2nd FORMER WEST Research Congress

On its first day, the Congress explores the notion of the horizon in contemporary art and critical theory. Taking as our starting point the idea that the horizon is what frames our sense of direction of possibility and impossibility, the contributors speculate along two lines of orientation. On the one hand, the question of how and where the horizon must be situated in order to be effectual is considered. On the other, the issue of the horizon as an image is explored, in order to connect political imaginaries and artistic production. In this sense, the horizon is produced in the intersection between aesthetics and politics.

Moderator: Boris Buden (cultural critic and writer, Berlin)

13.00–13.15
Welcome
Maria Hlavajova and Fulya Erdemci

13.15–13.45
Opening Remarks
Maria Hlavajova

13.45–14.00
Introduction 
Boris Buden

14.00–14.40
Lecture
Expecting the Unexpected: Once more on the “Horizon of Expectations”

15.15–15.55
Lecture
Projects in the Absence of Signposts

Çağlar Keyder 

16.05–16.45
Lecture
Rear view Vision: History Enthusiasm and History Anxiety 

Julie Ault 

17.15–17.55
Lecture
Vectors of the Possible: Art between Spaces of Experience and Horizons of Expectation 

18.05–19.30
Discussion
Julie Ault, Çağlar Keyder, Peter Osborne, and Simon Sheikh

Reviewer: Erden Kosova

Whereas the metaphor of a horizon suggests an expansive outlook and a field of possibilities, the notion of horizontality is associated with being on a single plane with little sense of orientation. Is horizontality a form of spatial production driven by the principle of radical equality? How might this shift our understanding of the public and the commons? Contributors examine how various geographies of horizontality, both conceptually and in practice, are played out in urban forms, exhibition making, institutions and social organization. The enactment of horizontality is seen as the link between the “space of experience” and the “horizon of expectation.”

Moderator: Vivian Rehberg (art historian and critic, FORMER WEST research curator, Paris/Utrecht)

10.00–10.15
Introduction
Fulya Erdemci 

10.15–10.55
Lecture
The Exhibition as an Archive

11.05–11.45
Lecture 
Practicing Art. Imagining Politics 

12.15–12.55
Lecture
The Communist Horizon 

13.05–14.30
Discussion
Beatriz Colomina, Jodi Dean, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta

16.00–17.30
Conversation
Bülent Diken and Wouter Vanstiphout 

17.30–19.00
Conversation
Vasif Kortun and Lisette Lagnado

Reviewer: Övül Durmuşoğlu

How are new horizons imagined, speculated upon, visualized, and materialized through contemporary art? This question concerns not just the historical and conceptual connections (and divisions) that have long existed between aesthetics and politics, but also the political tendencies that can be found in artistic production after 1989. How is a particular kind of politics of representation and representation of politics articulated in contemporary artistic production, art theory, curatorial work, and through the production and dissemination of cultural discourses more generally? And how does this connect to the aesthetic dimension of contemporary politics? The task is not only to look at the relationship between art and politics, but to see art as political imagination.

Moderator: TJ Demos (art historian and critic, London)

10.00–10.15
Introduction
TJ Demos

10.15–10.55
Lecture
In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment

11.05–11.45
Lecture
Aesthetic Horizons

Gerald Raunig 

12.15–12.55
Lecture
On Horizons and Discourse
Ernesto Laclau

13.05–14.30
Discussion
Ernesto Laclau, Gerald Raunig, and Hito Steyerl

16.00–17.30
Conversation
Robert Sember and Dmitry Vilensky 

17.30–18.00
Wrap up and Conclusions
Maria Hlavajova and Simon Sheikh

Reviewer: Pelin Tan (sociologist and art historian, Istanbul)