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Conceptual Art in the Expanded Field: Past, Present, Future.

The workshop critically examines the complexity of artistic production from the late 1960s onwards that has commonly been grouped under the term “conceptual art,” bringing together established scholars and emerging researchers from European universities. While this field has been the subject of extensive scholarship, its history has often been framed around a limited number of canonical figures and relatively orthodox interpretations of their work.

Building on our specific research interests—including feminist and subversive practices, experiences of migration, and material and cultural history—this workshop approaches conceptual art through a range of complementary perspectives, such as archives, documentation and exhibitions; global circulations and diasporas; political, social, and infrastructural stakes; memory and temporality; as well as categories including race and gender. Rather than treating conceptual art as a closed historical episode, the event seeks to establish connections with contemporary societal issues that continue to shape artistic production today, thereby encouraging productive dialogues between historical research and present concerns.

Address
Kunsthistorisches Seminar Basel
St. Alban-Graben 8
Room 131, 1st floor

Keynote Lecture — Thursday, September 10, 6–8 pm
Prof. Sabeth Buchmann (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna): The Gesturally Expanded Field of (Proto-Feminist) Conceptual Art: The Artistic Practices of Blythe Bohnen and Rosemarie Castoro

Workshop Program

Friday, September 11th
Morning
9.30-10am: Louis-Antoine Mege, Welcome and introductory remarks
10-10.45am: Michele Valetti, From Phenomena to Geometries: Laura Grisi’s Conceptual Trajectory in Italy (1968-1977)
Break
11-11.45am: Paula Stoica, “Homer wrote and I copied:” Darboven’s Odyssee
11.45-12.30am: Elize Mazadiego, The Art of Gossip: Ulises Carrión, marginal communication, and queer conceptualism
12.30am-2pm: Lunch break

Afternoon
2-2.45pm: Anja Delz, Akin to letters: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s correspondence art in Amsterdam
2.45-3.30pm: Rada Georgieva, Geographies of Exile: Guillermo Deisler, Juan Downey, and Uneven Visibility in Chilean Conceptualism
Break
4-4.45pm: Sezgin Boynik, The Portrait of Yugoslavia in the Style of Art & Language (online)
4.45-5.30pm: Felix Vogel, (De-)Declaration, Intention, Exhibition Form

Saturday, September 12th
Morning
9-9.45am: Markus Klammer, “So is this”. Indexicality in Michael Snow
9.45-10.30am: Emma Wils, The Section of Photography in On Kawara’s Journals: A Marginal Practice between Document, City, and Temporality
Break
11-11.30am: Alena J. Williams, Limited Holdings: Conceptualism and Time in Contemporary Art
11.30-12.15am: Sara Martinetti, Jean-Noël Herlin “prepared” archive (online)
12.15-12.30am: Closing remarks

On-site and online
For questions, please contact paula.stoicaunibas.ch or louis-a.megelive.fr

Workshop organized by:
Anja Delz, Universität Fribourg
Louis-Antoine Mège, Sorbonne-Université, Paris/documenta Institut, Kassel
Paula Stoica, Universität Basel
Emma Wils, Sorbonne-Université, Paris

With the support of Kunsthistorisches Seminar Basel and Centre André Chastel, Paris

This event marks the first step toward a transnational research network on conceptual art, with the ambition of developing future workshops, symposia, publications, and collaborative projects between Basel, Fribourg, Paris, and beyond.