Lectures & Forums 2006

  • Live in Your Head: Places of Art

    Monday, 31 July 2006

    Presented by Massimiliano Gioni

    What is the location of art? Where does art happen? In white rooms that are exactly the same across the globe, in industrial ruins turned into secular cathedrals, or - more simply - in our heads, in that invisible and yet much more complex social space that tie us together with our beliefs, culture, and emotions?

    Presenting a variety of exhibitions, interventions and gestures, the lecture illustrated different ways of disseminating art in private and public spaces, from the international scale of biennials to the microscopic level of parasite incursions in urban realities. Gathering images and documents from recent international shows such as Manifesta, the Berlin Biennial, the Venice Biennale, along with much more obscure intrusions in the art system, Live in Your Head also addressed our recent obsession with larger than life museums and spectacular events, presenting alternative models that are more flexible, light and adaptable. Art thus appeared as a Trojan horse that can infiltrate in the every day, but also revealed itself as a refuge, an immaterial space where to hide and test out new possible worlds.

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  • Found in Translation: Curating Outside Comfort Zones

    Wednesday, 2 August 2006

    When producing and holding exhibitions outside one's home country, things do not always go as expected. Expectations may be challenged and lessons always learnt. This forum, fusing anecdotal knowledge and critical insights, considered the challenges of working outside comfort zones. What can be learnt from the experiences of cross-cultural translation?

    What are the consequences for art and curatorial practice in our region? Should curators and artists gear exhibitions for specific cultural contexts? How does art negotiate between its local origins and increasingly global points of reception? What models exist for engaging with local art histories and communities?

    Speakers with wide-ranging expertise working in Japan, Korea, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, South America, United States, Britain, Canada, Italy and Australia spoke candidly about their experiences of cultural exchange and collaboration. What is lost in translation, and what may be found?

    • Chair: Alexie Glass Director, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
    • Heather Galbraith Senior Curator, City Gallery Wellington
    • Gavin Hipkins Wellington-based artist
    • Sunhee Kim Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
    • Natalie King, Melbourne-based curator and writer
    • Charles Merewether Artistic Director and Curator of Biennale of Sydney 2006: Zones of Contact
    Download (MP3)

    Download (MP3)

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  • Blindness and Insight: Futures for Art Criticism

    Wednesday, 2 August 2006

    This forum was inspired by the common complaint that art criticism is in crisis. What are the causes of this supposed crisis, and what can be done? Have curators replaced art critics, and press releases replaced art criticism? Or is the art market our only judge? More fundamentally, what is the role of art criticism and who is it written for? Is judgement still possible in the age of the 'post-medium' condition, in which we lack agreed criteria to assess art? In light of these issues, what new forms of criticism are emerging today? What alternatives has the Internet offered, and what other new futures might be possible?

    Speakers with extensive experience in both Australian and international art criticism addressed these questions from wide-ranging perspectives, from that of the newspaper critic to the artist as self-publisher.

    • Chair: Daniel Palmer Lecturer, Theory of Art & Design, Monash University
    • Massimiliano Gioni Artistic Director, Trussardi Foundation, Milan
    • Lily Hibberd Melbourne-based artist and editor of un Magazine
    • Robert Nelson Art critic for The Age
    • Justin Paton Curator of Contemporary Art, Dunedin Art Gallery
    Download (MP3)

    Download (MP3)