Questions to the Museum of the 21th Century

Play Van Abbe Symposium

01/07/2011 - 02/07/2011

Friday 01/07/2011

13:00 Lunch

11:00 Welcome Charles Esche & Lecture Christiane Berndes

11:30 Reesa Greenberg

12:00 Ysbrandt Hummelen

12:30 Discussion

AUDITORIUM

18:00 Drinks

16:00 Reflection of the workshops

16:30 Discussion of Museum Directors: Zdenka Badovinac, Manuel Borja Villel and Bart de Bare Moderated by Charles Esche

17:30 Open discussion

AUDITORIUM

15:30 Break

Raum der Gegenwartby Kai-Uwe Hemken- Jakob GebertSteven ten Thije

Flight Case Archive Galit Eilat/ Christiane Berndes

Free Sol Lewittby Superflex Charles Esche

10:30 Open Door & welcome coffee

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Saturday 02/07/2011

10:30 Open Door & wellcome coffee

13:00 Lunch

11:00 Dorothea Seebode

11:30 Charles Esche vision

12:30 Discussion

AUDITORIUM

18:00 Drinks

16:00 Reflection of the workshops

16:30 Claire Bishop

17:30 Discussion Claire Bishop & Sven Lütticken

AUDITORIUM

15:30 Break

If I Can't Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution /Public Movement Annie Fletcher

Museum of American ArtSteven ten Thije

Mediation and ExperienceHadas Zemer

17:00 Sven Lütticken

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Reesa Greenberg

Reesa Greenberg is an art historian, independent scholar and museum consultant whose research

focuses on exhibitions and display. She has consulted on exhibitions and installations for the Art Gallery

of Ontario, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam and Mirroring Evil at the Jewish

Museum in New York. She is best known as co-editor (with Bruce Ferguson and Sandy Nairne) of Thinking

About Exhibitions, Routledge, 1996 and the author of numerous articles on exhibition presentation and

politics. Her recent research examines the web as an exhibition space. She is an Adjunct Professor at

both Carleton University, Ottawa and York University, Toronto.

Ysbrand Hummelen

Ysbrand Hummelen has been research conservator at the Central Laboratory for Research of Objects of

Art and Science (CL), merged in ICN, now the Netherlands Heritage Agency (RCE) since 1991. He trained as

a conservator/restorer at the Central Laboratory, the Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zürich and the

Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Rome.

He did research on the studio practice of Van Gogh, Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman and other artists,

on preservation of ethnography collections, conservation theory, conservation management, 19th

century painting and new strategies for the conservation of contemporary art. He has been responsible

for the content of several national and international research programmes in the field of the preserva-

tion of contemporary art.

Raum der Gegenwart – Kai-Uwe Hemken/ Jakob Gebert

Kai-Uwe Hemken

Kai-Uwe Hemken, born 1962, art historian, studied the history of art, philosophy and german literature in

Marburg und Munich, magister artium, dissertation about the exhibition design of El Lissitzky (1990),

habilitation about the memory and oblivion in the art since 1960 (2005), assistant and organizer of

exhibitions at the Sprengel Museum Hanover (El Lissitzky, 1988) and Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen

in Dusseldorf (Konstruktivistische Internationale, 1992), curator at the museum of modern art of the

Ruhr-University Bochum, since 2005 professor for the science of art (since 1900) at the kunsthochschule

kassel; many publications about the modern art of this century: El Lissitzky. Revolution und Avantgarde

(Köln 1990); Gedächtnisbilder. Vergessen und Erinnern in der Gegenwartskunst (editor, Leipzig 1997); Im

Bann der Medien. Texte zur virtuellen Ästhetik in Kunst und Kultur. (editor, Weimar 1997); Gerhard Richter.

18. Oktober 1977. (Frankfurt/Main 1998), Bilder in Bewegung.Traditionen digitaler Ästhetik. (editor) Köln

2000, Kunstlichtspiele. (editor, Erfurt 2009)

Introductions of the speakers

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Jakob Gebert

Jakob Gebert (1965 in Freiburg/Germany), studied interior design and building design at the Hochschule

für Gestaltung in Basel before founding his own Bureau for Industrial and Exhibition design in Weil am

Rhein, Germany. Since 1998 he lectures at numerous Colleges and Universities and is currently Professor

for furniture design and exhibition architecture at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Jakob Gebert has created

a wide portfolio of products for numerous firms including Belux, Vitra, and Nils Holger Moormann for

whom he designed tables such as Spanoto and Tischmich.

SUPERFLEX

SUPERFLEX is an artist collective based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was formed 1993 by Bjørnstjerne

Reuter Christiansen, Jakob Fenger and Rasmus Nielsen. As artists for social and economic change, they

challenge the concepts of copyright and appropriation. Art is seen as a tool rather than a tangible

object. SUPERFLEX has participated in most of the existing international biennials (Sao paulo, Venice,

Gwangju, Istanbul, Berlin, Taipei, etc... ), they have had numerous important solo shows in large institu-

tions such as Kunsthalle Basel, Kiasma, Van AbbeMuseum, etc.).

