Isaac Julien
Geopoetics
International Seminar
October 20, 2012
SESC Pompeia Theater
Rua Clélia, 93
São Paulo, Brazil
As part of the educational curated program of Isaac Julien: Geopoetics show, three researchers analyze aspects of Isaac Julien’s oeuvre which constitute key themes of contemporary production: the role of art shows for the dissemination of art, ethnicity and gender issues, geographic displacements, migration flows. The three panels will take place in one single day.
Oct 20, 10:30–12:30pm
Panel 1: The imagined history | Vinicius Spricigo
Based on the writings of Vilém Flusser, the researcher proposes a historical reading which relates the contemporary art shows held in Brazil and the postcolonial, anthropophagic thinking and art production practices. The seminar alludes to Flusser’s thesis according to which art shows are places where artwork is exposed to the audience, and the audience is exposed to the artwork, inaugurating new modes of art consumption and production.
Vinicius Spricigo is a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Semiotics of Culture and Media (CISC) of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC/SP).
Oct 20, 2–2:45pm
Panel 2: Polar fantasies and aesthetics in the work of Isaac Julien | Lisa E. Bloom
Based on her book Gender on Ice: American Ideologies of Polar Expedition (1993), in which she recounts the conquering of the North Pole from the perspective of women, blacks, the Inuit, and other groups left out of the official accounts, Lisa Bloom makes aesthetical and political remarks on the issues of colonization, sexuality, and migration featured in Fantôme Créole.
Holding a Master’s in Fine Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology and Visual Studies Workshop (1985), Bloom is the author of books such as With Other Eyes: Looking at Race and Gender in Visual Culture (1999), and teaches visual culture at the University of California, San Diego.
Oct 20, 3–3:45pm
Panel 3: Planarity/Planetarity | Rania Gaafar
The researcher draws parallels between the geographical space and the space created by installation- and moving-image–oriented contemporary art, and looks into how Isaac Julien addresses anthropological, sociological, and geopolitical issues in producing images and installations.
Having published papers on films, the moving image, cultural otherness, and media theory, Rania Gaafar is an associate researcher in the department of Media Art of the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany, and is pursuing a doctorate from the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, London.
Accomplishment: Associação Cultural Videobrasil and SESC
Cultural support: British Council
