WORKSHOP
Organized by:
Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) - Sofia
Cultural Center of the Sofia University
Within the framework of two initiatives:
- the "Cultural History of the Present" cycle of the Cultural Center of the Sofia University;
- the conference "Capital(ism's) Punishment - the Inability to Imagine a Future", part of the ICA-Sofia contribution to the project "Art of Urban Intervention" (AOUI)
November 7th, 2010, Sunday, 11 am – 2 pm
Sofia University, New Conference Room (Main Building, South Wing, Shipka St. Entrance, 2 fl.)
November 8th, 2010, Monday, 11 am – 2 pm and 6pm – 8 pm
ICA-Sofia Gallery, 134, Vassil Levski Blvd. (entry from Ekzarh Iosif St.)
The workshop aims to put forward the following issues:
the actual or imagined lack of alternatives to capitalism; possibilities for "critique without utopia"; history and alternative histories of utopia and thinking about the future; the limits of imagination and the possibility to think of the subject beyond the capitalist framework. Who are the possible agents for such alternative thinking? What is the role of contemporary art? What is the role of this kind of contemporary art which is actively engaging with the urban environment?
As part of the work on the project "Art of Urban Intervention", "Capital(ism's) Punishment - the inability to imagine a future" takes further the problematic of the Visual Seminar project from 2003-2006 (dealing with investigation and intervention into the interface of Sofia). The goal is to compare the investigations into two types of urban subject – a/ the one constructed by the neo-capitalist developments in the society and the city after 1989; and b/ the post-capitalist subject that is seen as impossible in the context of the classical capitalist city of western Europe. The work on this part of the project continues with presentations on Monday, November 8th in the space of ICA-Sofia Gallery (see program bellow).
The workshop is an overture of the upcoming conference "Models for Thinking the Future". It provides an opportunity to invite in Sofia foreign and Bulgarian experts in cultural studies, philosophers, curators, theoreticians and activists that are working on similar or related issues to present their findings. The aim is to compare various viewpoints in free discussion.
Participants in the workshop are: Prof. Marion von Osten, Vienna; Prof. Ekaterina Degot, Moscow; Prof. Stiliyan Yotov, Boyan Manchev PhD, Ass. Prof. Alexander Kiossev, and Ass. Prof. Todor Hristov from Sofia.