AICA International is very pleased to welcome new presidents of national sections.
AICA International est très heureux d'accueillir les nouveaux présidents de sections national.
AICA Internacional está muy contenta de recibir a los nuevos presidentes de las secciones nacionales.
A panel discussion launching the publication of Tomáš Štrauss: Beyond the Great Divide. Essays on European Avant-gardes from former East and West (eds Daniel Grúň, Henry Meyric Hughes, Jean-Marc Poinsot), took place on 26 April 2022.
Beyond the Great Divide is the first English-language anthology of writings by the Slovak critic, Tomáš Štrauss (Budapest 1931 – Bratislava 2013), a key theoretician of the post-war neo-avant-gardes in socialist Central and Eastern Europe. The volume includes essays on Béla Bartók and ethnography, Lajos Kassák, action and conceptual art, phenomenology, and on the question of Ostkunst. The event served as an opportunity to take stock of the ongoing relevance of Cold War art historical legacies.
Daniel Grúň is an art historian, curator, and writer, currently employed as Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and the Institute of Art History, Slovak Academy of Science. Grúň studied art history at Trnava University (Slovakia), where he completed his Ph.D. on art criticism of the 1960s in Czechoslovakia in 2009. He is in charge of the Július Koller Society and co-curated the artist’s first international retrospective ‘Július Koller: One Man Anti Show’ MUMOK/Vienna, Museion/Bolzano in 2015-16. His recent publications include: “Active Gaps and Absences in Artist Archives. Stano Filko and Dóra Maurer” in Emese Kürti, Zsuzsa László (eds) What Will Be Already Exists: Temporalities of Cold War Archives in Central-East Europe and Beyond (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2021); Daniel Grúň, Christian Höller, Kathrin Rhomberg (eds), White Space in White Space = Biely priestor v bielom priestore, 1973−1982. Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský (Vienna: Schlebrugger, 2021); “Konceptuálne umenie a jeho odložené publikum [Conceptual Art and its Postponed Audience]” in Denisa Kujelová (ed.) ČS KONCEPT 70. let [Czechoslovak Conceptual Art of the 1970s] (Brno: Fait Gallery, 2021); editor of Subjective Histories. Self-historicisation as Artistic Practice in Central-East Europe (Bratislava: Veda, 2020); Daniel Grúň, Henry Meyric Hughes, Jean-Marc Poinsot (eds) Tomáš Štrauss. Beyond the Great Divide : Essays on European Avant-gardes from East to West (Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2020); “Umjetnik Artifex: Vlado Martek and the Transmutation of Poetry” in Alenka Gregorič, Ksenija Orelj (eds.), Vlado Martek: this Book is better than ideal (Ljubljana: Muzej in galerije mesta Ljubljana, 2020).
Henry Meyric Hughes, Hon. President of the International Association of Art Critics (Paris), is a curator and writer on modern and contemporary art in Europe. He was British commissioner for the Venice Biennale (1986-92), and founding Chair of Manifesta (1993-2007) and the International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC) (Shanghai and London, 2014- ). He co-curated the XXX Council of Europe exhibition, Critique and Crisis/The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945 (Berlin, Tallinn, Milan and tour, 2012-15). He contributed a chapter to the special issue of British Art Studies, ‘British Sculpture Abroad 1945-2000’ (London and Yale, July 2016). He is co-editor (with Jean-Marc Poinsot and Daniel Grúň) of Tomáš Štrauss and two other books in the AICA series, Art Critics of the World.
Klara Kemp-Welch is Reader in 20th Century Modernism at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she teaches the art history of the Cold War, Eastern Europe and Latin America. She is author of Antipolitics in Central European Art. Reticence as Dissidence Under Post-Totalitarian Rule 1956-1989 (London: IB Tauris, 2014); Networking the Bloc. Experimental Art in Eastern Europe 1968-1981 (Cambridge Massacusetts and London, England, The MIT Press, 2019). She is currently working on a monograph on contemporary art, mobility and migration in the EU.
The event was organised by Klara Kemp-Welch (Courtauld Institute of Art), with the support of AICA-UK.
Photograph credit: Olli Rantaseppä
Taava Koskinen, a long-standing figure in Finnish art criticism and a visionary proponent of contemporary art, has passed away. Koskinen died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 9 March 2022 after sustaining a serious fall. She was 56 years old.
Taava Koskinen wrote thus about her own career: “Koskinen went to Germany as an exchange student at age 17 - and went on to work in Austria, Sweden, and England. Her English-language contacts and international positions lead her to live in Barbados in the Caribbean for some ten years. These experiences molded her as a journalist and art critic, and made her consider various cultural peripheries, which she still calls home. She hopes to continue conveying her values of internationality and individual vision with her colleagues from a variety of different locales and spheres of experience.”
The international connections referenced in the above description especially involve the community fostered by the AICA (International Association of Art Critics), and the global critical discourse in general, which was close to her heart. Her passion for critical communication helped her nurture a dazzlingly varied life and career. She had a passionate and insightful voice, and created writing that conjured highly enjoyable textual worlds, an inspiring teacher, and an enthusiastic researcher. For me, she was primarily a critic who always employed her great interest in the phenomena of art and culture in her own ironic but warm manner. Koskinen was involved in a wide range of projects and contexts, and she had a stunning ability to convey new topics and movements, even as they were only just emerging onto the scene.
Koskinen’s talents involved registering significant new breakthroughs as well as pondering the concept of the publication threshold, and all related subjects. A prime example of this is her final publication with the Critics’ News, which explores the work of abstract art pioneer Hilma af Klint (1862–1944). Koskinen writes in her column on her conflict with a certain Finnish magazine: “I would have liked to write an essay on Swedish artist Hilma af Klint, the first abstract artist in the Western artistic tradition, whose oeuvre has seen a resurgence around the world in recent times. The editors considered the text too ‘difficult’ and ‘unsuitable’ for their magazine. When I asked about upcoming articles, they spoke of subjects such as coffee and menstruation.”
Koskinen found many of her numerous interests at points in time when they existed in the margins of culture. Her collaboration with Artists’ Association MUU resulted in the publication Kurtisaaneista kunnian naisiin (“From courtesans to honorable women”, 1998) and a long-prepared essay series on the subject of artistic genius saw the light of day in 2006 as Kirjoituksia neroudesta — myytit, kultit, persoonat (“Writings on genius — myths, cults, personalities”). Her PhD addressing the same topic unfortunately never materialized. The critical analysis of the concept of genius, post-colonialist approaches, and ponderings on feminist theories and practices were mainstays of Koskinen’s work. Especially these critical contexts offered her the possibility to draw upon her broad-ranging sophistication and incredible linguistic ability. Koskinen was international in several senses, because she acted as a link between different regions and modes of discussion.
I highly respected her capacity to verbalize issues in an elegantly approachable way, simultaneously with a sharp critical intelligence, and the way she was able to approach subjects from multiple vantage points. She used irony in its most nuanced forms, combining critical analysis with emotional compassion. Koskinen’s comments were sometimes piercingly biting, but I never found her to be unkind on purpose. Rather, clouded thinking and clumsy argumentation counted among her interests, which she was able to tackle without any moralizing tone. She possessed enough of a capacity to distinguish between differences of opinion and outright quarrelling. In this sense she paved the way toward dismantling the monolithic nature of art discourse in favor of true polyphony.
