Common Skies, Divided Horizons

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Common Skies, Divided Horizons
Supported by the Goethe-Institut London and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London

Saturday 25 June 2011, 2-6.30pm
Quarterhouse, Mill Bay, Folkestone, CT20 1BN.

Extending the 2011 Folkestone Triennial’s theme of gateways and borders, Common Skies, Divided Horizons (after Stuart Hall) provides a platform to debate new developments in public art and its relation to changing political contexts. There will be a particular emphasis on transitions that have taken place in the wake of globalisation, the de-territorialised and re-territorialised new geographies that have developed, and the reinvention of new national identities.

14:00pm – Introduction by Andrea Schlieker, curator, Folkestone Triennial

14:15pm – Session 1: Fear of migrants
With its history as a port town and terminus of the Orient Express, together with its proximity to Dover, and both the Eurotunnel and Eurostar, Folkestone is acutely aware of its position as a border town. Following the tightening of immigration regulations and hardening of anti-immigrant feeling, it is imperative to discuss the role of migrants in Britain today, making connections with situations across the world, where refugee camps have become a permanent home for some, while others are condemned to be constantly on the move.

Keynote Lecture – Saskia Sassen: When powerlessness becomes complex: making history.
Renowned sociologist Saskia Sassen will give a short lecture arguing that, while migrants may be poor and powerless, they are making history in multiple ways. For Sassen, the most powerful states in the world are distorting their state projects by their obsession with controlling these vulnerable and overwhelmingly honest job or safety seekers, who bring vernacular cosmopolitanism into our settled middle-class societies. Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and co-chairs the Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University. Recent books include Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages; A Sociology of Globalization; and Cities in a World Economy (4th edition).

Panel Discussion:
Following her lecture, Saskia Sassen will be joined in conversation by Pat Storey, Folkestone Migrant Support Group; Colin Prescod, Chair: Institute of Race Relations; and Triennial artist Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen.

Break

3.45pm – Session 2: New geographies
In an expanded cultural sphere, what is the pressure for artists to represent national identities, while remaining intelligible to a global audience? How can artists react to the huge political changes and humanitarian trauma that continue to take place in the Middle East and North Africa? Slavoj Zizek recently warned that we were heading towards a state of social apartheid, a world divided by the threats of financial and ecological disasters, and vastly uneven access to technology and resources. Despite the rise in social networking, can we talk of a cultural apartheid, where many artists do not have access to an international cultural network or are censored in their attempts to communicate across borders?

Panel Discussion:
TJ Demos, critic and author of the forthcoming book Migrations: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Globalization; Nina Möntmann, curator and Professor of Art Theory and the History of Ideas at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm; and Triennial artists Smadar Dreyfus and CAMP.Chair: Anthony Downey, Programme Director, MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.

Break

5.15pm – Session 3: Art & Resistance
In cultural terms, the first decade of the 21st century has been characterised by an increasing politicisation of artists in a rapidly expanding art world. The boundaries between art and activism are becoming blurred, and artists make frequent references to political and economic theories. But how effective is art as a form of resistance or in offering an alternative model for the future?

Panel Discussion:
Amanda Beech, artist, writer and co-director of the Political Currency of Art Research Group; JJ Charlesworth, associate editor, ArtReview; and Triennial artists Hala Elkoussy and Zineb Sedira. Chair: Richard Noble, political philosopher and editor, Utopias.

6.30pm – End

Places are free, early booking recommended. Click here to book online or call 0845 202 0190.