ZERO. Please turn!
Between the Viewer and the Work: Encounters in Space

International Conference in the context of the ZERO Weekend
Organised by the ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf

The international art movement ZERO, which formed towards the end of the 1950s, created works of art that penetrate the viewer’s space in various ways: for example, through reflections of light, motion, projections, or spatial expansion. This development is to be seen in the context of a general tendency towards abandoning the painting, which could be witnessed around 1960 in a number of countries: From two-dimensional pictures, relief-like objects and assemblages to spatial installations and the integration of processual and performative elements, the works increasingly encroach on the space of the viewer and demand different grades of participation. What role does ZERO play in this context?
The conference sheds light on this question and analyzes the ZERO movement with reference to the demand for “Art for All” that characterized the democratic tendencies after World War II, the “systems aesthetics” developed by Jack Burnham, and the relationship of the visual arts toward architecture. The immersive works by artists of the ZERO movement — and particularly the installations of its main representatives Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker — are thereby set in comparison with parallel developments in the New York art scene.

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2018

09.30 a.m. Registration

10.00 a.m. Welcome Address

10.15 a.m. Welcome address
Robert Fleck, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

10.30 a.m. Welcome address / Opening remarks
Barbara Könches, ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf

11.00 a.m. Introduction to the conference
Tiziana Caianiello, ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf

Session 1: From the Work as Object to the Performative Work
Chair: Margriet Schavemaker, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

11.30 a.m. Introduction to the session

11.45 a.m. Keynote
0/60/10: Turning Slowly, Extremely... Calibrating ZERO to Changing Time(s)
Julia Robinson, New York University

12.45 p.m. Lunch Break

02.00 p.m. Art for all: Lines of tradition and development of a central narrative of art since ZERO
Ulli Seegers, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

02.45 p.m. Jack Burnham, ZERO and Sculpture as System
Luke Skrebowski, University of Manchester

03.30 p.m. Panel discussion with the speakers

04.30 p.m. Seth Riskin (MIT Museum Studio, Cambridge) in interview with Margriet Schavemaker

05.00 p.m. Closing remarks

FRIDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2018

Session 2: Immersive Environments
Chair: Johan Pas, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp

10.00 a.m. Introduction to the section

10.15 a.m. Keynote
„Infinite space … boundless ideas“ – The Topicality of Spectator and Spectacle in ZERO Environments
Ursula Frohne, Universität Münster

11.15 a.m. GEAM and ZERO: Between Architecture and the Arts
Cornelia Escher, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

12.00 p.m. Lunch Break

02.30 p.m. Turning On
Zabet Patterson, Stony Brook University

03.15 p.m. Coffee Break

03.45 p.m. Panel discussion with the speakers

04.45 p.m. Closing remarks

05.00 p.m. Premiere of the Video Documentary “Piero Manzoni and ZERO”
with an introduction by Francesca Pola, Università Cattolica, Milan

The participation is free of charge. Advance registration is not required.