Taava Koskinen was a very public critic who utilized herself as her own instrument and engaged fully when partaking in cultural discussions. Indeed, Koskinen problematized the public personas of critics thus: “To what extent do critics bring themselves out or bare themselves as text-producing subjects? Or does the critic as a persona leave themselves out, behind the phenomenon they are addressing? How do writers appear to comprehend their own roles and positions?” Koskinen’s given name, Taava, is rare and caused some confusion among her peers; many were surprised when she turned out not to be male.
I now notice, after the fact, that I associate Taava Koskinen with characters created by the American author Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), as the characters in Williams’ plays are often at peace with themselves and their origins. But on the other hand, they often exude a certain fragility and ambivalence, which seem to oppose all attempts at categorization. Koskinen was steadfast in her perception of various customs and their motivations, but there was also something fragile and transient in her projected being. Perhaps she had to deal with inner demons together with her resounding talent, though I never discussed such potential turmoil with her myself.
In any case, for me it is most important to recall Taava Koskinen’s warm sense of presence. Her writings are sure to live on, because they all include a vivacious relationship with the world and with art. Personally, I find this world to be impoverished by her absence, and my sorrow is redoubled by the knowledge that I will never again answer my ringing phone to hear her happy introduction, “It’s Taava here, hello-oo!”
Juha-Heikki Tihinen, professor, curator, and art critic.
Translated by Kasper Salonen.
I met Tineke in Henry Meyric-Hughes mandate as president of AICA International and had the opportunity to work together with her in the Fellowship and Award Committee, created by her suggestion, at that time, with the purpose of supporting colleagues from less privileged regions in the world and facilitate their affiliation and participation in AICA International activities.
I was able to witness the implementation of the prizes that were adopted by the Committee and by AICA Int.– The Young Critic Incentive Prize, first attributed in the occasion of the Zurich Congress, in 2010, being the candidates invited to analyze one of the important exhibitions with international repercussion ( the winner was Alessandra Simões from ABCA – AICA Brazil) and then, the award at the Paraguay Congress, which winner was Frank Hermann Ekra, from Ivory Coast.
Her wisdom to lead difficult subjects in the Board and General Assembly meetings was her personal and professional characteristic, which made her stand out in AICA´s events. Being apart for some time, I was touched by her presence in the first Board meeting I´ve coordinated as president of our Association.
Tineke Reijnders was a good fellow of all of us, a good friend, and she shall be missed. AICA International grieves her passing.
For AICA’s tribute to her,besides the Netherlands’ Section, I invited Henry Meyric- Hughes, Adriana Almada and Yacouba Konate, who worked close to her, to pay a homage to her memory.
Lisbeth Rebollo Gonçalves
TRAVERSES a pour objet de soutenir la production, la publication et la diffusion d’un essai critique portant sur une actualité internationale dans le domaine de l’art contemporain.
Ce dispositif signifie l’originalité de tous ces sentiers qui appartiennent au domaine du sensible et qui relient l’art visuel à l’écrit. Il propose un chemin de traverse pour arriver plus vite depuis la création à la publication et à la diffusion de l’écriture critique.
Le jury du 22 février 2022 a attribué l’aide financière TRAVERSES à Marjolaine LEVY pour son projet « Pour une autre histoire de l’abstraction à la lumière de la modernité artistique du monde arabe ».
Marjolaine Lévy est la septième lauréate de l’aide à l’écriture et à la publication d’un essai critique, mise en place en 2015.
Afin de soutenir la production intellectuelle innovante et engagée dans le domaine de la critique d’art, cette aide permet à de jeunes auteurs, français ou vivant en France depuis au moins cinq ans, arrivés à un stade de première reconnaissance professionnelle, de visiter une ou plusieurs manifestations dans le champ de l’art contemporain à l’étranger, de publier et de diffuser l’essai critique qui résultera de ce voyage.
Marjolaine Lévy est docteure en histoire de l’art contemporain de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), critique d’art et professeure d’histoire de l’art à l’Ecole nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) et à l’Ecole européenne supérieure d’art (EESAB-Site de Rennes). Elle est l’autrice, parmi d’autres essais et catalogues d’exposition, de Les Modernologues (Mamco, 2017) et a dirigé l’ouvrage 20 ans d’art en France : une histoire sinon rien (Flammarion, 2018), vaste panorama de la scène artistique hexagonale de 1999 à aujourd’hui. Elle collabore régulièrement aux Cahiers du musée national d’Art moderne et à la revue Interwoven. On lui doit les expositions Des mots et des choses au FRAC Bretagne (2019), l’exposition itinérante dans les instituts français de Berlin, Brême et Munich 26 x Bauhaus (2019) et Histoires d’abstraction : le cauchemar de Greenberg à la Fondation Pernod Ricard (Paris). Elle travaille actuellement à une exposition sur le formalisme dans le paysage artistique contemporain.
Le projet de Marjolaine Lévy, intitulé « Pour une autre histoire de l’abstraction à la lumière de la modernité artistique du monde arabe », a pour ambition de s’appuyer sur l’actualité de l’exposition Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s (Ithaca, NY), de la rétrospective Tête-à-tête : Huguette Caland(Wiels, Bruxelles) et du récent accrochage du Mathaf (Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha) consacré à l’abstraction arabe. Dans un contexte artistique qui ne cesse, à juste titre, d’interroger les axiomes occidentalo-centrés et genrés de l’histoire de l’art, de quelle manière ces expositions offrent-elles ou n’offrent-elles pas une lecture inédite de cette abstraction récemment redécouverte ? Qu’est-ce que l’abstraction du monde arabe apporte à l’abstraction occidentale telle que nous la connaissons ? Comment figuration et abstraction se rejouent-elles dans l’abstraction arabe ? Quels rapports l’abstraction entretient-elle au langage à des fins non signifiantes ? La périodisation dans l’histoire de l’abstraction serait-elle remise en question dans ces expositions récentes ? De quelle manière un musée américain interroge-t-il l’abstraction arabe comparativement à un musée d’art moderne au Qatar ? Quelle place accorde-t-on aux artistes femmes dans les deux institutions ? Autant de questions auxquelles il s’agira de répondre par une plongée approfondie dans la logique théorique, curatoriale et scénographique des trois expositions. Cet essai tentera d’ouvrir d’autres voies réflexives sur l’abstraction moderne et contemporaine du monde arabe, à travers l’étude et l’analyse d’une actualité résolument inédite dans l’histoire des expositions consacrées à l’abstraction.
Le texte de Marjolaine Lévy sera publié en français et en anglais dans la rubrique « Essai/Essay » au sommaire du n°59 de la revue CRITIQUE D’ART : actualité de la littérature critique sur l’art contemporain = The International Review of Contemporary Art Criticism [automne/hiver 2022].
Aide attribuée par un jury composé d’historiens de l’art, de commissaires d’exposition, de critiques d’art membres de l’AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art), de représentants de l’Institut français et des Archives de la critique d’art.
Lire le rapport du jury sur www.archivesdelacritiquedart.org
Louise Abomba Houngue, conceptrice de la web émission Art sous le manguier (Cameroun)
Nakana Diakité, critique d’art et commissaire d’exposition (Mali)
Mimi Errol, critique d’art et journaliste (Côte d’Ivoire)
Babacar Mbaye Diop, critique d’art (Sénégal)
Discussion modérée par Julie Diabira, critique d’art et commissaire d’exposition
Louise Abomba Houngue
Passionnée d’art et de culture, elle s’affirme comme art-activiste.
