International conference
PRESENT’S DISJUNCTIVE UNITY. CONSTRUCTING AND DECONSTRUCTING HISTORIES OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL AND AESTHETIC PRACTICES
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 26 – 28 November 2015
THE CONFERENCE
What concepts of „the contemporary“ are there around the world? What are their historical contexts? What cultural, aesthetic and artistic theories and practices did they generate?
The concept of „the contemporary“ in art and culture has its own history; paradoxically, contemporaneity in itself is historical. It is also determined by the many cultural and regional contexts in which ideas of the present and contemporaneity are negotiated. Hence, there are varying histories of the contemporary, each informed by specific socio-political conditions and geo-political power structures. Historical turning points such as the end of the Second World War in 1945 or the end of the Cold War in 1989 prompted certain narratives of contemporaneity and shaped specific historiographical modes through which people in different places reflect on meanings and patterns of the past in relation to the present and tell stories in different ways.
The conference combines socio-political, historical and other theoretical perspectives, seeking appropriate categories for these different historiographical genealogies.
RESEARCH NETWORK FOR CRITICAL TRANSCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON ARTISTIC AND VISUAL PRACTICES (PRELIMINARY TITLE)
The conference is conceived as a kick-off event for the international and cross-disciplinary „Research Network for Critical Transcultural Perspectives on Artistic and Visual Practices“ (preliminary title) – a critical, interdisciplinary and international research association of post-doctoral researchers, who study phenomena and processes of cultural exchange. Overcoming the institutional confines of projects, departments and universities, the network shall provide an international and interdisciplinary forum for open and critical debate on how to identify and cope with common pressing, often methodological problems of this research perspective.