Theory Course - Week 2/3 / Course (engl.) – Jennifer Allen and Thibaut de Ruyter
F*** White Cubes: from Nefertiti to Kanye West
This two-week course is designed for critics, curators, exhibition designers, theoricians as well as artists who are interested in the history of exhibitions, their link to specific architectural spaces and how these spaces both influence and inhibit the staging of artworks.
The first week will consider how buildings reflect aesthetic theories: from Kant to O'Doherty to our digital present. Berlin's Altes Museum designed by Schinkel will provide a starting point for a lecture tour of exhibition sites in the city.
The second week will focus on the reality of making exhibitions in space, the importance of scenography, the rise of "narrative spaces" and the current fusion stages that were once kept architecturally separate: museums, theatres, musical performances, among others.
To unite discursive and pragmatic concerns, the course will be given by the art critic and author Jennifer Allen and the architect and curator Thibaut de Ruyter. Participants will gain an overview of the history of exhibitions in theory and practice as well as practical insights into the presentation of artworks.
Theory Course - Week 2/3 / Tour (engl.) – Aleksander Cigale
Aleksander Cigale is - not only because he is an artist himself - an expert in art productions but he also worked at studio Anselm Reyle for quite some time. We invited Aleks to share his knowledge about the planning and creative process of art projects and exhibitions. This tour will provide insights in the variety of artist studios and workshops and probably you will find some major works in progress along your way…
It is our great pleasure to announce Kolja Reichert’s lecture at ACSA 2014. We cannot wait to learn more about his critical research on the situation of artistic production and representation today – analyzed in the wide economic, infrastructural, cultural and social context of today’s art world. Kolja was born in 1982. Studied philosophy and literature at Freie Universität Berlin. He writes intensely on contemporary art, music, architecture, culture economy and travels for major German dailies and weeklies. And last but not least he won the prize for art criticism from Arbeitskreis Deutscher Kunstvereine and Art Cologne in 2012; and that will sure not be the last one. Looking forward to controversial thoughts and discussion!
Uta Grosenick is responsible for some of the most important books on contemporary art! Born in 1960 she studied art history and literature, worked as organizer and curator of exhibitions. She is the editor of such internationally distributed books as Art at the Turn of the Millennium, Women Artists, Art Now, International Art Galleries: Post-War to Post-Millennium and Art Now Vol 2.. That means she knows everything about the art market, art production, trends and developments in the art world. Thus, everything we are very keen to hear more about…
Theory Course - Week 2/3 / Tour (engl.) – Elise Lammer
Elise Lammer (b. 1982 in Lausanne, Switzerland, lives and works in Berlin) was trained as a fine artist in Barcelona and holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths College, London.
Alongside other experimental curatorial projects, her long term exhibition series, Hotel Palenque, is a nomadic programme of newly commissioned contemporary art projects focusing on producing and presenting works by emerging artists on a single A0 non-reproducible print. The selected artists explore ideas around the notions of originality, distribution of information and mediation systems. Hotel Palenque’s fundamental principle is grounded on collaboration and advocates for reciprocal and organic development.
She is the host and founder of Kunsthalle Roveredo, an artists residency programme and exhibition space located in Graubunden, Switzerland, and the curator of Post Digital Cultures, a yearly symposium exploring the relationship between art and new media, commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture and Les Urbaines Festival, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Recent projects include: The forgotten memory guide IV/IX, Fahrenheit Foundation, Los Angeles (2014); Hotel Palenque: Christopher Kulendran Thomas, artgenève, Geneva (2014); Friday, with Katharina Fengler, Sonia Kacem and Charlotte Herzig at Autocenter, Berlin (2014) (curated with Samuel Leuenberger)
In 2011 and 2012, she was guest curator of Les Urbaines Festival, Lausanne. In 2012, she was guest curator of the Peckham Artist Moving Image Festival, London. In 2014, she will curate the special projects section of Art Geneve and Art-o-rama in Marseille. In Autumn 2014, she becomes the associate curator of SALTS in Basel.
She is a regular contributor to Novembre Magazine, Lausanne/Paris and Artlicks, London.
Theory Course - Week 2/3 / Lecture (engl.) – Andreas Koch
Andreas Koch is an amazing multitasker; being an artist, a graphic designer, a former gallerist and editor of the art magazine „von hundert“ based in Berlin. He was and is teaching at various institutions as UdK Berlin, KHB Weissensee or at HfBK Dresden and Goldrausch. From 1996 until 2004 he ran the Berlin gallery „Koch und Kesslau“ together with Sybille Kesslau; they participated at various art fairs; from Art Forum Berlin, Frieze London to Art Basel Miami Beach. As an artists he received a number of stipends; among others twice the Berliner Arbeitsstipendium des Senats (2000, 2001), from Kunstfonds Bonn (2008) and from Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg. Since 2006 he is editor and author at “von hundert” - a Berlin artzine initially founded together with Kito Nedo and now run together with Barbara Buchmaier (who can hopefully join in that night!) that takes quite a critical perspective on Berlins art scene. Andreas is also member of the Alliance International des Critiques d’Arts (AICA).
Theory Course - Week 2/3 / Lecture (engl.) – Johan Holten
Since 2011 Johan Holten is director of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and already before that he got a lot of attention for his outstanding curatorial practice. We are very glad, he will manage to give a lecture and just dare to quote only from two jury decisions of awards he received: „ This prize [...] was awarded [...] for "outstanding exhibitions and educational activities". In granting the award, the jury noted that between 2006 and 2011 curator Johan Holten and his small team had developed in a particularly intelligent way a compelling program of supra-regional appeal that combined astute social-political commentary with stunning aesthetic power.“ (http://www.heidelberg-marketing.com/culture/museums/heidelberg-art-society.html) And: „[…] The award acknowledges outstanding curatorial achievements in German-speaking countries […]. The jury honours the original and conclusive idea how the immediate past of contemporary art is being brought to light. So would archaeological approaches find the entrance to the art of today - a similar action in this form had never been done before.“ (http://www.kunsthalle-baden-baden.de/news-en-US/new-newsentry-11-en-US/) Nothing to add.