Elle donne vie à un web documentaire nommé Art sous le manguier qui a pour ambition de collecter les expériences esthétiques, instructives et inspirantes des artistes contemporains afin de créer des références.
Elle est également active dans la promotion de la littérature à travers Lecture chantée, qui a pour ambition de rendre la lecture ludique, en alliant musique et lecture. Un micro, des livres, un lecteur et un orchestre (guitare, basse, saxophone, percussions et balafon) toujours accompagné par un instrument traditionnel pour éduquer aux sonorités de nos instruments tout en développant chez le lecteur la confiance en soi et la diction dans une ambiance chaleureuse et conviviale.
NAKHANA DIAKITE
Fondatrice du Cabinet de conseil NAKHANA-D FINE-ART, Nakhana Kadiatou Diakite Prats est consultante en ingénierie culturelle, curatrice indépendante spécialisée en art contemporain et en iconographie africaine.
Elle intervient à l’Ecole des Arts et de la Culture (Groupe EAC- Marché de l’Art, Culture et Luxe - Paris, Lyon, Shanghaï), à l’ IKAM( Institut Korè des Arts et Métiers- Segou - Mali) à l'Université d’Art et de Design de Kyoto Seika (Osaka - Japon). Auteure de plusieurs articles dont L’Afrique, la ruée vers l’art, bulle ou boom ; Learning from Timbuctu; Aux arts citoyens, Regards croisés de collectionneurs (Telling Africa PAC Milan), Visages de femmes et autres, Sénégal 1975.
L’apport de l’art dans le dialogue interculturel, l’expérience africaine, la pédagogie autour de la transmission et la valorisation du patrimoine matériel et immatériel du continent Africain, constitue ses domaines de prédilection.
BABACAR MBAYE DIOP
Docteur en philosophie de l’université de Rouen, sa thèse soutenue en 2008 s’intitule Analyse et critique des différents discours sur les arts plastiques de l’Afrique noire ; approches historiques, ethno-anthropologiques et philosophiques.
Il est enseignant-chercheur en Esthétique, Philosophie de l'Art et de la Culture à l'université Cheikh-Anta-Diop de Dakar. Il est l'auteur de nombreux articles et ouvrages sur l'art africain. Ancien président de la section sénégalaise de l'Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art (AICA), il est également commissaire d'exposition indépendant.
Babacar Mbaye Diop est fondateur et co-rédacteur en chef de Fikira-Revue africaine.
MIMI ERROL
Mimim Errol est journaliste, critique d’art et commissaire d’exposition basé à Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Il contribue régulièrement au journal L’Aurore ou au magazine Africultures. Il publie notamment : L’art contemporain en Côte d’Ivoire : des origines à l’aventure vohou-vohou en 2003.
En 2020 il assure le commissariat de l’exposition Yakomin ou le songe d’un soir à galerie Houkami Guyzagn, située dans la commune de Cocody, à Abidjan. L’exposition met en avant une nouvelle génération d’artistes ivoiriens.
Modération de Julie Diabira
En 2011, elle s’installe à Bamako où elle poursuit ses recherches sur la création contemporaine en Afrique de l’ouest, initiées lors de son projet de diplôme. Elle est coordinatrice du journal des rencontres-blog et anime le comité de rédaction des journalistes africains invités pour la Biennale de la photographie. En 2013, à Abidjan, elle rejoint la galerie Cécile Fakhoury et travaille à son développement pendant quatre ans.
De retour en France en 2018, elle écrit et collabore avec des artistes et participe à des programmes de tutorat pour la professionnalisation d’artistes. Consultante indépendante elle accompagne et conseille des collectionneurs en France et à l’étranger.
Depuis 2020 elle développe des projets de recherche, d’exposition, d’édition et des parcours de résidence au long cours avec la mine, cofondée avec le commissaire d’exposition Francis Corabœuf.
Les Webinaires AICA-UNESCO sont organisés par :
Ramon Tio Bellido, Chargé du projet « Afrique » pour l’AICA International
Sonia Recasens, assistante administrative de l’AICA International
Simone Guirandou, Présidente de l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire et Martine Ducoulombier, vice-présidente
Comité scientifique : Ruth Belinga, artiste, historienne de l’art (Cameroun); Fatoumata Diabaté, artiste (Mali); Nadine Hounkpatin, éditrice et commissaire d’exposition (Paris); Jhonel, fondateur du festival Goni (Niger).
Pour participer à ce webinaire, merci de vous inscrire en adressant un courriel, jusqu’au 23 mars à aicainternational.webinar@gmail.com
Vous recevrez le jour J le lien zoom.
Babacar Mbaye Diop, critique d’art (Sénégal) en attente de confirmation
Louise Abomba, conceptrice de la web émission Art sous le manguier (Cameroun)
Nakana Diakité, critique d’art et commissaire d’exposition (Mali)
Mimi Errol, critique d’art et journaliste (Côte d’Ivoire)
Discussion modérée par Julie Diabira, critique d’art et commissaire d’exposition
Ces rencontres, organisées par l’AICA International et l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire, s’inscrivent dans les directives proposées par le Programme de Participation 2020/2021 de l’UNESCO, axées sur « L’Afrique et l’égalité des genres ».
Après un premier séminaire organisé à Rabat les 22 et 23 septembre 2021 sur la situation des femmes et de l’art dans le Maghreb, cet événement, sous forme de Webinaire, constitue le deuxième volet du projet global présenté par l’AICA International à l’UNESCO, axé prioritairement sur les régions francophones de l’Afrique.
Les Webinaires AICA-UNESCO sont organisés par :
Ramon Tio Bellido, Chargé du projet « Afrique » pour l’AICA International
Sonia Recasens, assistante administrative de l’AICA International
Simone Guirandou, Présidente de l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire et Martine Ducoulombier, vice-présidente
Comité scientifique : Ruth Belinga, artiste, historienne de l’art (Cameroun); Fatoumata Diabaté, artiste (Mali); Nadine Hounkpatin, éditrice et commissaire d’exposition (Paris); Jhonel, fondateur du festival Goni (Niger).
Pour participer à ce webinaire, merci de vous inscrire en adressant un courriel, jusqu’au 23 mars à aicainternational.webinar@gmail.com
Vous recevrez le jour J le lien zoom.
10–12 March 2022
ONLINE on Google Meet, in English and Croatian meet.google.com/cay-kjwc-zsp
Niko Mihaljević. Vladimir Jakolić, photo from the Exhibition of Women and Men, June 26, 1969, Student Centre Gallery, Zagreb. Fine Arts Archives of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Inv. No.: SC-46/F1
CO-ORGANIZERS
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split and Croatian Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA Croatia)
KEYNOTE LECTURERS
Ana Dević (WHW/What, How & for Whom), Professor James Elkins, PhD (Art Institute of Chicago), Professor Lev Manovich, PhD (The Graduate Center, City University of New York/Cultural Analytics Lab), Damir Gamulin and Antun Sevšek, Ivana Bago, PhD, Associate Professor Miriam De Rosa, PhD (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice) and Associate Professor Beti Žerovc, PhD (Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Professor Marina Gržinić, PhD, from the Institute of Philosophy ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana; Associate Professor Asja Mandić, PhD, from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Sarajevo; Assistant Professor Neli Ružić from the Arts Academy of the University of Split; alongside Assistant Professor Silva Kalčić, PhD, from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Split, President of AICA Croatia
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ASSISTANTS
Miona Muštra and Anđelko Mihanović, PhD, former attendees of the art criticism workshop “Writing on Contemporary Art” in Zagreb and Split.
