Zones of Conflict: Rethinking Contemporary Art during Global Crisis

当代艺术为生活在全球化的高级阶段提供了一个独特的视角。比如，巴勒斯坦艺术家Ahlam Shibli拍摄的黯淡照片记录了贝都因人生活在以色列“不为人所知”的村庄；摩洛哥艺术家Yto Barrada拍摄的照片将直布罗陀海峡作为北非和南欧之间的迁移区进行调查；还有英国艺术家Steve McQueen拍摄的令人惊叹但令人不安的视频，它记录了南非煤矿里移民劳工的状况。这一系列研讨会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的连根拔起的社会状况，在这个时期，难民--无论是逃离战区还是逃离可怕的经济状况--正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状况的？他们是如何应对社会、政治、经济不平等的不平衡社会空间的，这些社会空间推动了人口结构的变化？为什么摄影、视频和基于互联网的艺术成为关注战争现实的艺术家的主要媒介？当涉及到军事冲突的经历时，艺术家们是如何创作出挑战大众媒体表现形式和政府宣传壮观程度的图像剧目的？这些问题构成了一系列研讨会的基础，这些研讨会将汇集艺术历史学家、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：恐怖主义时代的全球战争的表现；难民经历的地位；排斥和不平等的国际地理；以及形成散居海外的社会关系的可能性。每个讲习班将由两部分组成：一次公开研讨会，由选定的受邀与会者作专题介绍；另一次是与会者之间的非正式闭门讨论会。该组织打算最大限度地扩大不同受众--感兴趣的公众、学生、参观画廊的人、学者--和研讨会参与者之间的互动潜力。为了接触到不同的公众，会议将在伦敦的几个地点举行，包括布鲁姆斯伯里的伦敦大学学院，以及下列地点：南岸的泰特现代美术馆，伦敦西区的泰特不列颠美术馆，以及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.