Conference on the occasion of the exhbition Don't Worry – Be Curious!
(2007 10 25 16:10)
4th Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art at Pori Art Museum on October 25-26, 2007
The conference offers a platform for discussing and deepening the topics and questions raised in the exhibition Don’t Worry – Be Curious! 4th Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art. The background for both, the exhibition and the conference, is Europe’s social, political, and economic reality in the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. This reality is currently marked by restructuring processes that have led to a collapse in a continuity of location, a volatility in stable social relationships, and increasing individualization, on the one hand, and growing unemployment, passivity, and disenchantment with politics, on the other. In contrast to this situation, many artistic works have a positive energy that encourage people not to subscribe to the general pessimism, but rather to address the problems and to be open to scrutinize his or her own patterns of perception.
Throughout the conference the speakers will take a closer look at some of the threads, fears and problems connected to the restructuring processes in Europe’s present day societies: Why do people feel insecure and what strategies can be developed against the prevalent pessimistic mood? Why are social minorities discriminated? Why do nationalist tendencies increase everywhere, and how is this connected to the different historical backgrounds in Eastern and Western Europe? How and why are social insecurities and fears instrumentalized by politics and economics? Which role do images play in this context and how do the media influence perception, thought and knowledge? What strategies do artists have to initiate critical processes of reflection?
Participants Dorothee Bienert, curator, Berlin | Boris Buden, philosopher, cultural theorist, Berlin | Sebastian Cichocki, sociologist, director of Kronika, Bytom, curator of the Polish Pavillion in Venice | Ekaterina Degot, curator and critic, Moscow | Kaspars Goba, artist, Riga | Lolita Jablonskiene, chief curator of the National Gallery, Vilnius | Kati T. Kivinen, curator at Kiasma, Helsinki | Enrico Lunghi, director of Casino Luxembourg | Chuz Martinez, director of Kunstverein Frankfurt | Anu Pennanen, artist, Helsinki | Annika Persson, philosopher, author, Berlin/Stockholm | Khaled D. Ramadan, artist, author, Copenhagen | Hanno Soans, curator at KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn | Hito Steyerl, filmmaker, artist, author, Berlin | Antje Weitzel, curator, Berlin | Tuomas Ylä-Anttila, sociologist, Helsinki
Conference Program
Workshops for students
24.10.2007, 10-15 h, "Private Events and Public History" with Petra Bauer
25.10.2007, 10-15 h, "The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself" with Hito Steyerl
More info on these sites: ARS BALTICA, 4th Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art , Pori Art Museum