Why does theory matter for art and artists? The first session of the new semester offers a general debate about the status, the impact and the various layers of meaning that may characterize theory-production in the field of arts. Is theory opposed to practice? Is it maybe just an unsubstantiated guess or hunch? Can we, by constructing models of reality, make use of theory for instance in order to explain, analyze and understand phenomena that would otherwise remain rather enigmatic?