The aim of this conference is to present, examine and contextualise curatorial practices in contemporary art more comprehensively the for the first time in Croatian art history. It is important to note that the history of curatorial practices is a relatively little studied area in Croatian art history, while it is increasingly present at the international level. Our objective with this conference is to address this important subject at the crossroads of art criticism, theory and practice. There has been an increasing interest in exhibition history and contextualisation of curatorial practices in art-historical research. While we can trace back exhibition history in the modern sense of a universal right to publicness to the revolutionary turmoils of the late 18th century, it was the avant-garde tendencies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that gave the history of exhibition practices a new dimension, paving the way for innovative methods, participation and the questioning of existing institutional policies, contextual frameworks and models of presentation. The emergence of neo-avantgarde and the institutional critique of the 1950s and 1960s destabilised the conventional meanings and institutional positions of artists, artworks, curators and audiences, which led to a more active role of curators in mediating new artistic expressions, but also to a radical questioning of their own position. Curators became increasingly active in the creation of meaning, assuming more and more often, with their gestures or texts, the role of meta-artists, especially in the domain of conceptual art. Redefining the position of the curator-author has increasingly come into focus since the emergence of conceptual/neo-avantgarde tendencies in art.
AICA International (International Association of Art Critics) expresses deep sadness at the news of current military actions against Ukraine, ordered by the leadership of the Russian Federation and condemns all acts of military violence.
AICA International expresses solidarity with all the people affected by this conflict and strongly appreciates all actions undertaken so far by our members engaged in humanitarian help.
AICA International summons the parties involved with the war to respect civilians and to preserve cultural heritage, as a global patrimony and an irreplaceable treasure for the local culture and identity.
AICA International stands with our affected members, colleagues, and their loved ones in Ukraine and appeals to art critics and artists as well as all cultural workers and institutions all over the world to contribute to the UNHCR, to help civilian casualties and the refugees in the region.
It is time to show our solidarity and humanitarian assistance to support public and private actors in the cultural sector of Ukraine. It is a joint responsibility to cease all forms of support and cooperation with the Moscow regime and Russian state institutions, and not to accept the presence of Russian representation at international art events.
Meanwhile we will share the collective letter from our colleagues from AICA Russia who also condemn the invasion in Ukraine and express openly their position against it.
AICA International is strongly for peace and for global art institutions to engage all possible humanitarian assistance for war victims and encourages a common worldwide effort towards harmonious international collaboration.
AICA Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia
AICA Germany - Statement against the war | Letter to AICA Ukraine
AICA Italy - Letter to AICA Ukraine | Letter to AICA Russia
Eighteen thousand people including Russian workers of culture and art – artists, curators, architects, critics, art historians, art managers – have signed an open letter against the war with Ukraine.
La Asociación Española de Críticos de Arte AICA Spain / AECA, sección española de la Asociación Internacional de Críticos de Arte (AICA), ha fallado los premios que concede anualmente, desde 1995, con motivo de la Feria de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid, ARCO. En esta 41a edición de ARCO y 27a de convocatoria de los prestigiosos galardones AICA Spain / AECA, los premiados han sido:
Mejor galería: Max Estrella.
La galería Max Estrella abrió sus puertas un año antes de que se concedieran los
primeros premios AICA Spain / AECA en ARCO, hace ya 27 años. La galería ha ido consolidándose con el tiempo como una de las más importantes de España. Su apuesta por artistas jóvenes de gran calidad ha sido una de las razones por las que ha conseguido ser considerada por la crítica como la mejor galería en ARCO 2022.
Mejor obra o conjunto realizado por un artista internacional vivo: Diana Fonseca. Graduada en el Instituto Superior de Arte, es un de las artistas cubanas más interesantes y gestuales. Con un amplio bagaje de exposiciones en París, Nueva York, Londres, Los Ángeles o La Habana, y reconocimientos a su trabajo con premios EFG Bank Art Nexus (Bogotá, Colombia), residencia Cast Research(Melbourne, Australia y JustMad 2017 (Asturias, España).Diana Fonseca se dio a conocer en ARCO hace unos años con sus cuadros realizados con fragmentos de fachadas de la Habana, en su momento señoriales y hoy arruinados.
Mejor obra o conjunto realizado por un artista nacional vivo: Pamen Pereira.
Pamen Pereira, natural de Ferrol, se mueve entre el dibujo, la pintura, la escultura, la instalación y, en ocasiones, la fotografía, el vídeo o cualquier otro medio o materia útil para concretar su acto creativo. Su proceso de creación, fundido con la experiencia vital, está muy vinculado a la naturaleza, de donde extrae gran parte de sus imágenes. En los últimos años se ha centrado en instalaciones e intervenciones artísticas site specific para espacios públicos y privados que profundizan en el carácter social del arte, el papel del artista en la sociedad y la importante función social de la imagen poética.
In 1981 a large exhibition opened in the trade fair center in Cologne under the title Westkunst. Zeitgenössische Kunst seit 1939 (Western Art. Contemporary Art Since 1939). Organized by art critic Laszlo Glozer and curator Kasper König, the show was composed of twelve historical sections and a contemporary one entitled Heute (Today). Along with the 700–800 artworks and archival material, the exhibits included reproductions of exhibition presentations and artist studios, and nine films specially created for the event. Overall, the Western-centric survey highlighted the avant-garde and politically charged themes of “freedom” and “individual expression.” From the organizers’ perspective, the collection of historical works represented a “second wave of modernism” that they considered to have been active through World War II and continued until 1968. According to the exhibition’s thesis, the displayed works derived a lasting contemporaneity from modernism’s “unrealized” potential. In a visual and spatial representation appropriate to this ambitious historiographic concept, the architect Oswald Ungers attempted to demonstrate that modernism had contemporary characteristics. His concept was based on the choreographic possibilities offered by the exhibition format to emphasize – in addition to diachronic references – the synchronicity of the various artistic positions and trends of the period in question. The public was thus invited to experience the idea advanced by the curators, a discourse that was reinforced by the emphasis placed on the material presence of the iconic works.
Caught in the Cold War perspective, the press coverage at the time failed to question how the exhibition naturalized modernism as an ongoing project of the West. However, some critics, among them Thomas Strauss, pointed out an effect that today we would call “othering”: the title “Westkunst” evoked the concept of “Ostkunst” (Eastern art) by analogy. In general, in the exhibition’s reception the press tended to emphasize the blatant exclusions, many of which were market-driven. The overview offered by the exhibition took neither works by women artists nor committed positions of the 1970s adequately into account, which led to public protests, including those of Klaus Staeck and Ulrike Rosenbach. In the four decades that have passed since the Westkunst exhibition, art-historical research has often advocated a global approach to dispel the idea of the supremacy of Western art. At first, the focus was placed on alternative or marginal currents of modernism. Subsequently, relational and transcultural processes of varying geographic scales were uncovered, thereby undermining assumptions of self-contained art phenomena.
