Primer Congreso Former West en BAK (Utrecht)

La primera semana de noviembre en el BAK de Utrecht se realizará la primera reunión del proyecto Former West, uno de los proyectos de investigación más interesantes puestos en marcha en el último año al cumplirse veinte años de la caida del muro de Berlín. A iniciativa de Maria Hlavajova, directora del BAK, el proyecto reune un conjunto significativo de investigadores de Europa del Este y Central, y es una de las plataformas de pensamiento crítico y producción editorial a la cual prestarle atención en los próximos años. Este primer encuentro reúne un grupo notable de panelistas por el nivel de sus aportes críticos, y ya estoy expectante de estar allí. Para más información sobre el equipo de investigación y el grupo de estudio que articula Former West ver su web.

Un primer seminario se realizó en el MNCARS hace no mucho. Reproduzco ahora el programa de noviembre (en inglés) y espero comentar algo más luego del encuentro.
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1st Former West Congress

5–7 November 2009
Organized by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst
Venue: Ottone, Kromme Nieuwegracht 62
Utrecht, the Netherlands

In the days leading up to the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2009, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht hosts the 1st Former West Congress, which gathers some of the most influential curators, artists, theorists, and thinkers of the past two decades from the field of art. This is the first major public program of the long-term, multifaceted international research, education, publishing, and exhibition project Former West (2008–2013).

Former West aims at articulating the processes of the West “becoming former” that, however unacknowledged by the West itself, began with the demise of the Cold War construct of a bipolar world in 1989. The project is an attempt to rethink the West and its art out of their hegemonic self-narration and to propose another, speculative view of the history of western art after 1989, one evolving around significant social and political changes and in active dialogue with post-communist and postcolonial thought.

Through dynamic and critical exchange with contributors and participants, this inaugural Congress begins mapping the artistic and theoretical developments surrounding the problematic of the “formerness” of the West, and charts the practices in art through which we can identify and engage with the post-1989 landscape and its impact on cultural production. Each day of the Congress is framed under a general thematic field and is comprised of different formats, including keynote lectures and a series of conversations.

5 November 2009

The first day commences with a position paper delivered by the Former West curators: Charles Esche (director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven) and Maria Hlavajova (artistic director BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht). This is followed by a second session entitled Histories and Narratives: Between the Post-communist and the Postcolonial (1989–2009), which includes keynotes delivered by Sarat Maharaj (art historian, Lund), Renata Salecl (philosopher, Ljubljana/London), Boris Groys (theorist, New York), and Paul Gilroy (sociologist, London). The session is reviewed by Jeroen Boomgaard (art historian, Amsterdam).

6 November 2009

The second day’s session, Art, its Discourses, and the World at Large (1989/2001/2008), is openend by Cosmin Costinas (curator BAK, Utrecht) and Georg Schöllhammer (theorist, Vienna) who jointly deliver the keynote. The rest of the day is structured around a series of conversations with David Riff (art critic, Moscow), Jalal Toufic (artist, Istanbul), Pablo Lafuente (managing editor Afterall, London), Catherine David (curator, Paris), Kerstin Stakemeier (curator, Berlin), Marion von Osten (artist, Berlin/Vienna), Stefan Heidenreich (writer, Berlin), Jorinde Seijdel (art historian, Amsterdam), Christian Hoeller (editor, Vienna), and Helmuth Draxler (curator, Stuttgart/Vienna), and concludes with a plenary session.

7 November 2009

The concluding day of the Congress, entitled Art in the Former West: Exhibitions, Art Institutions, Art Market (1989—2009) is opened by a keynote from Simon Sheikh (curator, Berlin). Further contributions on this day are organized as conversations between two interlocutors: Claire Bishop (art critic, London/New York) and Douglas Gordon (artist, Berlin); Mihnea Mircan (curator, Bucharest) and Piotr Piotrowski (art historian, Poznan/Warsaw); Thomas Boutoux (curator, Paris) and Okwui Enwezor (curator, New York/San Francisco); Nuria Enguita-Mayo (curator, Valencia) and Ana Longoni (art historian, Buenos Aires); Sven Lütticken (art critic, Utrecht) and Tom Holert (art historian, Berlin/Vienna). The day ends with a plenary session and the concluding remarks of the Former West curators.

The Congress continues with a series of closed sessions on Sunday 8 November 2009, dedicated to in-depth discussion on the issues and themes raised during the public days.