What is the status of difference: as moral imperative, sociological fact, cultural strategy or a form of aesthetic engagement? This series is a year-long platform for leading artists and thinkers to layout their visions about the status of cultural difference in the fast-evolving visual arts landscape.
Here's Paul Goodwin, Cross Cultural Curator, Tate Britain, to explain further:
Eminent geographer and writer Doreen Massey challenges some of the current thinking about space and difference, asking if the very notion of place can be reworked to have progressive meaning in a globalised world. Is it time to re-imagine the geographies of difference?
And here's some infomation about previous lectures:
Entangled Modernities Wednesday 12 November 2008, 18.30-20.00 Writer and critic Kobena Mercer discusses how cross-cultural perspectives modify the standard picture of twentieth-century art; presenting ‘difference’ as a question of mutual entanglements among multiple modernisms and expanding out understanding of the conditions within which art circulates. Responded to by art historian Dr Dorothy Rowe.
Post-Identity and Difference Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Debates, So Different, So Appealing? Wednesday 26 November 2008, 18.30-20.00 Writer, critic and curator Gilane Tawadros offers an insight into the shifting nature of ‘difference’, drawing on her ongoing engagement with artistic and curatorial practices in both the UK, Europe and Southern hemisphere. Responded to by artist Sonia Boyce.
The Otolith Group Nervus Rerum Wednesday 4 February 2009, 18.30-20.00 The Otolith Group, founded in 2000 by artist Anjalika Sagar and writer and theorist Kodwo Eshun, presents Nervus Rerum (2008) and talk about their artistic work which rethinks various archives of futurity though moving image, sound, text and curatorial practice. Chaired by Paul Goodwin, Curator: Cross Cultural, Tate Britain.
Thelma Golden Post-Black Art Now Wednesday 11 March 2009, 18.30-20.00 Curator and writer Thelma Golden reflects upon the status of the term ‘post-black art’ in the context of debates about the globalisation of the art of the African diaspora and current notions of cultural difference.
This series, which began in December 2008, aims to generate fresh perspectives on the art in Tate Britain’s displays. In dialogue with key art works, themes such as modernity, class, post-colonialism and aesthetics are tackled by artists from cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary viewpoints. Here’s the Cross Cultural Curator, Paul Goodwin, to say a bit more about it…
And here's some information about previous Conversation Pieces:
Ingrid Pollard on Landscape Wednesday 10 December 2008, 14.00–15.00 Artist and photographer Ingrid Pollard reflects upon her artistic practice in conversation with key landscape works from Tate Britain’s collection displays.
Susan Stockwell Transforming the Everyday Thursday 5 February 2009, 14.00-15.30 Sculptor Susan Stockwell responds to themes of trade, mapping, recycling and re-appropriation both in her own work and key works in the collection.
Raimi Gbadamosi Race, Power and Language Thursday 12 March 2009, 14.00-15.30 Artist and theorist Raimi Gbadamosi asks crucial questions of race, language and power, referring to both the Tate Collection and his own practice: ‘What do I do?’, ‘What did they do?’ and ‘What do we all do now?’
Maria Kheirkhah: The Anatomy of Ignorance. Part III 1001 Questions Thursday 23 April 2009, 14.00-15.30 Installation and performance artist Maria Kheirkhah discusses issues around the relationship between artists, artworks and audiences within specific institutional and cultural contexts.
Nada Prlja Return of the Red Bourgeoisie Friday 15 May 2009. 14.00-15.30 Yugoslavian artist Nada Prlja’s art historical education was illustrated by crude black and white reproductions or photocopies of many works from the Tate Collection, here she revisits these works through her memories of growing up as part of the ‘red bourgeoisie’.
Leo Asemota Beyond Portraiture Wednesday 3 June 2009, 14.00-15.30 Artist Leo Asemota explains how his practice, and The Ens Project, expands traditions of portraiture through the complex layering of history, culture, memory and identity.
