Moyra Davey: Artist Talk

Vortrag
Moyra Davey: Artist Talk
Donnerstag, 7. Dezember 2017, 19 Uhr, Aula

Moyra Davey works as a photographer and author and over the last few years has created a work that combines the two fields. One must also consider her as a reader who, as an intellectual artist, similar to an academic scholar, researches, scrutinizes, and integrates writings into her works and negotiates them. In this sense, she equates taking photographs as capturing her surroundings with writing notes while reading.

The artist talk will accompany her exhibition at Portikus titled Hell Notes, which will open on Friday, Dec 8 at 19h.

Moyra Davey was born in Toronto in 1958. She earned a BFA from Concordia University, Montreal, in 1982, and an MFA from the University of California San Diego in 1988. In 1989, she attended the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.

A.L. Steiner: Difficult Thoughts / Schwierige Gedanken

Vortrag
A.L. Steiner: Difficult Thoughts /  Schwierige Gedanken
Mittwoch, 6. December 2017, 19 Uhr, Aula

Humans are committing omnicide, proselytized globally via Western notions of extraction, exploitation and finance crapital. Our Enlightenment-tinged operational institutions have wreaked havoc, yet convince us daily that they will, in fact, resolve this myriad of current irresolvable human conditions.

These institutions have instilled within us the annihilating mechanism of value, relying on the failed irrationality of human supremacy. This silly dogma of homo economicus externalizes all that is non-human in this world-for-us. It's crystal clear that the interrelation of planetary life forms has been lost on what we call the contemporary. Reason: unknown. As stated in 2005 by Oren R. Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, "What you call resources, we call our relatives". We will discuss together.

A.L. Steiner utilizes constructions of photography, video, installation, collage, collaboration, performance, writing and curatorial work as seductive tropes channeled through the sensibility of a skeptical queer ecofeminist androgyne. Steiner is co-curator of Ridykeulous, co-founder of Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), a collective member of Chicks on Speed, and collaborates with numerous writers, performers, designers, activists and artists. She is MFA Faculty in Visual Arts at Bard College, Yale University and School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is based in Los Angeles and New York.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.

Sophie von Hellermann: The Drama Continues

Vortrag
Sophie von Hellermann: The Drama Continues
Mittwoch, 29. November 2017, 19 Uhr, Aula

Sophie von Hellermann is known for her large scale canvases in pastel palettes, often presented in elaborate installations. The chosen title of her lecture The Drama Continues refers to the stories that her paintings tell, which often emerge out of the serial and narrative sequence of her installations. The lecture will thus be discussing possible problems of narrative figurative painting and qua examples shed light on the different ways of approaching these.

Sophie von Hellermann was born in 1975 in Munich. She received her BFA from Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf and an MFA from Royal College of Art, London. Selected solo exhibitions include: Sophie von Hellermann at Office Baroque, Brussels (2017); After a Fashion– A Play with Fire at Vilma Gold, London (2015); Novel Ways at Greene Naftali, New York (2013); Elephant in the Room at Firstsite, Colchester (2013). She lives and works in London and Margate.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.

Heman Chong: Ifs, Ands, or Buts

Vortrag
Heman Chong: Ifs, Ands, or Buts
Dienstag, 5. Dezember, 19 Uhr, Aula

"This lecture begins with a work that I didn’t make (it was an accident) and ends with a performance involving sentences I didn’t write (other artists did). In between, I would like to discuss a number of things that has passed through my eyes, hands and mind that have become a substantial part of what most people consider a part of my work; novels, bookshops, libraries, trees, calendars, postcards, words, stories, situations, exhibitions, time, texts, magazines, conferences, memories, translations, rumours, relationships, resistance, speech, secrets, distributions, bridges. This discussion will take place via deconstructing 10-15 works that I have made since 2003."

Heman Chong is an artist whose work is located at the intersection between image, performance, situations and writing. He has recently produced a series of interconnected exhibitions located in Art Sonje Center (Never, A Dull Moment, Seoul, 2015), South London Gallery (An Arm, A Leg and Other Stories, London, 2015) and Rockbund Art Museum (Ifs, Ands, Or Buts, Shanghai, 2016). He is the co-director and founder (with Renée Staal) of ‘The Library of Unread Books’ which has been installed in NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila and is currently installed in Casco Projects, Utrecht. He is currently working on a novel ‘The Book of Drafts’ which will be published by Polyparenthesis in 2019.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.

Pablo Larios: Lording Limit

Vortrag
Pablo Larios: Lording Limit
Dienstag, 14. November, 19 Uhr, Aula

The Lords of Limit, training dark and light
And setting a tabu ‘twixt left and right,

– W. H. Auden, ‘The Watchers’ (1932)

However we define its borders, art has become a place for doing and making things that aren’t always possible in other fields. Film, theatre, music, poetry, academic research and political activism have found their way into contemporary art. The field has reconfigured itself beyond narrow art historical canons and shed many of the values that underpin traditional hermeneutic and critical models.

What does this mean for criticism, teaching, curating and making art? Seen positively, multidisciplinarity is evidence of contemporary art’s capaciousness, inclusiveness and variety. Yet increasingly, contemporary art is derided as a site of disciplinary impingement, capitalist or neoliberal subsumption, cultural appropriation and even political transgression. What are art’s limits and who draws that line? In his talk, Larios will discuss recent encounters between contemporary art and poetry, tech and activism.

Pablo Larios is a writer and associate editor of frieze magazine based in Berlin.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.

Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel

Vortrag
Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel
Montag, 13. November, 19 Uhr, Aula

Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel are working together since 1997. Within their oeuvre, which has emerged over the past few years, they deal with traditional, handcrafted techniques in addition to their interest in classical sculpture. The artists are always concerned with manufacturing processes originating in different crafts, but that have become less and less visible in the course of technical automation. Dewar and Gicquel taught themselves various skills that are considered traditional, but do not necessarily employ the original techniques of the craft in the artistic production of their various works. In lengthy and complex stages, over recent years they have produced works in clay, high-fired ceramics, carved stone, wood and woven or embroidered textile.

On the occasion of their recent exhibition at Portikus, Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel will deliver a lecture at Städelschule. Rather than presenting work, the artists will talk about the production process of individual pieces and site specific commissions.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.