seminar
This project seeks to reflect on the activities, artistic practices, and vocabulary used to translate projects in the realm of discourse as well as their social, political, and cultural implications. How do we narrate artistic practices? The challenge is to maintain the essence of the projects with their intentions, contexts, and histories. This research project proposes to discuss a vocabulary that might be around a concept, an artwork, or even proper names. Together, it might be the beginning of a dictionary of “Activities and vocabulary, for exchange in general and for reading artist projects in particular.”
The discourse that has been cultivated over the past few years is increasingly emptied of its object. In article after article and exhibition after exhibition, the rift deepens between art and the commentary that tries to explain it. Artists and those who speak about artworks or organize exhibitions must understand the goal of each work and its intent in order to better translate its ideas into exchanges. This must happen as much in discourse as in the basic, day-to-day narratives that structure communication around art.
This conference proposes a first site for constructing a coherent vocabulary for the translation of original artistic projects. This will be a terminology that permits us to renew the discourse, to go beyond the conventions now used in the art market or in the communication of art frequently too attached to the periods and concepts of Modern and Contemporary Art.
The first sessions will be an opportunity to listen to proposals for such a terminology by art critics, artists, curators, and researchers and to discuss possibilities for trans-disciplinary translations. The conference takes place in the Laboratory “Art, Technology and Ecology” at ESAV-Marrakech and L’appartement 22, with a public program on November 25th.
Conference-Workshop project
Title: "Activities and Vocabulary, discussing and sharing art projects at large"
Location: École Eupérieure des Arts Visuels (Marrakech) and L’appartement 22 (Rabat)
Date: November 22 - 25, 2010 (studio visits are possible for participants on November the 22nd and the 26th)
Partners: L’appartement 22 (Rabat), ESAV (Marrakech), tranzit.at (Vienna)
Curators: Abdellah Karroum, Georg Schoellhammer
November 24th, 2pm PUBLIC SESSION at ESAV
Speakers:
DESSISLAVA DIMOVA, Curator and researcher, Curator of Antalya Bienali, Turkey.
CHARLES ESCHE, Curator and Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and Editor, AfterAll.
JUAN GAITAN, Senior Curator, Witte de With, Rotterdam
ABDELLAH KARROUM, Independent Curator and Founder of L'appartement 22, Rabat, and the Expeditions LE BOUT DU MONDE. Curator for AiM International Biennale Marrakech 2007 and 2009.
ANNE SZEFER KARLSEN, Curator and Director, Hordaland Art Centre, Bergen, Norway
GEORG SCHÖLLHAMMER, Head of tranzit.at and Editor-in-Chief of springerin - Hefte für Gegenwartskunst, Vienna.
JEAN-PAUL THIBEAU. Artist and Professor at Fine Arts School in Aix-en-Provence.
JOHN ZAROBELL, Curator of Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Professional Guests and Participants:
IVAN BOCCARA, Filmmaker and Photographer, France and Morocco.
EMMA CHUBB, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Art History, Northwestern University, USA.
GALIT EILAT, Artist and Curator in Residency at the van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
KARIM RAFI*, Artist and Musician, Casablanca
DMITRY VILENSKY, Artist, Writer, and Founding Member of Chto Delat?/What is to be done?, St. Petersburg.
Contact and coordination: Véronique Bruez (ESAV), Bouchra SamSam (L’appartement 22), Emma Chubb (L’appartement 22), Marlies Pillhofer (tranzit.at)