Workshop: Attention. Öffnungen durchqueren nach Simone Weil (HUVAC-Project 2021 “Simone Weil Revisited”)

The international and interdisciplinary workshop “Attention. Öffnungen durchqueren nach Simone Weil” took place at the University of Vienna from 27 to 30 September 21. In this German-language, in-person workshop, students and established scholars of both the University of Vienna and the HU Berlin gathered to discuss and explore Weil’s writings at an eye-to-eye level. All inputs and discussions centred around the concept of attention, which is at the core of Weil’s philosophy.

The event was organised by the members of the HUVAC-project, with special support from Max Walther and Tom Sojer (Simone Weil denkkollektiv) as well as Camila Navas López. On 29/9/21 the workshop participants discussed various resonances between the writings of Simone Weil and Susan Taubes with Prof. Dr. Thomas Macho from IFK Vienna and Dr. Christina Pareigis (Hamburg). On 30/9/21 the workshop concluded with a deliberately experimental “Denkatelier,” in which we looked for creative ways to bring together the central ideas developed in the course of the workshop. This process was filmed by the artist Matthias Mollner, who in turn translated the central theme of ‘attention’ into an auditory-visual recording. You can watch the film here.