Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
The New School, Kellen Auditorium
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
55 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street, ground floor
20 Free Admission
Bringing together leading theorists of contemporary art and culture, curators and artists, How Can Art Affect Political Change? addresses the complex relationship between creative practice and political activism. The wave of Arab Spring revolutions and the growth of the global Occupy movements have ignited a reassessment of the intersection of art, economics and politics. Key presentations by Andrea Geyer, Marisa Jahn, Josh MacPhee, Mitch McEwen, Nicholas Mirzoeff, and Benjamin Young examine the shifting parameters of socially engaged art and theory within the context of these emerging political events. The discussion is introduced and moderated by Natalie Musteata. The panel is organized in conjunction with the exhibition UNREST: Revolt against Reason, curated by Natalie Musteata, currently on view at apexart until October 27, 2012. The exhibition presents eight contemporary artists—mounir fatmi, Claire Fontaine, Shilpa Gupta, Iman Issa, Tala Madani, Ahmet Öǧüt, Tomàš Rafa, and Alexandre Singh—who critically engage with issues of inequity, conflict, and instability in recent history. For more information about the exhibition, please visit www.apexart.org/exhibitions/musteata.php.
Participants: Andrea Geyer, artist and Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, Parsons The New School for Design , Marisa Jahn, artist, writer, and community organizer Josh MacPhee, artist, curator, and activist Mitch McEwen, Founding Principal, A. Conglomerate Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University Natalie Musteata, PhD student, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY Benjamin Young, PhD candidate, Department of Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley
Organized and presented by apexart and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, in conjunction with the center’s New School class Art & the Political and the exhibition UNREST: Revolt against Reason at apexart
Claire Fontaine, “Untitled (Clichy Sous Bois, Nov. 2005)”, 2006. Cardboard, gesso, pencil and smoke. Courtesy the artist
