Symposium Public Art – City. Politics. Memory

Free admission. Please register by January 20, 2020 at symposium@publicartmunich.de

The City of Munich, Department of Arts and Culture is pleased to announce the international symposium Public Art – City. Politics. Memory, taking place in Munich from January 31 to February 1, 2020.

Art in public space intersects with the city and its inhabitants and with the social issues of our time. This form of art raises questions that point far beyond its existence as an aesthetic phenomenon or sensual experience. In a city like Munich, which is constantly changing, where space is scarce and contested, and where both private and economic interests but also civic and political involvement increasingly manifest themselves in the urban space, these questions become especially visible: Who owns the spaces of the city and how do they change? What about the oft-quoted claim that public art is per se democratic, even political? And if it’s true, who speaks and for whom? As they increasingly take over the role of classical monuments in the public space, how can contemporary art practices—whether performative, participatory or temporary—shape the sensitive balancing act of collective remembrance? Where exactly is the place of art—quite concretely, but also metaphorically?

From a local, national and international perspective, the symposium will highlight specific aspects of art in public space. The symposium will focus on the central topics of urban density and structural change, current dimensions of publicness, the potential of art to play a role in public decision and design processes as well as artistic approaches to memory in the urban space. In six panels, scholars, artists, cultural workers, architects and activists will discuss the challenges, alternative modes and critical potentials of contemporary art practice in public space in the face of an urban, social and political context that keeps changing. What is the meaning of art for an urban society in 2020? And where do we want to go from here?
 

Program

Friday, January 31, 2020
City

Moderation: Elke Krasny, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

10:30am
Introduction
Anton Biebl, Director of the Department of Arts and Culture, City of Munich
Daniel Bürkner + Cordula Schütz, Department of Arts and Culture
Elke Krasny, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

11am–1pm
Panel 1
Benedikt Boucsein, Technical University of Munich
Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo
Ali Madanipour, Newcastle University
Discussion Panel 1
Moderation: Elke Krasny

2:30–4pm
Panel 2
Barbara Holub, transparadiso, Vienna
Gerrit Gohlke, New Patrons, Berlin
Paul M. Farber + Ken Lum, Monument Lab, Philadelphia

4:30–6pm
Roundtable discussion
Katharina Blaas-Bratscher, Curator, Vienna
Corbinian Böhm, Artist duo Empfangshalle, Munich
Beate Engl, Artist, Munich
Regine Keller, Technical University of Munich
Florian Matzner, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
Michaela Melián, Artist, Munich
Martina Taig, KÖR, Vienna
Moderation: Nan Mellinger, Cultural Communication, Munich + Kerstin Möller, Department of Arts and Culture

Saturday, February 1, 2020
Politics I Memory

Moderation: Joanna Warsza, Curator, Berlin

10:30am
Introduction
Daniel Bürkner, Department of Arts and Culture
Joanna Warsza, Curator, Berlin

11am–1:15pm
Panel 4
Oliver Marchart, University of Vienna
Stephanie Hankey, Tactical Tech, Berlin
Ronny Sommer, Peng! Collective, Berlin
Discussion Panel 4
Moderation: Joanna Warsza

2:45–3:45pm
Panel 5
Piotr Rypson, Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, Warsaw
Tba

4:15–6:30pm
Panel 6
Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University, New York
Jonas Dahlberg, Artist, Stockholm
Discussion Panel 5 + 6
Moderation: Nicolaus Schafhausen, Curator + Mirjam Zadoff, Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism

6:30pm
Round-Up

Conference language: German | English (with simultaneous translation)

Additional information at:
www.publicartmunich.de

Organized by
Department of Arts and Culture, City of Munich
Art in Public Space
www.publicartmunich.de

Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism
www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen.de