Zones of Conflict: Rethinking Contemporary Art during Global Crisis

当代艺术为我们提供了一个独特的视角，让我们了解在全球化的高级阶段生活意味着什么。例如，考虑一下巴勒斯坦艺术家Ahlam Shibli的那些凄凉的照片，这些照片记录了生活在以色列“不被承认的”村庄的贝都因人；或者摩洛哥艺术家Yto Barrada的作品，他将直布罗陀海峡作为北非和南欧之间的移民区进行了调查；或者英国艺术家史蒂夫·麦奎因（Steve McQueen）拍摄的令人震惊但又令人不安的视频，这些视频记录了南非一个煤矿里移民工人的工作条件。本系列工作坊将探讨当代艺术如何调查当今战争和恐怖主义的创伤和暴力条件。它还将考虑当今全球社会中流离失所的社会状况，在这个时期，无论是逃离战区还是逃离可怕的经济环境，难民都在改变世界各地文化的社会构成。艺术家们是如何面对这些情况的？他们是如何应对不平衡的社会空间——社会、政治、经济的不平等——这导致了人口结构的变化？为什么摄影、录像和网络艺术成为关注战争现实的艺术家的首要媒介？当涉及到军事冲突的经验时，艺术家们是如何创作出一种与大众媒体的壮观表现和政府宣传相抗衡的图像库的？这些问题构成了一系列研讨会的基础，这些研讨会将聚集国际艺术史学家、建筑师、媒体理论家、艺术评论家和策展人，讨论当代艺术如何与全球化的四个关键主题相关：恐怖主义时代全球战争的表现；难民经历的状况；排斥与不平等的国际地理；以及形成流散社会关系的可能性。每个讲习班将包括两个部分：一个公开讨论会，由选定的应邀参加者发表演讲；以及参与者之间的非正式闭门讨论。该组织旨在最大限度地发挥不同受众之间互动的潜力——感兴趣的公众、学生、画廊观众、学者和研讨会参与者。为了接触到不同的公众，会议将在伦敦的几个地点举行，包括布卢姆斯伯里的伦敦大学学院，以及以下地点：南岸的泰特现代美术馆，伦敦西区的泰特英国美术馆，以及伦敦东区的国际视觉艺术学院（InIVA）。

Contemporary art offers a unique perspective on what it means to live during the advanced stage of globalisation. Consider, for instance, the bleak photographs of Palestinian artist Ahlam Shibli, which document Bedouins living in 'unrecognized' villages in Israel; or those of Moroccan artist Yto Barrada, which investigate the Strait of Gibraltar as a zone of migration between North Africa and Southern Europe; or the stunning yet disturbing videos of British artist Steve McQueen, which record the conditions of migrant laborers in a coal mine in South Africa. This workshop series will explore how contemporary art investigates the traumatic and violent conditions of war and terrorism today. It will also consider the uprooted social conditions in today's global society, during a period when refugees--whether fleeing from war zones or from dire economic circumstances--are changing the social makeup of cultures worldwide. How are artists confronting these conditions? How have they negotiated the uneven social spaces--of social, political, economic inequality--that have driven demographic shifts? Why has photography, video, and internet-based art become the foremost mediums of artists who focus on the reality of war? How have artists produced an image repertoire that contests the spectacularization of mass media representations and governmental publicity when it comes to the experience of military conflict?These questions form the basis of a series of workshops, which will gather an international grouping of art historians, architects, media theorists, art critics, and curators to consider how contemporary art relates to four key subjects of globalisation: the representation of global warfare in the age of terrorism; the status of refugee experience; the international geographies of exclusion and inequality; and the possibilities for the formation of diasporic social relations. Each workshop will comprise two parts: a public seminar of presentations by select invited participants; and an informal closed-door discussion session between participants. This organization intends to maximize the potential for interactions between both diverse audiences--the interested public, students, gallery-goers, academics--and workshop participants. In order to reach diverse publics, sessions will be held at several locations in London, including University College London in Bloomsbury, and at the following sites: Tate Modern in South Bank, Tate Britain in London's West End, and the Institute of International Visual Arts (InIVA) in the East End.