SYMPOSIUM

How do we imagine our others? How do they imagine us? We are living through a time of tremendous ideological confusion, one where advances in inclusion coincide with increasing polarization in many societies and where unprecedented global connectivity has triggered a worldwide rise in isolationist authoritarianism. Meanwhile, news reports about ongoing military conflicts and ecological crises are daily reminders that the humanitarian values that emerged from the horrors of World War II have always existed in an uneasy and increasingly untenable balance with power politics.

Institutions for modern and contemporary art must navigate this shifting terrain in real time while facing scrutiny from both the left and the right over issues ranging from freedom of expression to decolonization to financial transparency. For much of its history art has been complicit in othering as much as imagining different people and cultures. But imagining our others also entails stepping outside ourselves to imagine other possibilities for being in and perceiving the world. How can emerging artistic practices propose new forms of solidarity across difference and likeness, remoteness and proximity? How can exhibition makers and other art practitioners work with and through today’s ideological contradictions to maintain the transnational horizons of contemporary art?

This year’s AWT Talks Symposium invites three international curators to address these issues through reflection on their recent curatorial projects. Susanne Pfeffer, director of the Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, will present the keynote address. The discussion will be held in English and Japanese with simultaneous translation.

LOCATION

West School Building Hall
Keio University Mita Campus

DATES AND TIMES

November 7, 10am–12:30pm

ADMISSION

Free, reservation required

The AWT Talks Symposium is organized by Andrew Maerkle and Yuko Shiomi for Art Week Tokyo in conjunction with the Keio University Art Center and Keio Museum Commons.