Revising/Revisiting the Avant-Garde

Friday 3 July 2009

Visual and Material Culture Research Centre
Dorich House, Kingston University, London.

Keynote speakers: Sylvere Lotringer, Franco Berardi, Gerald Raunig.

The concept of the avant-garde is arguably the most important and
influential one in the history of modern art, but it is a notion often left
unexamined. We are prompted to ask - which avant-garde? In the context of
the recent popularity of a return to the issues of modernism within
contemporary art and criticism, this conference proposes a critical
re-engagement with the theory, histories and politics of the avant-garde.

The conference is intended to make original connections between a range of
moments in the history of the artistic avant-garde, and to explore its
relevance for contemporary cultural and social issues. It will focus, in
particular, on the endurance of avant-garde approaches across the
twentieth-century and their contemporary resonances.

Full Program:

09.00 Registration
09.30 Sylvere Lotringer - Keynote Speech.
10.15 Gavin Grindon - On Strike Against Society: Aesthetic and Political
Autonomy in the Project of the Radical Avant-Garde.
11.00 David Cottington - Historicising the ‘Historic Avant-Garde.’
11.45 Break for tea/coffee
12.00 Gerald Raunig - Beyond Avant: Flight-Lines of a Non-Linear Revolution.
12.45 Lunch
13.45 Anja Kanngeiser - The Aesthetic-Political Gestures of Berlin Dada and
the Situationist International.
14.30 Gillian Whiteley - Provocative Praxis: Activism and the Political
Avant-Garde.
15.15 Break for tea/coffee
15.30 Franco Berardi - The Century That Trusted in the Future
16.15 Lina Stergiou - Beyond the Myth of Creative Genius: Architecture and
Activism.
17.00 Stevphen Shukaitis - The Artistic Dérivative, or Splitting Dead Hares.
17.45 Ends

Prices:
Day pass, including lunch and drinks: GBP60 / Student concession: GBP25

To book please contact G.Grindonkingston.ac.uk