Why Is Everybody Being So Nice?Investigating moments of friction between ethics and etiquette in the knowledge economy
De Appel, Amsterdam
April 11-14, 2017
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
June 18, 2017
Contributors: Apparatus 22,Johannes Büttner, Benedikte Bjerre, Charlotte Van Buylaere,Binna Choi, Laurie Cluitmans, Larisa David, Hendrik Folkerts, Erin Gleeson, Yolande van der Heide, Pablo Helguera, Gergő Horváth, Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Brian Kuan Wood, Martina Mächler, Vera Mey, Nat Muller, Ambra Pittoni and Paul-Flavien Enriquez-Sarano, Haco de Ridder, Rabea Ridlhammmer, Anastasia Shin, Tijana Stepanovic,Jan Verwoert, Young Girl Reading Group, Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Laura Wiedijk
Curators: Mira Asriningtyas, Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti, Mateo Chacon-Pino, Shona Mei Findaly, Kati Ilves, Fadwa Naamna
Why Is Everybody Being So Nice? is the final project of the six curators of De Appel Curatorial Programme 2017. It comprehends a four-day long programme of panel discussions, workshops, screenings, and performances, plus a sleepover and a power nap, taking place at De Appel and at Stedelijk museum. Through the analysis of four main case studies, the project investigates moments of friction between the ethical and behavioural codes of conduct in the art world – where, in the words of Martha Rosler, “Niceness” “speaks to a demand, in neoliberal terms, for the wholesale invention, performance, and perpetual grooming of a transactional self”.