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Summary
In its summer program 2012 the kub Arena dedicates itself more
clearly than ever to artistic research and knowledge production.
Together with the Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies
of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and author Max Jorge Hinderer
Cruz the kub Arena will be questioning present-day »ideological
constellations« and subjecting them to discussion. Following a
lecture seminar with students and a conference with international
guests an extensive collection of essays will appear in the kub Arena
publications series to bring together the results of the gathering.
We are interested in the development of critique both inside
and outside the art field and in aesthetic theory in the increasingly
globalized post-Cold War world. A tendency toward political critique
has been evident in the art world since the 1990s and over the past
15 years has been increasingly articulated in the institutional
context. It is a development found not only at conceptually curated
biennales and contemporary art museums but also in art galleries
and on the art market. Clearly the »critique of social conditions«
is not only tolerated but also satisfies a demand. The kub Arena
project devotes itself to analyzing the self-conception of society
underlying art production and other issues central to the
post-1989 art world.
The epochal turn of 1989|91 also marks the proclaimed
»end of ideology«—after the so-called clash of ideologies came to
an end, not only the notion of a social reality based on complex ideas
was declared obsolete (»social market economy,« »socialism«), it
was also claimed that »reality« can be accessed without obstruction
or bias. Simultaneously, theoretical approaches, such as critical
theory, lost a great deal of their academic and discursive influence.
The project Art and the Critique of Ideology after ’89 reconstructs
critique of ideology in its central texts since 1968 and examines its
role within and without the sphere of art following the »historic
freeze« of 1989|91.
Precisely in respect of art the question arises as to what
extent new formulations of ideology-critical positions were
elaborated in the 1990s – e.g. through exhibitions such as the 3rd
Havana Biennale 1989, documenta X 1997, Global Conceptualism:
Points of Origin 1999, and documenta11 2002 – and how it was
possible for these to become transformed, contrary to their intent,
into a fetishized »art business as usual« object.
From September 24 to 28 students of the Academy of
Fine Arts Vienna and other parts of Austria will meet in Bregenz
for a lecture seminar culminating in a public conference from
September 28 to 30.
Concept
Eva Birkenstock, Diedrich Diederichsen, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz,
Dr. Jens Kastner, Prof. Ruth Sonderegger
Registration
Please register for conference before September 15:
vermittlung@kunsthaus-bregenz.at