević present their performance “Forecasting” in the same space.

In the Kassenhalle, you will find lecture-performances by three very different artists: Pieter De Buysser delivers a paean to speculation, Janek Simon will demonstrate different strategies for playing the lottery and Armin Chodzinski & Nis Kötting will attempt to create a musical glossary of the bet.

Outside, in the garden, Johannes Paul Raether a.k.a. Protektorama, the world-healing witch, awaits you under a chestnut tree; Santiago Sierra unloads 20 m3 of earth from the Iberian peninsula in front of the building; in the Bornemann bar, Johannes Kreidler performs a musical rendering of all numbers of the German lottery from its founding in 1953 up until tonight, and Heatsick takes over in the late hours.

At the bet-counters in the foyer, our bet-masters await you all night long. Mother Future lays out her cards in the Mobile House of Kyohei Sakaguchi, Tim Etchells invites you to his “Happy Lottery Future” and autocolor will set up projections.

Come and place your bets during an evening of superlatives! Here’s to our future!

Ellen Blumenstein & Matthias von Hartz