Our workshop proposes to reexamine the Westkunst exhibition in taking this shift in perspective into account. We invite interested scholars to reconsider the Cologne show with a view to its implicit universalism, the analogy it gave rise to, and the exclusions it made. From there, we would like to understand the extent to which way this large exhibition contributed to perpetuate or transform the effective narrative that a certain art history has circulated. In this context, the key element is that Westkunst focused on presenting a “second wave” of Western modernism as “contemporary art.” Addressing this historiographic process in the exhibition format should facilitate an investigation of the effects of Westkunst. To what extent do this exhibition’s narratives implicitly persist in contemporary approaches to the periodization and historicization of 20th-century art? Did the exhibition’s reception already reveal the fields of conflict that arise today by the presentation of an art history of modernism in a global context? A collective reexamination of Westkunst should thus serve to historicize ideas of Western artistic hegemony by focusing on a concrete event and thereby shedding light on the premises of art historiography today.
Full Workshop programme available to download here.
Registration by mail to marnoux@dfk-paris.org and maria.bremer@ruhr-uni-bochum.de.
Presentation of a valid “Vaccination Pass” with QR code requested at the entrance.
Simone Guirandou, fondatrice de la Galerie Simone Guirandou (Côte d'Ivoire)
Cécile Fakhoury, fondatrice de la Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Côte d’Ivoire)
Hama Goro, directeur du Centre Soleil d'Afrique (Mali) Jhonel (Hamani Kassoum Himou), fondateur du festival Goni (Niger)
Discussion modérée par Cécile Bourne-Farrel, critique d’art et commissaire d’exposition
Ces rencontres, organisées par l’AICA International et l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire, s’inscrivent dans les directives proposées par le Programme de Participation 2020/2021 de l’UNESCO, axées sur « L’Afrique et l’égalité des genres ».
Après un premier séminaire organisé à Rabat les 22 et 23 septembre 2021 sur la situation des femmes et de l’art dans le Maghreb, cet événement, sous forme de Webinaire, constitue le deuxième volet du projet global présenté par l’AICA International à l’UNESCO, axé prioritairement sur les régions francophones de l’Afrique.
Les Webinaires AICA-UNESCO sont organisés par :
Ramon Tio Bellido, Chargé du projet « Afrique » pour l’AICA International
Sonia Recasens, assistante administrative de l’AICA International
Simone Guirandou, Présidente de l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire et Martine Ducoulombier, vice-présidente
Comité scientifique : Ruth Belinga, artiste, historienne de l’art (Cameroun) ; Fatoumata Diabaté, artiste (Mali) ; Nadine Hounkpatin, éditrice et commissaire d’exposition (Paris) ; Jhonel, fondateur du festival Goni (Niger).
Pour participer à ce webinaire, merci de vous inscrire en adressant un courriel, jusqu’au 23 février à aicainternational.webinar@gmail.com
Vous recevrez le jour J le lien zoom.
Niilo-Liisa Rastas, correspondant of art criticism. Photo: Jouko Vatanen
The Shine on Critique! project is looking for applicants for five residencies in Finland. The residencies are aimed at art critics. The application period is open until the 6th of March 2022.
The critics’ residencies have been set up close to art events related to five different fields: literature, visual arts, theatre, film, and music. The residencies last about a week. They are intended to promote the networking of critics and to support their professional skills.
You can apply for a residency if you are a critic or art journalist. The project will reserve and pay for the chosen critics’ accommodation. Residents must reserve the travel tickets to their destination themselves with funding received from the project. In addition to travel and accommodation costs, the project offers a residency grant of 400 euros. Applicants from the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Russia will be prioritizated.
The resident is expected to attend the destination event. The program may also include informal meetings or colloquies. The program for each residency will be worked out with the chosen critic, but there will also be free time for the residents to get acquainted with their destination as well as for independent work. Every chosen critic is expected to write an entry for the project’s blog. It is not required that the critic writes about the exhibitions or performances experienced in connection with the residency in any other media.
Literature
8.-15.5.2022, Helsinki. The critic will attend the Helsinki Lit literature event between the 13th and 14th of May 2022. The resident may work independently. Information about the festival: https://helsinki-lit.fi/fi/helsinki-lit/
Film
13.-20.6.2022, Sodankylä. The critic will attend the Sodankylä Film Festival between the 15th and 19th of June 2022. The program will be agreed on with the festival. The travel dates for this residence are not final; they will be settled with the critic depending on their origin of departure. https://msfilmfestival.fi/uutiset/37-sodankylan-elokuvajuhlat-15-19-6-2022/
Music
24.7.-1.8.2022, Hailuoto. The critic will attend the Hailuoto Music Festival. The program of the festival includes, among other things, classical and folk music. https://hailuodonmusiikkipaivat.fi/
Theatre
1.-8.8.2022, Tampere. The critic will attend the Tampere Theatre Festival. The festival program will be announced in May. https://www.teatterikesa.fi/en/
Visual arts
19.-27.8.2022, Helsinki. The critic will get acquainted with the offerings of Helsinki’s visual arts scene, especially the museum of contemporary art Kiasma’s Ars 22 exhibition and its accompanying program. https://kiasma.fi/en/exhibitions/ars22/
You can apply for a residency by sending a motivation letter and CV by e-mail to the Shine on Critique! project by the 6th of March 2022.
The free-form motivation letter can be anywhere from 2000 to 5000 characters long. The CV (one page at most) should indicate your specialization as a critic and the length of your career. Please also include your contact information in the application. Both the cover letter and the CV must be in English.
Both documents are to be sent in PDF format as email attachments to residency@sarv.fi.
Any possible inquiries should be directed to Project Coordinator Maaria Ylikangas: maaria.ylikangas@sarv.fi or by phone +358 45 320 1373 (on-call for inquiries related to the residencies on the 16th of February 2022 between 12 and 15 EET and on the 23rd of February 2022 between 12 and 15 EET).
Those chosen for residencies will be notified by the 25th of March 2022.
Please note that due to the prevailing pandemic, events or travel may be restricted. Please keep up to date with guidelines when travelling and attending events. Shine on Critique! reserves the right to reorganise residencies as necessary.
In collaboration with the Finnish Critics’ Association and the Kone Foundation.
Shine On Critique! highlights the importance of art criticism, nurtures its diverse forms, and brings it closer to both those who write it and those who read it. The three-year project makes criticism an approachable and exciting space for exchanging ideas. Shine On Critique! is carried out by the Finnish Critics’ Association and funded by the Kone Foundation.
Introduction de Madame Simone Guirandou, Présidente de l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire
Madame Lisbeth Rebello Gonçalves, Présidente de l’AICA International, Pr Yacouba Konaté, Président d’honneur de l’AICA International, M. Ramon Tio Bellido, Chargé du projet Afrique pour l’AICA International, Mesdames et Messieurs.
J’ai l’agréable mission de vous dire combien nous sommes honorés de votre présence aujourd’hui. En mon nom personnel, au nom des membres de l’AICA-CI et du Comité d’organisation, nous vous souhaitons la bienvenue en Côte d’Ivoire par la magie de la technologie.
Le thème de ce colloque : "la Femme et l’art dans l’Afrique francophone" évoque à la fois le statut de la femme en Afrique traditionnelle et son émancipation à travers l’expression artistique.
Placée selon la tradition, sous l’autorité paternelle, la femme à l’âge adulte, sera placée sous celle de son époux, ses principales activités essentiellement domestiques la cantonnant dans son foyer. Pour combler son ennui et la monotonie de son existence, les tatouages au henné, la broderie, la couture lui servent d’échappatoire. L’évolution du monde lui permettra d’accéder à la création grâce à une femme justement.
