Event | Colloquium and Symposium: Social Practice: Art in Times of Destruction

Event | Colloquium and Symposium: Social Practice: Art in Times of Destruction
Dates: Monthly from 5 December 2024 onwards (Colloquium) + 4 April 2025 (Symposium); More Details below.
Locations: Various venues in Amsterdam, such as Rijksacacademie and Framer Framed.
Organizers: Dr. L.C. Hartnoll, Prof. Dr. C.M. Lerm-Hayes, Rahael Mathews
Organizing Institutes: Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM) and Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
Contact & Registration: l.c.hartnoll@uva.nl, C.M.K.E.Lerm-Hayes@uva.nl; rahael.mathews@student.uva.nl.
Registration deadline: 28 November 2024 (Colloquium) & 7 February 2025 (Symposium)
Credits: 1 or 2 ECTS

The Social Practice research group and network convenes researchers to ask the question of the role of art, its infrastructures, and the various disciplines that attend to art in our times of multiple crises. During monthly meetings (begun in September 2024) of the colloquium leading up to and extending beyond a day-long symposium, the group aims to test how, if art is a means to proceed in life (Judith Butler), can contemporary art, its curation, its institutions be actors in societal discourses, or, more broadly, contribute to social dynamics? How, that is, do we think and develop both tactics and strategies in the face of systemic violence, colonial legacies, rising fascisms and war?

Colloquium

Co-organizers of the group and colloquium/symposium speakers: Corina Apostol; Chiara de Cesari; Charles Esche; Florian Göttke; Louis Hartnoll; Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes; Anja Novak.

The first session (in person and online) of the colloquium took place on Thursday 7 November, and new applicants will be able to join starting Thursday 5 December – with a related public event taking place on Thursday 28 November – and monthly thereafter.

Sessions

For this session of the colloquium, Dr. L.C. (Louis) Hartnoll will lead a session on ‘infrastructural critique’, a notion that aims to broaden and reframe contemporary debates about art-critical practices beyond the horizon of the institution. For this session, we will primarily draw on the work of the late Marxist-feminist theorist, Marina Vishmidt, who was at the forefront of developing this concept. If you would the readings and to join the session, please send an email to the contact addresses listed above.

Symposium

In addition to the co-organizers of the colloquium and regular participants, we anticipate inviting, among others, the following to join and/or present: Tizintizwa Collective; other indias; Rolando Vázquez-Melken; If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution; further discussants tbc.

Provisional program/schedule for the one-day symposium:

10.00–10.15:               Registration and coffee

10.15–10.30:               Welcome from the organizers

10.30–12.30:               Sessions 1 and 2 (parallel)

12.30–13.30:               Lunch

13.30–15.30:               Sessions 3 and 4 (parallel)

15.30–16.30:               Artistic performance/intervention

16.30–17.00:               Coffee break

17.00–18.00:               Closing roundtable/open session

18.00–:                        Drinks

Registered teacher/s: Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes with Louis Hartnoll

Credit Details

This research group is designed to offer a flexible way of attaining credits for students that require it. Students can obtain 1 or 2 ECTS, based on their attendance at monthly workshops and/or the colloquium in April.

To obtain 1 ECTS

1. i) Attend the symposium and submit three questions for consideration.
2. ii) Submit a minimum of two questions for consideration as part of the roundtable/open session. These questions should respond to the literature, should consider the current social and political climate, and should be generative for discussion. These must be submitted a minimum of one week before the symposium.

To obtain 2 ECTS

1. i) Attend a minimum of two sessions of the colloquium during the 2024/25 academic year. The preparatory readings of around 30–40 pages will be circulated in advance and must be read. Active participation in the discussions is also a requirement.
2. ii) Attend the symposium and submit three questions for consideration.
3. iii) Submit a minimum of two questions for consideration as part of the roundtable/open session. These questions should respond to the literature, should consider the current social and political climate, and should be generative for discussion. These must be submitted a minimum of one week before the symposium.
4. iv) Submit a 500-word reflection essay on the themes discussed in the colloquium/symposium. The reflection must be submitted no later than Friday 2 May.