A conference in celebration of the life and work of Marina Vishmidt.

The conference What is Infrastructural Critique? will feature artists, critical theorists and collaborators with Marina Vishmidt, who will come together to think through Marina Vishmidt’s concept of infrastructural critique, a materialist approach to the infrastructures of contemporary art oriented towards aesthetics and political struggle in all of its interconnected modes and scales. Themes of discussion will include: infrastructural critique and ecology, infrastructural critique vs. institutional critique, art and political economy, art and logistics, the politics of abolition in contemporary art, infrastructural critique and music and the relationship of infrastructure to race.

With talks and presentations by Marwa Arsanios, Hannah Black, Maria Bussmann, Helmut Draxler, Rose-Anne Gush, Danny Hayward, Angela Melitopoulos + Kerstin Schroedinger, Taylor Le Melle Mattin, Andreas Petrossiants, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Robert Schlicht + Romana Schmalisch, Kerstin Stakemeier, Alberto Toscano

Marina Vishmidt was Professor of Art Theory at the Angewandte between October 2023 and April 2024.

The event will begin with a talk on the book Infrastructural Critique: Contemporary Art Between Reproduction and Abolition, forthcoming with Verso in 2026.

Overview times of the conference
29.10, 18-20.00
30.10, 10.30-18.30
31.10, 10.30-18.30

Detailed schedule
Wednesday 29th
18-20.00
Welcome: Sofia Bempeza and Annette Krauss (dep. Art and Communication Practices)
Opening of the conference: Vice Rector Brigitte Felderer
Keynote: Danny Hayward: We are here and we are in it
Moderated by Annette Krauss

Thursday 30th
10.30.-13.30
Welcome: Annette Krauss
Natascha Sadr Haghighian: flames to dust’
Rose-Anne Gush: Figures of Entropy as Anchors of Value
Helmut Draxler: Institution, Infrastructure, or Critique? Reconstructing the lines of conflict
Moderated by Sofia Bempeza

14.30-16.00
Taylor Le Melle: tbc
Marwa Arsanios: Reading Marina Vishmidt in Beirut: A conversation that did not happen yet had happened long ago
Moderated by Nanna Heidenreich

16.30-18.00
Maria Bussmann: take a virtual tour: thoughts and images for Marina
Angela Melitopoulos und Kerstin Schroedinger: Being Moved: Infrastructures of Denial
Moderated by Rose-Anne Gush

Friday 31st
10.30-13.30
Welcome: Sofia Bempeza
Robert Schlicht und Romana Schmalisch: Talking the enemy's language
Hannah Black: tbc
Andreas Petrossiants: tbc
Moderated by Amanda Holmes

14.30-16.00
Kerstin Stakemeier: The Popular Front of Disalienation. On Infrastructural Sense/s
Mattin: Noise in the Gaps
Moderated by Alexi Kukuljevic

16.30-17.15
Alberto Toscano (online): This World We Must End
Moderated by Danny Hayward

17.15- 19.00
Summary discussion
Moderated by Annette Krauss and Sofia Bempeza

The conference is curated by Danny Hayward and Rose-Anne Gush, and organized by Sofia Bempeza, Rose-Anne Gush, Danny Hayward, Annette Krauss.

Moderations by: Alexi Kukuljevic, Amanda Holmes, Annette Krauss, Danny Hayward, Nanna Heidenreich, Sofia Bempeza, Rose-Anne Gush

Hosted by the department Art and Communication Practices, Institute of Studies in Art and Art Education, University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Thank you for your generous support!
Student assistants: Meret Caderas, James Elsey, Claudia Florentina Marija Jančić, Valentina Santner, Anna Schoissengeyer, Ronja Wolf
Technicians and videographers: Fine Freiberg, Tatia Skhirtsladze, Thomas Mitterböck, Maximiliam Maitz
Administration and Facility Management: Martina Dragschitz, Alexandra Frank, Shirley Thurner, and the departments of the Institute of the Study of Art and Art Education

Registration: infrastructural_critiqueuni-ak.ac.at