Visualization of Research Panel
Vasıf Kortun, Mario Rizzi (Moderated by Tirdad Zolghadr)

What happens when you emphasize the archival function of the museum today? Isn’t it kind of a paradox within the paradigm of what we call the contemporary to turn an exhibition structure into a museological memory machine? What kind of a knowledge factory is this supposed to be? What exactly is it supposed to produce? Are artworks now research proposals? Is the museum a website? What kind of social history is being catalogued here? Who is it being stored for? Why does every artist in the archive have to be justified as some kind of social movement or pivotal historical moment? To what end are we being functionalized under the auspices of all this knowledge and research? Another way of asking the question could be: why are they so desperate to have so many new museums of contemporary art in the Gulf and in China?

PRODUCE: the New Artwork Panel

Gülsün Karamustafa, Khalil Rabah, Hajnalka Somogyi (Moderated by Tirdad Zolghadr)

Seriously, what do we really want from infrastructure? In subsidized cushy European capitals artists talk about destabilizing rigid structures and shaking things loose. But when no immediate infrastructure for art production can be taken for granted, artists are often forced to create infrastructure and superstructure alike just to make anything happen at all. This might make some very strong artists, and it might make some artists very strong. All fine and well, but then why is everyone so suspicious that all of this productive energy is actually being fed into something completely diabolical? Hajnalka, Khalil, and Gülsün have been at it for a while, let’s ask them.

Nothing Gets Organised Talk

Gabi Ngcobo

In this talk Gabi Ngcobo will muse over the life and precarious existence of the collaborative platform and pseudo institution Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR), focusing on its local relevance and international collaborations.

KEYNOTE

Hoor Al-Qasimi

Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi will be talking about Sharjah Art Foundation and her involvement and vision for the Foundation over the years.