A detailed program and video recordings of all 1st FORMER WEST Congress contributions are available here.
Between 5 and 7 November 2009, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst hosts the 1st FORMER WEST Congress, which gathers some of the most influential curators, artists, theorists, and thinkers of the past two decades from the field of art. This is the first major public program of the long-term, multifaceted international research, education, publishing, and exhibition project FORMER WEST (2008–2016). The 1st FORMER WEST Congress begins mapping the artistic and theoretical developments surrounding the problematic of the “formerness” of the West, and charts the practices in art through which we can identify and engage with the post-1989 landscape and its impact on cultural production.
Participants: Claire Bishop (art critic, London/New York), Rosi Braidotti (director Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University, Utrecht), Thomas Boutoux (curator, Paris), Cosmin Costinas (curator BAK, Utrecht), Helmuth Draxler (curator, Stuttgart/Vienna), Charles Esche (director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven), Okwui Enwezor (curator, New York/San Francisco), Boris Groys (theorist, New York), Douglas Gordon (artist, Berlin), Paul Gilroy (sociologist, London), Jalal Toufic (artist, Istanbul), Christian Hoeller (editor, Vienna), Stefan Heidenreich (writer, Berlin), Tom Holert(art historian, Berlin/Vienna), Ana Longoni (art historian, Buenos Aires), Pablo Lafuente (managing editor Afterall, London), Sven Lütticken (art critic, Utrecht), Nuria Enguita-Mayo (curator, Valencia), Mihnea Mircan (curator, Bucharest), Sarat Maharaj (art historian, Lund), Marion von Osten (artist, Berlin/Vienna), Piotr Piotrowski (art historian, Poznan/Warsaw), David Riff (art critic, Moscow), Kathrin Rhomberg (curator, Berlin Biennial 6, Berlin), Kerstin Stakemeier (curator, Berlin), Renata Salecl (philosopher, Ljubljana/London), Simon Sheikh (curator, Berlin).
Venue: Ottone, Kromme Nieuwegracht 62, Utrecht.
For more information regarding FORMER WEST, see formerwest.org.
