[spectre] THE INTERDISCIPLINARY SYMPOSIUM “ART IN THE NEW FIELD OF VISIBILITY”

[Marieke Istha]

THE INTERDISCIPLINARY SYMPOSIUM “ART IN THE NEW FIELD OF VISIBILITY”
(English only)

Within the context of the debate about the role and function of image in 
our society, the symposium “Art in the New Field of Visibility” attempts 
to create a broader framework for comprehending the recent metamorphosis 
of all the communication forms and its implications in the art field.
The emergence of a new synthesis of the worldwide communications field 
has generated an interesting process of unifying the semiotic 
distinctions between words and images, between art and non-art, between 
visibility and non-visibility. This process reveals a paradigm shift 
that is dramatically altering the boundaries, calling for new strategies 
of research and approach, adjusted continuously to the increasing 
complexity of our world.
Through four interdisciplinary panel sessions and a final debate, the 
participants at the symposium will discuss the various aspects and 
features of our predominantly visual culture, exploring artists’ 
reaction to the generalized media experience and to stereotypes and 
globalization. Topics referring to the new regimes of image as a 
consequence of living in a transparent society, as well as topics 
referring to the crisis of representation and the existing situation of 
visual homogenization, will also be discussed.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Friday January 19
Place: VLAAMS CULTUURHUIS DE BRAKKE GROND
Nes 45, 1012 KD Amsterdam

9.30-10.00  Welcome to the participants
10.00-10.15  Welcome speech: Leen Laconte, director of De Brakke Grond
Maria Rus Bojan & Bogdan Ghiu: Introductory Remarks to the Conference

Panel 1: Tuin Zaal Conference Hall, ground floor

Themes of discussion:
The transparent society considered as environment and condition of 
contemporary artistic creation.
The new artistic dilemma: approach the media process 
non-technologically, or subject the technology to artistic purposes? The 
contemporary artist’s status, between revolt and desire for diversion, 
and the risk of being absorbed by the general media flow.

Moderator: Maria Rus Bojan
10.15-10.45 Heiner Holtappels, director Netherlands Media Art Institute: 
The Influence of New Technologies on Culture, with a focus on visual art
10.45-11.15 Bogdan Ghiu, philosopher and writer: Imperceptible, 
Hyper-perceptible: the New Hodological Condition.
11.15-11.45 Emilian Cioc, philosopher, New Europe College Bucharest: Art 
in a Destitute Time
11.45-12.15 David Garcia, media theorist, Utrecht School of Arts: 
Visualizing Networked Freedom
12.15-12.45 Pascal Beausse, artcritic and curator The Artist as a Self-media

13.00- 14.00    Lunch in the restaurant of De Brakke Grond

Panel 2:  Tuin Zaal Conference Hall, ground floor
Themes of discussion:
Image as mental environment and primordial element of the social space
The dissidence of image in the artistic approaches and the 
hyper-valorisation of image through spectacle in media.
The new invisibility seen as a state of non-representation and reaction 
against the media flow.

Moderator: Irina Cios, director of ICCA Bucharest
14.00-14.30 Corin Braga, writer, Babes Bolyai University, Faculty of 
Letters: ”Imagination”,”Imaginaire”, ”Imaginal”
14.30-15.00 Eric Kluitenberg, Networks of (in-) visibility, 
Cartographies of the Unseen in Hybrid Space
15.00-15.30 Jean Christophe Royoux, artcritic, France: The dissidence of 
images
15.30-16.30 Khalil Joreige, artist, Lebanon: Undisclosed Title
16.30-17.00 Sagi Groner, artist: Ready Media

Panel 3.  Groene Zaal Conference hall, ground floor

Themes of discussion:
Crisis of representation? An analysis of the existing situation of 
visual homogenization and democratic aestheticism.
The role of art and its ethical responsibility.

Moderator: Suzanne van de Ven
14.30-15.00 Bart Rutten, curator, Stedelijk Museum Den Bosch, Literary 
Deduction as Contemporary Navigation Practice
15.00-15.30 Vesna Madzoski, artcritic: Archeology of the Invisible: 
Shifting Paradigms and Aborted Artworks
15.30-16.30 Prof. Dr. Rolf Sachsse: Behemoth and Leviathan: Ethos in Art 
and Design under Digital Conditions

17.00-18.30    Exhibition Opening: CORCORAN Strategies of Confinement in 
the Age of Biopolitics, curated by Zoran Eric, exhibition hall De Brakke 
Grond

21.00- 22.00  Opening of the exhibition Distorted fabric,Shadow cabinet,
curator Natasa Petresin (first part)
De Appel, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10

Saturday January 20

VLAAMS CULTUURHUIS DE BRAKKE GROND
Nes 45, 1012 KD Amsterdam

9.45 -10.00 Coffee

Panel 4. Tuin Zaal Conference Hall, ground floor

Themes of discussion:
Artistic representations of constructed realities.
The battle of art against the new codification and the stereotypes 
consolidated by media.

Moderator: Natasa Petresin, Artcritic and curator, Paris
10.00 –10.30 Hanneke Grootenboer, Senior Researcher, Royal Netherlands 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, UVA: "Restoring the Infinite".
10-30-11.00 Zoran Eric, curator Museum of Modern Art Belgrade: 
Glocalization and “Ethno-cultural World Art”: Artistic responses to 
stereotypical image(s) of national/ regional representation
11.00-11.30 Jennifer Steetskamp, art historian, collection, Netherlands 
media Art Institute: Strategies of Appropriation: the Use of Media 
Images in Video Art

11.30-12.00   Coffee break

12.00-13.00 Lecture of Prof. Dr. Boris Groys: “Art in the Digital Age”, 
Tuin Zaal Conference Hall, ground floor

13.00-14.00 Lunch, restaurant of De Brakke Grond

14.00-16.00 Conclusions of the Symposium

17.00-18.30 Opening of the exhibition “Investigations”, curated by 
Pascal Beausse, Maison Descartes, Vijzelgracht 2A

20.30-21.30 Screenings at De Appel (part 2), Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10

For registration to the symposium please contact
De Brakke Grond info at brakkegrond.nl  Tel: +31.20.6229014, fax: 
+31.20.6253279

Entrance fee symposium: 20,- (10,- for students)

For other information related to the symposium please contact: Maria Rus 
Bojan, coordinator: marie_beaujan at yahoo.com , Tel: 0031.614789395

Event organized by:
Netherlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, www.montevideo.nl
Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond, www.brakkegrond.nl
De Appel, www.deappel.nl
Maison Descartes, Institut Francais des Pays Bas, www.maisondescartes.com
Romanian Cultural Institute, Bucharest
Goethe Institut Amsterdam

With the kind support of the Embassy of Romania in The Hague, Project 
Foundation Amsterdam