An Awkward Game

An Awkward Game is a week long performance on the intersection between table tennis and politics. Consisting of a series of public events and an installation on the political origins of the game.

The origins of table tennis are aligned with geopolitics: British aristocrat Ivor Montagu set the rules of the game in the 30s, as he believed it could help spread Communism over the world. He became a Soviet spy, befriending Trotsky, Chaplin and producing Hitchcock’s early films. When Mao established the game as China’s national sport it became a vital cog in his foreign policy, reaching its peak with the reestablishment of US-China relations through the exchange of table tennis players in 1971. In this project, Anna Moreno parallels diplomacy to dialogics, a term coined by Bakhtin also in the 30s meant to note how readers become engaged in a story by non-linear processes, and that is currently used in social sciences, stressing how dialogue itself enables the existence of ‘the other’.

The one week performance is scheduled as follows:

25th June: SHAKEHANDS (Workshop) 19:00 – 21:00

A workshop on art, sports and diplomacy in collaboration with Bob van den Bos, Dutch politician and expert in diplomacy and international relations. RSVP required!

26th June: PENHOLD (Special evening) 19:00 – 21:00

An evening with a demonstration on table tennis by the players Ossie Almak and Kento Nomura and a lecture performance by Anna Moreno.

27th June: FOREHAND LOOP (Hommage to Július Koller) 13:00 – 18:00

“Strategic changes often express themselves in trivial details”

The space will be open to anyone willing to play table tennis.

28th June: KNOCK-OUT (Ping-pong tournament) 12:00 – 20:00

Ping-pong tournament at 1646 + BBQ + DJ Mrtz

Registration to participate in the tournament from 11:00 until 12:00 @ 1646, tournament starts at 13:30. BBQ from 12:30 on, free for participants!

There will be a single-edition prize for the winner, open to everyone!

29th June: BACKHAND LOOP (Hommage to Július Koller) 13:00 – 18:00

“It is not necessarily better to twist minds than to twist arms”

The space will be open to anyone willing to play table tennis.

30th June: SPIN (Battle of screens) 19:00 – 21:00

Witness a battle of screens between Gaby Felten and Moritz Geremus! The two guests will alternate to project videos from their own personal archives and the internet, commenting and responding to each other’s projections, around the subject of political correctness.

1st July: COUNTERHIT (On how to play an awkward game) 13:00 – 18:00

Performative publication launch. Free limited copies to be collected at 1646 during opening hours. Come by and get yours!