Symposium 'Rethinking Robert Smithson', The Hague, 30 March 2012
Alauda Publications organises in cooperation with the LUICD a symposium which will take place in The Hague on 30 March 2012. 'Rethinking Robert Smithson' aims to open up a discussion about current concerns in art and theory at the intersection of art historical debate and contemporary art practice.
The conference
In many ways, the artistic debates prevalent in the 1970s are recurring in our time: the relation between art and ecology, the position of the artist within a information and media society and the crisis of (neo)liberalism. Although the societal context and diameters of these discussions have changed profoundly, their basis can be found in the period from 1965 to 1975, considered a paradigmatic shift in art and society. But how well do we actually know our immediate past and what can we learn from it? Smithson’s artistic heritage provides an interesting and relevant case study in this respect. Rethinking Robert Smithson aims to open up a discussion about current concerns in art and theory at the intersection of art historical debate and contemporary art practice. Along the line of two thematic approaches related to Smithson’s work, Art and Ecology and The Cinematic Condition , topical concerns in artistic practice are reconsidered by internationally renowned theorists and artists.
Programme
| 09.30: | Doors open |
| 10.00 – 10.15: | Opening Symposium: Ingrid Commandeur and Anja Novak |
| 10.15 – 10.30: | Book review Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement |
| Presentation of the first copy of the book | |
| [I] Art and Ecology | |
| 10.30 – 11.15: | Lecture: T.J. Demos |
| 11.15 – 12.00: | Lecture: Nils Norman |
| 12.00 – 12.15: | Short break |
| 12.15 – 12.30: | Statement: Gail Whiteman (to be confirmed) |
| 12.30 – 13.15: | Discussion panel with T.J. Demos, Nils Norman,
Maja and Reuben Fowkes. Moderator: Sven Lütticken |
| 13.15 – 14.00 | Lunch |
| 14.00 – 14.15: | Short presentation Land Art Contemporary |
| [II] The Cinematic Condition | |
| 14.15 – 15.00: | Lecture: Ann Reynolds |
| 15.00 – 15.45: | Lecture: Sabeth Buchmann |
| 15.45 – 16.00: | Short break |
| 16.00 – 16.15: | Statement: Ian White |
| 16.15 – 17.00: | Discussion panel with Ann Reynolds, Sabeth Buchmann,
Ian White. Moderator: Eric C.H. de Bruyn |
Art and Ecology
In recent years, there have a been a number of high-profile exhibitions, publications, festivals and conferences on art and ecology. Examples range from large surveys such as Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969–2009 at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2009, to more exploratory and research-oriented projects such as Foodprint currently at Stroom in The Hague. The latter forges connections between art and collaborative urban projects that attempt to practice more sustainable ways of living in today’s cities. The first panel will critically consider the various meanings of ‘ecology’ as well as the rhetoric of ‘sustainability’, recognizing these buzzwords as deeply political, contentious and ideological. The concept of ecological awareness is at the heart of Smithson’s practice in various ways. At the beginning of the 1970s, Smithson envisioned the artist as a “mediator between the ecologist and the industrialist” and questioned the increasing consumer culture. At the same time, Smithson was highly critical of what he regarded as the pastoral and picturesque fantasies of many ecologists. What can we learn from Smithson’s and other historical artistic practice when conducting a critical investigation into the current relationship between art, ecology and sustainability?
The Cinematic Condition
A second aspect of Robert Smithson’s work that is highly relevant for contemporary art concerns its highly mediatized form of perceptual experience. Although Smithson may have entered the canon of art history as a chief protagonist of Land Art, his use of media was far more diverse. Ranging from earthworks to photo-essays, magazine writings to installations, it was the cinematic model that served the artist as an important means to dislocate the actual site of the earthwork and create an ‘in-between’ space. In this fashion, Smithson invented a new cinematic configuration in which avant-garde, classical, essayistic and documentary forms of filmmaking intersect, and which allows multiple forms of experience and comprehension to proliferate. As a result spectators are not provided a privileged standpoint from which to observe the work and become radically de-centralized. Without doubt, Smithson’s cinematic work constituted an important precursor of more recent filmic practices within the visual arts. Indeed it is often claimed that since the 1990s a veritable ‘filmic’ turn in contemporary art has taken place. This panel asks how examining Smithson’s legacy might provide us better insight into current artistic positions concerning the cinematic condition and spectatorship in art. To what extent do the set of institutional, technical and cultural parameters that determined the cinematic condition of post-minimal art, and Smithson’s work in particular, coincide with or, alternatively, diverge from our present?
More information
Date: Friday 30 March 2012
Time: 10.00 - 17.00 hrs
Venue: Royal Academy of Art (KABK), Prinsessegracht 4, The Hague
Admittance: 15 euro/students 7,5- euro
Language: English
Partners: Department of Artists’ Theories and Artistic Practice, Royal Academy of Art (KABK) and Lectoraat Art & Public Space (LAPS), Gerrit Rietveld Academie
For more information about speakers, publications and how to register for this conference, please visit the conference website.
The symposium is organised by Alauda Publications (Ingrid Commandeur) in cooperation with Leiden University Institute for Cultural Disciplines (LUICD). It is generously supported by LUICD, Leiden University Fund (LUF), and Mondriaan Fund.