February 19, 2022
Online at Planet IMPAKT.
What are the new challenges facing contemporary art today? How do we ensure that art responds to the pressing changes brought about by developments in technology and politics? Or: how do we keep art idiosyncratic, contemporary and radical? To answer these questions, join us on Saturday, February 19 for the conference Contemporary Curating: Radical, Digital, Diverse. During this online event we speak with internationally acclaimed curators, including a keynote by the director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, plus two panel discussions – one with co-founder of the Athens Biennale Poka-Yio, director of the Niet Normaal INT Foundation Ine Gevers and artist Renzo Martens; and the other with director of [ANTI]MATERIA Doreen A. Ríos, digital anthropologist, strategist and curator Wade Wallerstein and curator and professor of Digital Art at Politecnico University in Milan Valentina Tanni.
Technology and the Internet have become intrinsic to how we make, experience, present, reflect on and share art. It is within this context of rapid communication and short-lived hypes that we argue that art should provoke and react to current social and political debates. Art should also respond to new developments – technology-related or not – within the art world itself, such as the rise of new forms of digital art and visual languages (including memes or NFT’s) and the new modes of audience engagement for museums.
You are welcome to follow the entire conference or separate sessions. More info and tickets here.
Programme
4–5:30pm: Session 1
On Radicality and Autonomy
With: Poka-Yio, Ine Gevers and Renzo Martens
Mass media populism and the dynamics of social media’s attention economy have changed our political and societal discourse. Online and offline, there are successful examples of people making themselves heard: speaking truth to power, fighting against injustice, and celebrating inclusivity and diversity. How does this new dynamic affect the arts? How do we balance these positive developments with key values of the arts like ambiguity, irony, and subversiveness? For this panel advocating the freedom of art to be radical and controversial, we invited two curators who are known for their inspiring and thought-provoking projects. They are visual artist, curator and co-founder of the Athens Biennale Poka-Yio and curator, writer, activist and director of the Niet Normaal INT Foundation Ine Gevers. They will be joined by artist Renzo Martens, who stirred public debate with works like Enjoy Poverty and his current and ongoing project Human Activities. How do they negotiate their positions to generate critical and productive conversations when working with controversial artworks and perspectives? Is there enough radicality and idiosyncrasy in contemporary art? How can art and academia contribute to these discussions in society and culture?
5:45–6:45pm: Session 2
Keynote by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is a curator, researcher and scholar. She is the recipient of the 2019 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, and currently serves as the Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti in Turin, Italy. Christov-Bakargiev curated the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008), followed by the widely acclaimed dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012, as well as the 14th Istanbul Biennial in 2015. Her projects often take on ecological and socio-political themes in pursuit of different forms of knowledge. For this keynote lecture, Christov-Bakargiev will reflect on projects at Castello di Rivoli that work with digital art and new media practices, how she approaches the curation of these projects, and the role of museums in cultivating new alliances and perspectives.
7:30–9pm: Session 3
Curating the Internet
With: Doreen A. Ríos and Valentina Tanni
Internet culture is appealing, sexy, and speaks to a lot of people. Post Internet and digital aesthetics have put a clear mark on contemporary art shows over the past few years. How can art, with its unique or analytical perspectives, respond to the immense influence of the Internet while keeping a critical distance from the short-term hypes that Internet culture is subject to? In this panel we look at how to present the newest digital art – beyond fleeting hypes – with director of [ANTI]MATERIA Doreen A. Ríos, digital anthropologist, strategist and curator Wade Wallerstein and curator and professor of Digital Art at Politecnico University in Milan Valentina Tanni.
Register for the online conference Contemporary Curating: Radical, Digital, Diverse.