En effet, d’après les Anciens, la première idée de la peinture est attribuée à "la fille d’un potier, une servante corinthienne amoureuse, qui en suivant l’ombre projetée par la lumière d’une torche, aurait dessiné sur un mur le profil de son amant avant qu’il ne la quitte. Ainsi donc naissait la première tentative de la peinture. "(1)
Il est dit également qu’en Inde "depuis trois mille ans, les femmes de Mithila, et seulement les femmes, exécutaient les peintures vouées aux Dieux et Déesses du Panthéon Indou. Considérée comme une prière attirant la faveur des Dieux, et contrairement à l’Afrique, la peinture fait partie de l’éducation des petites filles et des femmes. "(2)
Si l’on ajoute à ces deux exemples l’histoire du musée, au départ, temple dédié aux muses, divinités des arts chez les Grecs, on se laisse convaincre de l’importance de la Femme dans l’art.
Rien de surprenant alors que des siècles plus tard, ce secteur soit occupé en majorité par les femmes en Afrique, stimulées par le vent de la liberté à l’heure des Indépendances. En 1960, le Président Sénégalais Léopold Sédar Senghor avait placé la culture au cœur du développement, dès lors, le Sénégal se démarque et devient le pays phare de la culture en Afrique de l’Ouest avec le Premier festival des Arts Nègres en 1966. La voie est ainsi ouverte pour la femme désirant embrasser la carrière artistique à condition d’être affranchie des interdits familiaux et traditionnels qui voient mal lafemme, disputer un domaine supposé peu valorisant pour elle, et de surcroit réservé aux hommes.
Grâce à l’éducation, la femme Africaine dispose désormais de son temps et s’implique dans les domaines de son choix. A Dakar comme à Abidjan, et ailleurs sur le Continent, elles sont autant dans la pratique que dans la promotion de l’art contemporain. C’est le cas de la plasticienne Sénégalaise Anta Germaine Gaye, professeur d’éducation artistique qui, ayant à cœur la formation esthétique des enfants, leur consacre des ateliers de peinture afin, dit-elle de "les initier à l’esthétique." (3)
Les femmes entendent contre balancer le poids des hommes aux postes de photographe, de critique d’art, de cinéaste, de designer. Signalons en passant que la Côte d’Ivoire enregistre sa première lauréate en Design, Valerie Oka, à la Biennale de Dakar en 1998. A la même époque, se faisaient connaître de talentueuses photographes parmi lesquelles: Edith Taho, Rachèle Babehi, Hien Macline et Johana Choumali.
Le secteur où l’on retrouve la Femme est celui de galeriste, directrice de musée ou de fondation. En Côte d’Ivoire, le Musée des Civilisations et le MUCAT sont dirigés par des femmes, comme le sont certaines fondations comme BJKD Hampaté Ba et Donwahi.
Le premier événement artistique d’envergure en Côte d’Ivore, Les Grafolies ont été initiées par une femme en 1993, la Ministre de la culture d’alors, le Professeur Henriette Dagri Diabaté. Ce fut un festival des Arts et de la Culture qui a réuni plusieurs artistes plasticiens du Continent à Abidjan. Le Masa (Marché de l’art et du spectacle est également une initiative de Madame la Ministre Diabaté.
Courageuses et volontaires, la présence des femmes dans la promotion de l’art et de la culture est devenue la norme. Les pouvoirs publics africains ont un rôle primordial à jouer dans l’émancipation de la jeune fille et dans son accession à un besoin fondamental qui est la connaissance. Il apparait indispensable d’accorder un soutien à la création et à l’économie du secteur de l’art. Le respect du génie créatif de la femme le réclame.
Mesdames et Messieurs, je vous remercie pour votre aimable attention.
Simone Guirandou, Présidente de l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire
(1) Peinture et couleur dans le monde grec antique
(2) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peinture_de_Madhubani
(3) https://journals.openedition.org/clio//648
Dear colleagues,
AICA’s Committee on Censorship and Freedom of Expression has compiled a listing of dozens of incidents over the last five years in which freedom of expression has been curtailed or diminished in Poland for political motives. These include cancellation of exhibitions, removal of works from exhibition, withdrawal of funding, harassment by the police, persecution by means of the judiciary (lawfare) and, last but certainly not least, outright censorship. A report documenting some of the most egregious violations of the right to freedom of expression is available here.
In many cases, censorship or cancellation has been premised on the grounds that a work offends religious feeling or disrespects national symbols. While each violation is disquieting in itself, the sum of these attacks on artists and their works constitutes a pattern of outright assault on freedom of expression. What we are witnessing is the systematic persecution of dissenting voices and minority viewpoints under the guise of patriotism, religion and family values. Public officials and cultural administrators seem keen to vie with each other to see who is quickest to enforce the ideology of the ruling PiS (Law and Justice) party. The result is a preemptive culture of censorship and self-censorship that defies European laws and disregards universal values.
As an organization dedicated to artistic freedom and the welfare of art and artists, AICA International calls on the European Commission to take action against the continuous violation by the present Polish government of the right to freedom of expression – guaranteed by article 11 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is inadmissible that a member state of the European Union should abet and enable a political climate in which artistic freedom is trampled underfoot by the censoriousness of bureaucrats, large and small.
On behalf of AICA,
Lisbeth Rebollo GONÇALVES | President of AICA
Rafael Cardoso | Chair of Censorhip Committee
Prof. Dr. Günsel Renda completed her undergraduate and graduate education in art history in Columbia and Washington Universities in the USA. She served as a faculty member and department chair in the Art History Department of the same university until 2004. Günsel Renda, who has been a faculty member at Koç University Archaeology and Art History Department since 2004, served as a ministerial advisor at the Ministry of Culture and a member of the IRCICA board of directors, and lectured on Ottoman painting as a visiting professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes à la Sorbonne in Paris. She was invited to give conferences to many countries abroad, took part in international research projects, and received various awards. She has been in the organising committee of many international exhibitions such as Women in Anatolia, The Sultan’s Portrait, Image of the Turks in the 17th Century Europe, Portolan and Sea Maps in XIV-XVIII Centuries, Views of Venice and Istanbul through the Centuries, An Eyewitness to the Tulip Period Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, Istanbul The City of Dreams with Selected Works of Art from the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Collection, etc.
She has many articles written in Turkish and foreign languages on Ottoman painting and Europe-Ottoman relations in art, published congress papers, encyclopaedia articles, and books that she is the editor and author of. Some of her works are: Turkish Painting in the Westernisation Period, The Transformation of Culture. The Atatürk Legacy (ed. Renda, Kortepeter) A History of Turkish Painting (Grabar, Renda, Turani, Özsezgin), The Sultan's Portrait.Tesavir-i Al-i-Osman (Necipoğlu, zur-Capellen, Majer, Çağman, Bağcı, Mahir, İrepoğlu, Renda), An Eyewitness to the Tulip Period Jean-Baptiste Vanmour (St. Nicolas, Bull, Renda, İrepoğlu), Minnet av Constantinople. Den osmansk-turkiska 1700-talssamlingen pa Biby (Achlund, Adahl, Brown, Karlsson, Kaberg, Laine, Renda) Ottoman Civilization (ed. İnalcık, Renda), Ottoman Painting Art (Bagcı, Çağman, Renda, Tanındı).
