Symposium
Art and the Social
Exhibitions of Contemporary Art in the 1990s
Friday 30 April 2010, 10.00-18.00

On behalf of the FORMER WEST team I would like to inform you about the
upcoming symposium "Art and the Social, Exhibitions of Contemporary
Art in the 1990's," organized by FORMER WEST partner Afterall in
London at Tate Britain on Friday 30 April.

This symposium will explore the social turn in exhibition-making in
Europe and North America in the 1990s, looking at the part played by
political activism, institutional critique and forms of socialisation
influenced by the media and moving image. Questioning labels such as
'Kontext Kunst', 'social engagement' and 'relational aesthetics',
developments in recent contemporary exhibition history will be
discussed. Speakers include Claire Bishop, Charles Esche and Stephan
Schmidt-Wulffen.
The event is organized by Afterall as part of the "Exhibition
Histories" project and in conjunction with the Academy of Fine Arts
Vienna and FORMER WEST.

Programme

10.00 Welcome by Charles Esche

Exhibitions and Activism

10.10 Doug Ashford on the 1988-89 exhibition 'Democracy' at the DIA
Art Foundation New York (a project by Group Material)

10.45 Renate Lorenz on the 1993 exhibition 'Trap' at Kunst-Werke,
Berlin (curated by Minimal Club in Munich, Büro Bert in Düsseldorf,
Art in Ruins in London)

11.20 Questions ? led by Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen

11.40 Tea and coffee

Art in the Social Sphere?

12.00 Claire Bishop on three exhibitions from 1993, 'Culture in
Action' in Chicago, 'Unité d'Habitation' in Firminy and 'Sonsbeek' in
Arnhem

12.40 Christian Philipp Müller in response

13.00 Questions ? led by Charles Esche

13.20 Lunch break

Context, Relationality, Participation

14.30 Sabeth Buchmann on Kontext Kunst and Institutional Critique in
exhibition-making in Germany in the 1990s

15.00 Stéphanie Jeanjean on the viewer's experience and the social
dimension of the exhibitions that gave rise to the Relational
Aesthetics label in France in the 1990s

15.30 Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt on the social dimension of artist-run
spaces in the UK in the 1990s, specifically in Glasgow and London

16.00 Questions ? led by Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen

16.30 Tea and coffee

Panel Discussion

17.00 Review of the day, with questions to all the speakers, led by
Charles Esche
Tate Britain Auditorium
Pound 25 (Pound 15 concessions), booking recommended

For tickets, please visit:
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/symposia/20917.htm

We look forward to seeing you at the symposium. If you are not able to
make it, videorecordings of the event will be available on
www.formerwest.org shortly after.

Best wishes,

Flora Lysen
communication officer FORMER WEST

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