Contemporary Memorials
Friday September 26, 2008 at the Wanås main art gallery, 10.30–17.00
In connection to this year’s exhibition, Loss, the Wanås Foundation arranges the seminar Contemporary Memorials, in collaboration with the Department of Art and Music History at the Lund Univesity, Sweden. The seminar offers an in-depth discussion about the aesthetics and interpretation of contemporary memorials. In today’s democratic societies, memorials need to be accepted by a majority of citizens. Monuments created during past times, within other social frameworks and norms, rarely function as role models today. Their authoritarian qualities are not accepted anymore. The purpose of the seminar is to highlight the distance between the desires for figurative artistic forms, in accordance to past ideals, and present art expressions. The knowledge of contemporary memorials has to increase. Not until then can they reach the legitimacy needed to act as unifying forces after difficult events.
Participants: Ph.D. Patrick Amsellem, Associate Curator of Photography at the Brooklyn Museum, Ph.D. Max Liljefors at the Lund University, Marita Sturken, Professor at the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at the New York University and James E. Young, Professor of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Moderator: Rosie Branson Gill at Brown University. Participants also include Jon Brunberg, Ann Böttcher, Alejandra Lundén, and Esther Shalev-Gerz (all artists in Loss) as well as Ph.D. Tanja Schult. There will be a special guided tour of the exhibition Loss.
Made possible through generous contributions from Kultur Skåne, Stiftelsen framtidens kultur and Stiftelsen Längmanska kulturfonden.