Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism: Forum
February 27 – 28 2009
Location:
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Theatre 301, 1399 Johnston Street,
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Tirdad Zolghadr
February 28, 2009 from 10:30am to 1pm
Sylvie Fortin, Tom Morton, William Wood (moderator)
February 28, 2009 from 2:30pm to 5pm
Diedrich Diederichsen, Maria Fusco, Jeff Derksen (moderator)
Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism is a two-day forum on the state of contemporary art criticism organized by Artspeak and Fillip. Through a keynote address by Tirdad Zolghadr and two panels made up of international critics and writers Jeff Derksen, Diedrich Diederichsen, Sylvie Fortin, Maria Fusco, Tom Morton, and William Wood, the forum seeks to address what is at stake in the shifting value of judgment in contemporary art writing. A renewed interest in the efficacy and function of art criticism has arisen in the last decade, embedded in art market speculation, global conflict, and recent economic crises. This forum will engage with the key issues produced from these conversations, specifically returning to the role of valuation in contemporary art writing.
As a complement to the forum, Artspeak is housing a reading room of texts, publications, and journals related to issues of judgment in contemporary art criticism. The reading room is open to the public until March 28 and will host events with Markus Miessen and Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, amoung others.
The forum will result in a book-length publication of papers and conversations derived from the event to be co-published by Artspeak and Fillip in late 2009.
Speakers
Jeff Derksen is a Vancouver poet, culture critic, and editor. He is the author of Dwell, Transnational Muscle Cars, and the forthcoming Annihilated Time: Poetry and Other Politics. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University.
Diedrich Diederichsen lives in Stuttgart and contributes to Texte zur Kunst, Theater heute, Jungle World, Artforum, Die Zeit. His books include Argument Son – Critique electroacoustique de la societe; Sexbeat; 2000 Schallplatten; and Loving the Alien (Editor). He is professor of Theory, Practice and Communication of Contemporary Art at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna.
Sylvie Fortin is Editor-in-Chief of Art Papers in Atlanta. A curator, art historian, critic, and editor, she has worked at the Ottawa Art Gallery, la chambre blanche, and with OBORO. Her reviews have appeared in Art Press, C Magazine, Espace, Fuse, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, and Parachute.
Maria Fusco is based in London where she is Director of Art Writing in the Department of Art at Goldsmiths. She edited Put About: A Critical Anthology on Independent Publishing and contributes to Art Monthly, Circa, dot dot dot, Frieze, i-D, 032c, Untitled, sexymachinery, and Tema Celeste. She is also the founding editor of The Happy Hypocrite.
Tom Morton lives in London. He is a writer, critic, and curator. Most recently, he has served as curator of Cubitt, London where he organized exhibitions by Charles Avery, Annika Eriksson, General Idea, amongst others. He is currently Contributing Editor of Frieze magazine.
William Wood is a Vancouver art historian and critic. Wood’s work has been published in journals, anthologies, and exhibition catalogues and he has held editorial positions with C Magazine, Public, Vanguard, and Parachute. He teaches Art History at the University of British Columbia.
Tirdad Zolghadr works as a curator, writes for Frieze magazine, and has contributed to Parkett, Bidoun, Cabinet, and Afterall. Zolghadr has curated events at Cubitt London, IASPIS Stockholm, Kunsthalle Geneva, and in Tehran art spaces. He was co-curator of the International Sharjah Biennial 2005.
For more information see www.artspeak.ca and www.fillip.ca
