Friday 3 July 2009

Visual and Material Culture Research Centre

Dorich House, Kingston University, London.

The concept of the avant-garde is arguably the most important and influential one in the history of modern art, but it is a notion often left unexamined. We are prompted to ask – which avant-garde? In the context of the recent popularity of a return to the issues of modernism within contemporary art and criticism, this conference proposes a critical re-engagement with the theory, histories and politics of the avant-garde.

The conference is intended to make original connections between a range of moments in the history of the artistic avant-garde, and to explore its relevance for contemporary cultural and social issues. It will focus, in particular, on the endurance of avant-garde approaches across the twentieth-century and their contemporary resonances.

Keynote speakers: Sylvere Lotringer, Franco Berardi, Gerald Raunig.

Full Program:

Sylvere Lotringer – Keynote Speech.

Gavin Grindon – On Strike Against Society: Aesthetic and Political Autonomy in the Project of the Radical Avant-Garde.

David Cottington – Historicising the ‘Historic Avant-Garde.’

Gerald Raunig – Beyond Avant: Flight-Lines of a Non-Linear Revolution.

Anja Kanngeiser – The Aesthetic-Political Gestures of Berlin Dada and the Situationist International.

Gillian Whiteley – Provocative Praxis: Activism and the Political Avant-Garde.

Franco Berardi – The Century That Trusted in the Future

Lina Stergiou – Beyond the Myth of Creative Genius: Architecture and Activism.

Stevphen Shukaitis – The Artistic Dérivative, or Splitting Dead Hares

Prices:

Day pass, including lunch and drinks: £60 / Student concession: £25

To book please contact G.Grindon@kingston.ac.uk