aporrox

Allan Sekula 1951-2013

by

The Forgotten Space follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians, and those marginalized by the global transport system. We visit displaced farmers and villagers in Holland and Belgium, underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles, seafarers aboard mega-ships shuttling between Asia and Europe, and factory workers in China, whose low wages are the fragile key to the whole puzzle. And in Bilbao, we discover the most sophisticated expression of the belief that the maritime economy, and the sea itself, is somehow obsolete.

“Putting Public Space in its Place,” Harvard GSD Conference on Public Space

by

Putting Public Space in its Place

 

HarvardUniversity

A Harvard Conference on Public Space

March 7, 5–8pm & March 8, 2013, 8:30–6pm

 

Piper Auditorium

HarvardGraduateSchool Of Design

Cambridge, MA

Free & open to the public

In a digital age, people will reflect upon 2011 as the year in which physical public space reclaimed its lofty status in the public sphere. From Tahrir Square to ZuccottiPark, physical public space reminded us of its multiple ambitions and capabilities for accommodating consequential political activities as well as everyday leisurely pursuits. Put plainly, place still matters. This conference at HarvardUniversity will focus on physical (corporeal, material, tangible) public space. Physical public space comes in many flavors: publicly owned parks, streets, and sidewalks, privately owned public spaces, privately managed public parks, and temporary spaces that appear and disappear within a parking spot, under a bridge, in a surface parking lot, or anywhere else.

The production of public space simultaneously implicates and transcends technical decisions with regard to design, financing, and management considerations. Who should design public space? Should public spaces be designed at all? How should success of a public space be measured? Can the private sector participate in public space provision without a loss of “publicness”? Do achievements of democracy and equality depend on ample availability of public space? Can public space make a meaningful contribution to solving the world’s environmental problems, including storm water flooding? Are there universals of public space that define its use and appearance no matter where the space is located? Are temporary or informal public spaces a fad or breakthrough? Can theory inform, or better inform, practice? Public space scholars, practitioners, and activists will discuss and debate these and other questions along with an engaged audience. Attendance at the conference is free and open to the public.

MOMA: Performing Histories

by

Performing Histories (1)

September 12, 2012–August 5, 2013

The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Media Gallery, second floor

 

Performing Histories (1) presents works that use time-based art forms to reflect on interpretations of history. The works, which have all recently entered the Museum’s collection, represent the diverse practices of the artists: Kader Attia (b. France, 1970), Andrea Fraser (b. USA, 1965), Ion Grigorescu (b. Romania, 1945), Sharon Hayes (b. USA, 1970), Dorit Margreiter (b. Austria, 1967), Deimantas Narkevičius (b. Lithuania, 1964), and Martha Rosler (b. USA, 1943).

The practices, exemplified in these works, of revisiting existing narratives and examining one’s own cultural, social, and personal history are not bound to any specific medium; they are part of critical artistic practice, in general. In recent decades, artists have increasingly chosen to employ performance in conjunction with cinematic mediums, such as film, slide projection, video, and photography, in orderto create multifaceted narratives and provide new readings of past events.

Exploring social and political conditions and reconsidering their own personal pasts, the participating artists in Performing Histories (1)have deconstructed histories, focusing on the ambiguity of history and the impact of ideologies on individual and collective consciousness. The installation guides the visitors through a space of diverse readings in which connections can be drawn across different perspectives on history. Examining history as both document and fiction, the exhibited works raise questions about how the past is constructed and how it can inform the present.

(…)