15h : Introduction générale Lisbeth Rebollo Gonçalves, Présidente de l’AICA International Simone Guirandou, Présidente de l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire Salutations de Yacouba Konaté, Président d’Honneur de l’AICA International Présentation de Ramon TioBellido, Chargé du projet
15h30 : Récits d’Artistes – Modération : Nadine Hounkpatin
Valérie Oka, artiste et designer (Côte d'Ivoire)
Edwige Aplogan, artiste plasticienne(Bénin)
Bill Kouelany, artiste plasticienne, fondatrice du centre d’art « Les Ateliers Sahm »(Congo)
Fatoumata Diabaté, artiste photographe, présidente de l’Association « Femmes Photographes du Mali »(Mali)
Amsatou Diallo, artiste photographe, fondatrice de l’Association « Femmes Photographes du Mali »,(Mali)
Ruth Belinga, artiste et directrice d’atelier (Cameroun)
Critique, Institutions et Galeries… - Modération : en attente de confirmation
15h : La critique d’art
Mimi Errol, critique et journaliste(Côte d'Ivoire) (en attente de confirmation) Nakana Diakite, critique d’art et commissaire d’exposition (Mali) Babacar Mbaye Diop, critique d’art (Sénégal) Louise Abomba, conceptrice de la web émission « L’art sous le manguier » (Cameroun)
16h30 : Institutions & Galeries
Simone Guirandou, fondatrice de la Galerie Simone Guirandou (Côte d'Ivoire)
Cécile Fakhoury, fondatrice de la Galerie (Côte d’Ivoire)
Hama Goro, directeur du Centre Soleil d'Afrique (Mali)
Malick Ndiaye, historien de l’art, conservateur du Musée Théodore-Monod d’art africain, au sein de l’université Cheikh-Anta-Diop de Dakar (Sénégal) Jhonel(Hamani Kassoum Himou),fondateur du festival Goni,(Niger)
Ces rencontres, organisées par l’AICA International et l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire, s’inscrivent dans les directives proposées par le Programme de Participation 2020/2021 de l’UNESCO, axées sur « L’Afrique et l’égalité des genres ».
Après un premier séminaire organisé à Rabat les 22 et 23 septembre 2021 sur la situation des femmes et de l’art dans le Maghreb, cet événement, sous forme de Webinaire, constitue le deuxième volet du projet global présenté par l’AICA International à l’UNESCO, axé prioritairement sur les régions francophones de l’Afrique.
Ce Webinaire est réparti en deux après-midis : la première consacrée aux « récits d’artistes » réunira des plasticiennes travaillant dans plusieurs pays de cette région et sera l’occasion de voir leurs travaux et de juger de leurs engagements et de leurs actions. La deuxième présentera tout à la fois des participants répondant à la thématique générale de « la critique d’art », et à celle des « institutions et galeries », c’est-à-dire des acteurs qui, à titre divers, se chargent de l’analyse et de la promotion de l’art et de la culture en privilégiant l’importance et les enjeux des rôles et des fonctions décisionnaires que tiennent nombre de femmes dans cette région de l’Afrique.
L’évènement est organisé par :
Ramon Tio Bellido, Chargé du projet « Afrique » pour l’AICA International, et Sonia Recasens, assistante de l’AICA International
Simone Guirandou, Présidente de l’AICA Côte d’Ivoire et Martine Ducoulombier, vice-présidente
Ruth Belinga, artiste, historienne de l’art (Cameroun) ; Fatoumata Diabaté, artiste (Mali) ; Franck Ekra Hermann, critique d’art (Côte d’Ivoire) ; Nadine Hounkpatin, éditrice et commissaire d’exposition (Paris) ; Jhonel, fondateur du festival Goni (Niger).
Pour participer à ce webinaire, merci de vous inscrire en adressant un courriel, d’ici le 26 janvier à aicainternational.webinar@gmail.com
Vous recevrez le jour J le lien zoom.
Dear colleagues,
We cordially invite you to participate in the conference “EXHIBITIVE CARTOGRAPHIES” with the subtitle “Critical Instrumentation, exhibitive and curatorial narratives,” an international expert scientific and arts conference conducted in English and Croatian, and co-organised by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Split and the Croatian Section of the International Association of Art Critics (HS AICA) from 10 to 12 March 2022. The Conference will be held online on the Google Meet platform, in English and in Croatian.
Visual identity: Niko Mihaljević. Vladimir Jakolić, photograph from the “Exhibition of Women and Men,” 26 June 1969, Student Centre Gallery, Zagreb. Archive of Fine Arts HAZU, Zagreb, inv. no.: SC-46/F1
The lecturers invited are Ivana Bago, PhD, Ana Dević (WHW/What, How & for Whom), Associate Professor Miriam De Rosa, PhD (Università Ca' Foscari, Venice), Professor James Elkins, PhD (Art Institute of Chicago), Professor Lev Manovich, PhD (The Graduate Center, City University of New York/Cultural Analytics Lab), Damir Gamulin and Antun Sevšek, and in 2023, on the occasion of presenting the Proceedings, Associate Professor Beti Žerovc, PhD (Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana).
The Organising Committee of the Conference consists of Professor Marina Gržinić, PhD, from the Institute of Philosophy ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana; Associate Professor Asja Mandić, PhD, from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Sarajevo; Assistant Professor Neli Ružić from the Arts Academy of the University of Split; alongside Assistant Professor Silva Kalčić, PhD, from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Split, President of HS AICA; with Miona Muštra and Anđelko Mihanović, PhD, former attendees of the art critique workshop “Writing on Contemporary Art” in Zagreb and Split.
The Conference will be referring to the workshop “Writing on Contemporary Art,” within which James Elkins – art historian and art critic, Professor in art history, theory and critique at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago – will hold a public lecture on 20 January 2022. Alongside Split, the workshop will also be held in Rijeka, in collaboration with the Museum od Modern and Contemporary Art (MMSU) – Ksenija Orelj, Branka Benčić, and Sabina Salamon – and in Zagreb, in collaboration with the Tomislav Gotovac Institute, Institute for Contemporary Art, and Nova Gallery. The workshop will be led by Silva Kalčić, Ivana Meštrov, and Ksenija Orelj; parts-days of the workshop will be led by David Maljković, Ana Kovačić, and Lea Vene; lectures at the workshop and/or Conference will be held by Janka Vukmir and Tomislav Pavelić, Darko Šimičić and Niko Mihaljević.
The aim of this conference is to present, process and contextualise more comprehensively the curatorial practice in contemporary art for the first time in Croatian art history. It is important to note that the history of curatorial practices is an area that has been relatively poorly studied in the Croatian art-historical context, while it is becoming increasingly present at the international level. With this Conference, our very objective is to address this important subject at the crossroads of art critique, theory, and practice. The interest in exhibition history and contextualisation of curatorial practices is becoming increasingly pronounced in art-historical research. While we can follow exhibition history in the modern sense of the universal right to publicness from the revolutionary turmoil of the late 18th century, the history of exhibitive practices gained a new dimension by the very avantgarde artistic strides from the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, which paved the way to methods of innovativeness, participation, and to questioning of existing institutional policies, contextual frameworks, and models of presentation. The emergence of the neo-avantgarde and of the institutional critique of the 1950s and 1960s destabilised the settled meanings and the institutional positions of artists, artworks, curators and the audience, which led to a more active role of the curator in mediating new artistic expressions, but also to a radical questioning of own position. Curators increasingly actively participate in the creation of meaning, and assume more and more often with their gestures or texts the role of meta-artists, especially in the domain of conceptual art. The redefinition of the position of the curator-author has become increasingly topical since the emergence of conceptual/neo-avantgarde currents in art.
