The Exhibition - Politics of a Ritual

The workshop will proceed from Dorothea von Hantelmann’s sociocritical understanding of art exhibitions in terms of ritual spaces, in which values and abstract principles of modern societies are negotiated. Starting from the definition of exhibitions as a specifically modern form of relating artworks, objects, time, space and bodies that reflects the structure of our societies, the workshop will concentrate on issues and questions raised by specific exhibition formats. In this respect, a link will be established with Michela Sacchetto PhD research on the politics of visualization in Harald Szeemann’s exhibitions of the 1970s, in particular The Bachelor Machines (1975/76), an exhibition devoted to the supposedly modern myth of the « bachelor » and its related themes of life, love and art.

Program:
3:00 – 3:15 pm: Alexander Streitberger and Michela Sacchetto, Introduction

3:15 – 3:45 pm: Michela Sacchetto, Considerations about the “mythical” exhibitions designed by Harald Szeemann in the 1970s

3.45 – 4.30 pm: Dorothea von Hantelmann, A sociocritical approach to exhibition studies and the embodiment of abstract principles within the exhibition as a space/time/object ritual

4.30 - 4.45 pm : Break

4.45 – 6:00 pm Discussion 

To register please contact Alexander Streitberger by mail: alex.streitberger@uclouvain.be