Convergences II: Contretemporal Practices of Art and Critical Theory in the Global South
This workshop series is co-organized by the Visual Arts program of the American University in Cairo (AUC), the Art History and Curating program of AUB, and the IZK – Institute for Contemporary Art at Graz University of Technology (Austria), led by Sami Khatib (AUC), Angela Harutyunyan (AUB) and Milica Tomić (IZK). In its initial stage, the research commences in spring 2020 with three sessions of workshops, public talks and presentations, held in Cairo, Beirut and Graz in Spring 2020. The invited artists, curators, art historians, and theorists are invited to share their theoretical views and art practices on the subtopics “Archives without History: The Global Presentism of Contemporary Art,” “Critical Art Historiographies: Revisiting Modernism,” and “Who is Afraid of History? Contretemporal Strategies.“
“Archives without History: The Global Presentism of Contemporary Art” organized and hosted by the Visual Arts program of the American University in Cairo and “Extimacies: Critical Theory from the Global South,” Early Career Scholar Program with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The workshop questions takes up Fredric Jameson’s observation that the spatialization of historical time in late capitalism signals the production of singular gestures and ephemeral and unrepeatable events that Jameson calls the “aesthetics of singularity”. Jameson extends his initial diagnosis to our contemporary moment and coins the term the “aesthetics of singularity” to theorize the regime of the post-historical temporality of the commodity form and the way in which it appears in the domains of finance capital, political theory, the artworld and in recent social movements – from Tahrir to Occupy and Gezi. We take up the challenge of history in the “post-historical” moment of globalized late capitalism to engage with theoretical propositions and artistic positions to elaborate on how to break away from the dead-lock of post-historicity.
DUE TO CORONAVIRUS, THE EVENT WILL BE POSTPONED, MODIFIED, UPDATED AND SITE-SPECIFICALLY ADAPTED.
Program and detailed schedule:
Day 1, Friday, March 20, 1-5pm, Gypsum gallery Maadi, round table and presentations: “Dial History: Artists, Archives and (Contre) Contemporaneity”
1:00-1:15 Welcome address and thematic introduction: Sami Khatib (AUC), Angela Harutyunyan (AUB) and Milica Tomić (IZK), Sara El Adl (Gypsum) 1:15- 2:00 Film Screening: Alain Resnais, Toute la mémoire du monde (1956, ‘22) 2:00-2:15 Coffee Break 2:15-3:15 Round-Table chaired by Angela Harutyunyan (AUB) and Sami Khatib (AUC), invited guests: Mahmoud Khaled (artist and curator) and Milica Tomić (researcher and artist, IZK) 3:30-3:15 Coffee break 3:30- 5:30 Film Screening and Q & A: Philip Rizk and Jasmina Metwaly’s film “Out on the Streets,” co-director Philip Rizk will be present
Day 2, Saturday, March 21, 2-6pm AUC TCC, Round-tables and lecture “Global Presentism: Archiving Practices and the Challenge of History”
2:00 - 2:15 Welcome address and thematic introduction: Sami Khatib (AUC), Angela Harutyunyan (AUB), Milica Tomić (IZK) and Surti Singh (AUC) 2:15 - 3:30 Keynote lecture and Q&A, Angela Harutyunyan (AUB), chaired by Sami Khatib (AUC) 3:30 - 3:45 coffee break and refreshments 3:45 - 4:45 Artist presentations and roundtable I, chaired by Duncan McDonald (AUC) with Ghalia Srakbi (AUC) and Bahia Shehab (AUC) 4:45 - 5:45 Artist presentations and roundtable II, chaired by Milica Tomić (IZK) with Sherif El Azma (AUC) and Shady Elnoshokaty (AUC)