The starting point of the Conference is the curatorial figure of Želimir Koščević, the laureate of the Annual Reward of HS AICA for 2018 and of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Irradiated by late modernism, but also by counterculture in the territory of the former republic, as a relatively young art historian, Želimir Koščević attended a fellowship at Moderna Museet, Stockholm’s museum institution, where he assisted – in 1969, the period of radical social progress – the then Director of said institution, Pontus Hultén, in the organisation of the legendary exhibition “Poetry Must Be Made by All! Transform the World!” which exhibited gestures and stances in lieu of material artworks, thereby opening up exhibition space not only for the then early conceptual practice, but also for radically political stances by encouraging the supporters of Black Panthers to gather within the exhibition. The echo of the avantgarde networking of life and art and the stance on art as the transformative motor of the social and political perception, present in Pontus Hultén’s practice, would go on to motivate Koščević for a more experimental and daring approach to exhibition curating, but also for questioning of the very exhibition format, which he continued to foster in his early curatorial beginnings following the return to Zagreb. This refiguration of Koščević’s activity (and ‘student practice’) preceded his return to Zagreb, which coincides with the programmatic openness and the generational artistic experimentation at the Student Centre in Zagreb, where Koščević worked between 1966 and 1979 as Head of SC Gallery. In this period, he introduced a series of innovations in its programme. Some of the innovations in Koščević’s early curatorial approach include the exhibitions Imaginary Museum, Exhibition of Women and Men, Hit Parade, Postal Consignment, Action Total, which were held outside and within SC Gallery. They foster experimentality and provide space to young artists; they open up towards international exchange of ideas, interdisciplinarity, egress from the Gallery, and democratisation of art. The Gallery Newspaper was also published, with the aim of self-contextualisation.
The Conference has been conceived as the final part of the workshop “Writing on Contemporary Art,” focused on the analysis of the role of curator, whether it be institutional or non-institutional. The role of contemporary art curator has been radically enhanced in the art world in the last few decades, and we could say that the curatorial figure – whether it proceeds institutionally, or is marked by independent non-institutional work – is an inseparable segment of perceiving the contemporary artistic worldview. The main coordinates of this workshop are the initiation of the perception of the role of curator and curatorial collectives when forming relevant knowledge on the contemporary culturological complex, i.e., the problematisation of the role of museums and galleries in contemporary society. By processing an exhibition event or the display setup of a particular collection, we perceive in it the politics of choice (purchasing policies, exhibition selections). Furthermore, we also perceive as to how the curators – with their critical and theoretical texts, but also with their practice – also shape the history of contemporary art and anticipate/create future tendencies, but also how the artists assume the curatorial position at a museum, thereby applying artistic methods – in lieu of linear museological narratives – such as the use of the setup and of the existing artefacts as materials, the toying with the ways of seeing and with the exhibition as a rounded experience.
Submission of the topic/title of the lecture (in Croatian and/or English) - deadline: 28 February 2022
Conference conducted in English (online) - 10/11 March 2022
Conference conducted in Croatian (online) - 11/12 March 2022
Submission of texts for the Conference Proceedings - deadline: 15 June 2022
We ask you to propose the topics as abstracts, not exceeding 5400 characters with spaces, no later than 28 February 2022. The lecture may not exceed 30 minutes. Lecturers who want to publish their texts in the “Exhibitive Cartographies” Proceedings should submit integral texts (27000 to 45000 characters with spaces, with a CV not exceeding 1800 characters with spaces) to the email address skalcic@ffst.hr until 15 June 2022. The texts will be reviewed and evaluated by peer reviewers. The submissions are accepted in Croatian and/or English. The formatting of the text/paper should be in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style, found at the following link: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html, as a system of notes (Notes and Bibliography).
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Les Saisons de l’histoire / The Seasons of History
Toni Hildebrandt
« Ces dernières années, certains artistes, historiens de l’art, critiques ou commissaires d’exposition, stimulés par les débats autour de l’Anthropocène, ont réévalué les épistémologies des éléments en se basant sur les perspectives empruntées aux humanités environnementales. Nous avons conscience du changement climatique depuis des dizaines d’années, mais en faisons de plus en plus souvent l’expérience directe. Cette réévaluation concerne également la métaphorologie des éléments, et plus particulièrement leurs fondements métaphysiques sous-jacents (equilibrium, harmonia, eucrasia). Pour comprendre ce changement de paradigme d’un point de vue structurel, il serait utile de se concentrer sur un trope en particulier : celui des saisons. Depuis des siècles, « nos » saisons sont considérées comme un donné divisant l’année en quatre phases caractéristiques, pour la plupart fondées sur le temps qu’il fait et la lumière du jour. En tant que telles, les saisons semblaient pouvoir fournir une source d’inspiration éternelle aux arts […]
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In recent years, artists, art historians, critics and curators have revised the epistemologies of elements that rely on perspectives taken from the environmental humanities, stimulated by the debates surrounding the Anthropocene. We have known for decades, but are now increasingly experiencing, that the climate is changing. This also concerns the metaphorology of the elements, and in particular their underlying metaphysical foundations (equilibrium, harmonia, eucrasia). To structurally understand this change of paradigm, it would be helpful to focus on one particular trope: seasons. For centuries, “our” seasons were taken as a given, dividing the year in characteristic phases mostly based on the weather and daylight. As such, the seasons provided, or so it seemed, an eternal inspiration for the arts »
L’Objet d’art en réseau pendant la Guerre froide / The Networked Art Object of the Cold War
John J. Curley
Entre vitalisme, métaphore et sublimation : le matérialisme dans tous ses états / Between Vitalism, Metaphor, and Sublimation: Materialism and Its Various States
Larisa Dryansky
L’Art pense-t-il ? Des natures mortes hollandaises au pouvoir critique de machines qui dysfonctionnent / Does Art Think? From Dutch Still Lifes to the Critical Power of Dysfunctional Machines
Muriel van Vliet
Pratiques curatoriales : un appel à l’action critique en architecture / Curatorial Practices: a call for architecture critical action
Rute Figueiredo
Susan Schuppli par Doreen Mende
Jean Dupuy par Patricia Brignone
« La Couche sensorielle », extrait de The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-pandemic World
Benjamin Bratton
Introduit par / Introduced by Simone Fehlinger
Enchevêtrements : race et architecture moderne / Entanglements: Race and Modern Architecture
Martin Bressani
Inventions et inventaires : nouvelles histoires de l’art contemporain africain / Inventions and Inventories: New Histories of Contemporary African Art
Ninon Chavoz
Vers un art post-racial dans l’Atlantique noir : actualité d’un ajournement narratif / Towards a Post-racial Art in the Black Atlantic: latest news about a narrative postponement
Sandra Delacourt
& J.L. | José Leonilson
Georgia René-Worms
Introduit par / Introduced by Juliette Trey, Adeline Blanchard
Entre pratiques artistiques et contestation : l’art alternatif russe et soviétique au prisme du Réseau des archives d’art russes / Between Art Practice and Protest: Russian/Soviet Alternative Art through the Prism of the Russian Art Archive Network
Anastasia Tarasova, Manuela Putz
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