March 26, 2013

Symposium: The event in artistic and political practice


Symposium
Event in Artistic and Political Practices
Amsterdam 26-28 March 2013

In contemporary artistic, media and philosophical discourses the notion of the 'event' has gained considerable currency. Since the 1990s the event has been central to a range of performative, media-based, socially and politically engaged artists' work, as well as in artists' involvement in/with non-artistic projects and practices ranging from political protest to scientific research. The growth of interest towards the potentials of art openly working with reception and/or participation as its methods has also lead to institutional commissions of this type of artistic work. For the institutions event-based art has triggered entirely new questions about the documentation and preservation of artistic practices.

While the concept of the 'event' has been extensively elaborated upon in some fields – for instance, in theatre studies, urban studies and especially in philosophy, in recent art history and cultural theory, there are still few attempts of theorization.
This conference sets out to articulate the meaning of the 'event' in relation to artistic, media-based and performative cultural practices. We invite presentations articulating the range of performative, conceptual, media-based, game-based, relational, participatory and other practices that can be approached as events. Elaborations on the methodological issues of studying events are also welcomed.

Keynote speakers

Alain Badiou is René Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School EGS in Switzerland, formerly Chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure Paris. 
Oliver Marchart is Professor of Sociology at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. 
Claire Fontaine is a collective artist based in Paris. 
János Sugár is an artist and theorist of public art and media based in Budapest. 

Symposium 27-28th March 

Universiteitstheater, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16-18, 1012 CP, Amsterdam 

Conference partners sponsors:
Lectoraat Art and Public Space, Gerrit Rietveld Academy (LAPS)
Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam http://asca.uva.nl/ 
Mondriaan Fund
Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA)
Master Artistic Research The Hague
Institut Français des Pays-Bas, Maison Descartes
Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA)

Conference organisers: 
Margaret Tali, Thijs Witty, and Eva Fotiadi.

March 07, 2013

Public Art in the Balkans


International conference ‘Public Art in the Balkans, 19th-21st centuries: intentions, interpretations, controversy‘  
March 14-15, 2013, American Research Center in Sofia (Bulgaria)
Public Art expresses the deeds, accomplishments, sorrows, identity, and values of leaders, cities, nations and empires. Displays of Public art in the Balkans were introduced by the Romans and their Byzantine, Medieval, Ottoman heirs continued to embellish cities and countryside alike with the "art of empires". In the 19th and 20th centuries, Public Art reflects nation-building, political alliances and ideology, while art installed after 1989 ranges from explicitly anti-Socialist sentiment to experiments in an uncertain world. Public art in the Balkans does not go unnoticed and is frequently the subject of controversy.
Papers presented in the ARCS/IBS conference will address many aspects of this broad subject: Original context and meaning – agents, historical background, setting, style and iconography; Regional comparison (from city to city, province to province, country to country); Links between exemplars of Public Art from different periods; Role and re-interpretation of Public Art in later periods.
Zoran Poposki presents his research in a paper entitled "Spectacular power and identity: contemporary public art in Macedonia", co-authored with the archaeologist Vasilka Dimitrovska.