Common Grounds. Learning from the Contexts and Communities | symposium | (2018)

Symposium
Common Grounds. Learning from the Contexts and Communities, 2018

Organizers:
IKT
Leonardo/ISAST
CSW Laznia
Coordinator&Program Consultant: Zofia Cielatkowska

The symposium was a part of the IKT (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art) Congress 2018 – an annual conference held each time in a different place, which acts as a moment to come together and to discover the cultural scene of a chosen location.

Panellists: Nina Czegledy, Roger Malina, Jens Hauser, Edith Dekyndt, and Emily Gee

Nina Czegledy
Contemporary Art Practice: An Exploration Of Alternative Strategies

Roger Malina
If you have to plug it in, It cannot be Art?: The Expanding Edge of Art

Jens Hauser
Fruitful misunderstandings in art/science in the epistemological turn

Edith Dekyndt
DistopaliaEmily GeeBaa Baa Baric, Collaboratively creating a quiet revolution

Common Grounds: Learning from Contexts and Communities
The idea that art has fluid borders and works at the edges of different disciplines, contexts, and communities is not new. However, the way it appears in contemporary practices and theories requires a fresh analysis. Such concepts as engagement, participation or interdisciplinarity in art projects are usually considered as enriching, educating or breaking the rules.
What do participative and interdisciplinary projects give us? What are we really learning from them? Is the idea of engaging with specific areas of knowledge and with specific communities a mere rhetorical concept, or does it contribute to significant changes? If so, what constitutes this ‘new’ value? What is it based on? How has this situation changed in recent years? Is there a need for new tools, directions or ideas to describe the aforementioned phenomena? And, last but not least, how can we define these common ground(s)?
The symposium was dedicated to Leonardo/ISAST, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2018. Leonardo is the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (new media) that operates within the global network of distinguished scholars, artists, scientists, researchers and thinkers through programmes focused on interdisciplinary work, creative solutions and innovation. For an organization that defines itself like that, the question of common grounds seems crucial.

More about the project >> Common Grounds. Learning from Contexts and Communities