Zdenka Badovinac

Zdenka Badovinac has been director of Moderna galerija / the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, since

1993. She has curated numerous exhibitions presenting both Slovenian and international artists, and

initiated the first collection of Eastern European art, Moderna galerija’s 2000+ Arteast Collection. She has

been systematically dealing with the processes of redefining history and with the questions of different

avant-garde traditions of contemporary art, starting with the exhibition “Body and the East—From the

1960s to the Present” (Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, 1998; Exit Art, New York, 2001). She continued in 2000

with the first public display of the 2000+ Arteast Collection: “2000+ Arteast Collection: The Art of Eastern

Europe in Dialogue with the West” (Moderna galerija, 2000); and then with a series of Arteast Exhibitions,

mostly at Moderna galerija: “Form-Specific” (2003); “7 Sins: Ljubljana-Moscow” (2004; co-curated with

Victor Misiano and Igor Zabel);

Galit Eilat

Galit Eilat is a writer, a Curator and the Founding Director of the Digital Art Lab or The Israeli Center for

Digital Art, Holon. She is Co-Editor in Chief of Maarav – an online arts and culture magazine, as well as a

teacher at Tel Aviv University in the Department of Film Studies

Introductions of the speakers

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Bart De Baere

Since 2002 Bart De Baere is the Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp. Before that, he

was involved in policy making for two years, developing a policy for cultural heritage that envisages

the whole of it as an immaterial activity. Prior to that, he was chair of the Flemish Government Council of

Museums, and also chair of its Council for Culture. He was, among other things, an advisor to the City of

Johannesburg for the foundation of the Biennale of Johannesburg and a member of the International

Board of the network of Soros Centers of Contemporary Art in Eastern Europe. He was a curator of

Documenta IX in Kassel.

Manuel J. Borja-Villel

Born in Burriana / Castellón in 1957.

Director of the El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, MNCARS (Madrid). He has been President of

CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Modern Art Collections, linked with the ICOM), and

member of the American Center Foundation (ACF). He has been director of the Museu d'Art Contempo-

rani de Barcelona (MACBA) and director of the Fundació Antoni Tápies in Barcelona.

He obtained a degree in History of Art at the School of Geography and History of the Universidad de

Valencia. Special Student at Yale University. Fullbright Grant. Master of Philosophy of the Department of

History of Art of the City University of New York. Kress Foundation Fellowship Grant for History of Art.

Doctor in Philosophy at the Department of History of Art of the Graduate School of the City University of

New York.

At the Fundació Tàpies he organised exhibitions such as: “The End(s) of the Museum”, “Craigie Horsfield.

The City of the People”, as well as exhibitions by the artists Louise Bourgeois, Brassaï, Marcel Broodthaers,

Lygia Clark, Hans Haacke and Krysztof Wodiczko, among others.

“Interrupted Histories” (2006); “Arteast Collection 2000+23” (2006); “The Schengen Women” (Galerija Škuc,

Ljubljana, part of the Hosting Moderna galerija! project, 2008); Museum of Parallel Naratives/ In the

Framework of L’Internationale, MACBA, Barcelona,2011.

Her other major projects include “unlimited.nl-3” (DeAppel, Amsterdam, 2000), “(un)gemalt, Sammlung

Essl, Kunst der Gegenwart” (Klosterneuburg/Vienna, 2002), “ev+a 2004, Imagine Limerick, Open&Invited”

(various exhibition venues, Limerick, 2004); “Democracies/the Tirana Biennale” (Tirana, 2005). She was

Slovenian Commissioner at the Venice Biennale (1993–1997, 2005) and Austrian Commissioner at the Sao

Paulo Biennial (2002).

Introductions of the speakers

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Dorothea Seebode

Philips, a global technology firm originating in Eindhoven, finds itself in a process of transformation. It

anticipates, on many scales, the seismic changes caused by overproduction and massive consumption,

while trying to stay in tune with the consumer market. Dorothea Seebode, senior sustainability officer at

Philips Research, assesses her own and the company’s views on sustainability, and the future practices,

products and lifestyles to be negotiated out of our complex present.

If I Can’t Dance (Frédérique Bergholtz & Tanja Baudoin)

If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution produces art works and thematic

programmes. Departing from a spirit of open questioning and long term enquiry with artists, If I Can’t

Dance is dedicated to exploring the evolution and typology of performance and performativity in

contemporary art.

