In an online discussion between Romania and South Africa, Mihaela Ion and Karen von Veh speak about AICA’s newly defined committee, AICA’s Open Section, and AICA initiatives, focusing on the association’s goals and its efforts to increase accessibility and participation.
A key topic of the podcast centres on the transition from the AICA Fellowship and Funds Committee to what is now known as AICA Forum. The mission of AICA Forum is to deepen critical understanding of contemporary, time-related themes central to current discourse, fostering engagement among AICA members and beyond. AICA Forum promotes online debates and webinars to support the development of art criticism in emerging regions and facilitates global discussions, particularly in response to changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ruptured Histories is one of the projects Karen von Veh presents in the first half of the podcast. The project emphasises the importance of accepting difficult public artworks as a way of engaging with challenging aspects of history and society.
Karen von Veh highlights that confronting and embracing these difficult works is essential to help prevent the repetition of past mistakes. By engaging with art that represents uncomfortable or complex histories, viewers are encouraged to reflect and learn.
The podcast also discusses the process of joining AICA’s Open Section, highlighting Karen’s membership and noting the possibility of creating new AICA sections worldwide.
About the moderator
Mihaela Ion holds a Ph.D. in History and is a curator, cultural manager, and art researcher based in Bucharest. Since 2021, she has been a member of AICA and has served as an International Board Member since 2022, as well as a member of the Digital Strategies Committee. Over the past 18 years, she has presented papers on Communist art, cultural wars, and contemporary artwork at leading conferences across Europe. Mihaela collaborates with several art galleries and museums throughout the continent. Her Ph.D. thesis focuses on the heritage of Communist-era artworks.
Mihaela has also worked as a cultural manager in London with body>data>space, and in Paris, Sélestat, Strasbourg, and Nancy during her Courants du Monde grant from the French Ministry of Culture. In 2010, she co-founded Atelierul Magazine, an active international online and offline platform that fosters intercultural dialogue between design creators and the public. Her recent cultural expertise in project evaluation was demonstrated through her work with Apexart in New York.
About the speaker
Karen von Veh is Professor Emerita at the University of Johannesburg where she worked for over 20 years, firstly as head of the Art History Programme and then as Professor and Head of the Visual Art Department. Karen now supervises postgraduate students on a part time basis and continues to research and publish articles and books on contemporary South African art, focusing mostly on gender and decolonial themes in her writing. Her most recent publications include a chapter on "Empathic Engagements with Death and Loss in the work of Diane Victor" in a book titled History Practice and Pedagogy: Empathic Engagements in the Visual Arts edited by Susan Barahal and Elizabeth Pugliano; and an article titled "Breaking the ‘Law of the Father’: Linda Rademan’s transgressive engagements with Afrikaner Patriarchy in the home” in the academic journal, Image & Text. (Vol 37). She has also co-written several monographs on South African artists, the most recent is titled Diane Victor: estampes, dessins, suie / prints, drawings, smoke, published in France by Mare et Martin. Karen now lives part of the year in a Nature reserve in the Magaliesberg Mountains in South Africa, and partly in East Sussex, UK, with her daughter and grandchildren.