A talk by Anton Vidokle
Wednesday, 8th of March, 19H – 21H, 96 bd Raspail (Salle Lombard), 75006 Paris
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
“Something you should know : Artistes et praticiens aujourd’hui”
Seminar conceptualised and organised by Patricia Falguières, Elisabeth
Lebovici, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Natasa Petresin within the framework of CESTA/EHESS.
http://cesta.ehess.fr/
http://www.ehess.fr/
The topic of the seminar “Something you should know: Artistes et praticiens aujourd’hui” revolves around how to engage and position oneself within contemporary art today, specifically, from the viewpoint of artists and cultural producers. The “Fall of the Wall”, and the spread of globalization and the erasure of polarities in the world of contemporary art, provoke new forms of activism and new collective proposals. This seminar will give voice to the artists, curators, critics who work outside of France and who question the space and the forms of political representation, re-inscribe utopia in the heart of collective projects, explore the major legitimacy and the dead angles of democracy – We become involved in their experience and processes of study and research. Previous speakers included Yona Friedman and Cécile Proust/femmeuses.
The speaker this Wednesday, Anton Vidokle, is a Moscow-born, New York based artist. His work has been exhibited in many international shows (Venice Biennale, Dakar Biennale, Lodz Biennale) and venues (Tate Modern, London; Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana; Musee d’art Modern de la Ville de Paris; Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City; ICA, Boston; Haus Der Kunst, Munich). Together with Julieta Aranda, a Mexican artist based in New York, they produced a tabloid newspaper, Popular Geometry (published in Turkish, Mexican, Irish and Slovene editions), a tabloid which humorously compiles complaints, controversies, and scandals surrounding the usage of modernist abstraction in public art.
Anton Vidokle is also the founding director of e-flux, a New York-based, artist-run information bureau and a project space. e-flux has produced and published numerous online projects and print publications such as Next Documenta Should Be Curated By An Artist, Do it, Utopia Station poster project, An Image Bank for Everyday Revolutionary Life amongst other. Together with Julieta Aranda, Vidokle put together e-flux video rental (EVR), comprising a large selection of videos and film artworks by more than 250 artists, selected in collaboration with more than 50 international curators and structured as a video rental store: part screening room, part archive. EVR was started in New York in 2004, and has since travelled to numerous locations, including Kunst-Werke, Berlin; Portikus, Frankfurt; Manifesta Foundation, Amsterdam; Insa Art Space, Seoul; and it will soon open at Extra City, Antwerp. Currently, e-flux projects in New York hosts Martha Rosler Library, a public reading room comprising nearly 7000 volumes from the book collection of the American artist Martha Rosler.
Anton Vidokle is a co-curator of Manifesta 6 (together with Mai Abu ElDahab and Florian Waldvogel), a biennial which for this edition will take the form of an experimental art school. Manifesta 6 School will have three departments, running nine thematic programs related to diverse areas of contemporary culture. Each department will involve up to thirty international participants, selected through an open call. Manifesta 6 School will host a broad range of trans-disciplinary cultural producers who will present lectures, screenings, exhibitions, performances and workshops, some of which will be made available online. The school will aim to facilitate research, experimentation and the development of new ideas encouraging alternative frameworks for production and engagement with contemporary culture.