If I Can’t Dance is currently presenting Edition IV, with new works in development by artists Jeremiah Day,

Sung Hwan Kim, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Hito Steyerl and Emily Wardill. Parallel to these new com-

missions, If I Can’t Dance has introduced a programme titled Performance in Residence, which aims to

connect archival research to practice. If I Can’t Dance has so far initiated research trajectories with Guy

de Cointet & Marie de Brugerolle; Isidoro Valcárcel Medina & Bulegoa z/b, Flávio de Carvalho & Inti

Guerrero; and Matt Mullican & Vanessa Desclaux. If I Can’t Dance’s field of research for Edition IV is the

notion of affect, which can be read in the light of our continuing investigations into the construction of

subjectivity and the politics of identity.

At the MACBA he has presented thematic exhibitions such as: “Force Fields”, “Antagonisms”, “Art and

Utopia. Restricted Action”, Desacuerdos as well as those dedicated to Vito Acconci, Txomin Badiola,

Öyvind Fahlström, Dora García, David Goldblatt, Luis Gordillo, Raymond Hains, Richard Hamilton, William

Kentridge, Muntadas, Raymond Pettibon, Adrian Piper, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Perejaume, Gerhard

Richter, Martha Rosler, Dieter Roth, Pablo Palazuelo, among others. At the Reina Sofía :”Nancy

Spero.Disidanzas”, “Potosí Principle”,”Val del Omar. Overflow”, “Atlas. How to carry the world one one’s

back?”, “The worker-Photography Movement 1926-1939”, among others.

Introductions of the speakers

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Hadas Zemer Ben-Ari

Hadas Zemer Ben-Ari (1977) is a freelance experience designer and curator, working closely with the Van

Abbemuseum, Eindhoven since 2007. Her work focuses on adapting artistic concepts into an intricate

yet accessible experience for cultural institutions, with special regard to the development of alternative

information structures. As a curator, Zemer Ben-Ari investigates the ambivalence of the design discipline,

using it as her focal point for scrutinising contemporary socio-economical trends. She has written for the

Manifesta Workbook and DAMn Magazine.

Museum of American Art

The Museum of American Art is an educational institution dedicated to assembling, preserving and

exhibiting memories primarily on MoMA circulating exhibitions of modern American art shown in

Europe during the 50es. Its permanent collection "MoMA and Americans" is located on Stalinalee 91 in

Berlin and opened to the

public since 2004. The museum also holds several collections shown as temporary exhibitions:

"Modern Art in the USA", "50 Ans d'Art aux Etats-Unis", "The Abstract Cabinet","The Making of Americans"

and "Seth Siegelaub-Exhibitions".

Public Movement

Public Movement explores the political and aesthetic possibilities residing in a group of people acting

together. The movement operates in public spaces, studies and creates public choreographies, forms of

social order, overt and covert rituals. Among Public Movement's actions in the past and in the future:

manifestations of presence, fictional acts of hatred, new folk dances, synchronized procedures of

movement, spectacles, marches, inventing and reenacting moments in the life of individuals, communi-

ties, social institutions, peoples, states, and of humanity. It is a representative group, a selected team of

artists, with the prospect of becoming a mass movement. Public Movement was founded in November

2006 by Dana Yahalomi and Omer Krieger, and has since taken responsibility for the following actions:

Accident (2006), Ceremony (2007), The Israel Museum (2007), Also Thus! (Acco, 2007), Rally (Rabin Square,

2007), Operation Free Holon, Change of Guard (With Dani Karavan, Tel-Aviv Museum of Art), Public Move-

ment House (MoBY, Bat-Yam Museum of Art), The 86th Anniversary of the assassination of president

Gabriel Narutowicz by the painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski (National Gallery of Art Zacheta, Warsaw),

Spring in Warsaw (2009), Performing Politics for Germany (2010) and The Reenactment of the Mount Herzl

Terrorist Attack (Upcoming).

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Introductions of the speakers

Introductions of the speakers

Sven Lütticken

Art critic and - historian Sven Lütticken studied art history at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and the

Freie Universiteit, Berlin. Lütticken teaches at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and is editor for De Witte

Raaf. He is the author of the books Secret Publicty (2006) and Idols of the Market (2009). He publishes

regularly in magazines and journals such as e-flux journal, New Left Review, Texte zur Kunst and contrib-

utes to catalogues and exhibitions as writer or guest curator.

Claire Bishop

Claire Bishop (born 1971) is an art historian and critic based in the History of Art Department at CUNY

Graduate Center, New York since September 2008. Previously Bishop was an associate professor in the

Department of Art History at the University of Warwick, Coventry and Visiting Professor in the Curating

Contemporary Art Department at the Royal College of Art, London. Bishop is editor of the highly

regarded volumes Participation (2006) and Installation Art: A Critical History (2005) and is a contributor

to many art journals including Artforum, Flash Art, and October; her essay Antagonism and Relational

Aesthetics, which appeared in October in 2004, remains an influential critique of relational aesthetics.

Bishop is currently working on a history and theory of socially-engaged art. In 2008 she co-curated (with

Mark Sladen) the exhibition Double Agent (ICA, London; Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre; and Baltic

Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead). Bishop lives and works in New York.

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