News — Feb 24, 2014

Amsterdam, February 24―The Stedelijk Museum―in collaboration with ASCA/ACGS at the University of Amsterdam, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Folkwang Museum Essen, and the Tropenmuseum Amsterdam―is proud to present the three-day conference Collecting Geographies: Global Programming and Museums of Modern Art.

The conference is part of Global Collaborations, the three year program launched by the Stedelijk at the end of 2012 to explore developments in the visual arts around the world, with special focus on upcoming regions such as Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The project is based on collaborative partnerships with experimental and multifaceted art institutions around the world and includes exhibitions, publications, events, an online platform, and this upcoming conference. 

The conference’s focus is the impact of globalization on the curatorial field. In the conference sessions, approximately 100 participants will reflect on themes such as recent and historical exhibitions within this context
(e.g. the 1989 Magiciens de la Terre), (post)colonial collecting policies, the urge for growth (e.g. the Louvre Abu Dhabi), and artists’ thoughts on these themes.

The conference consists of public keynote speeches and panel discussions, as well as
85 lectures in 24 themed sessions. For these sessions, papers were selected from an open
call, to which an overwhelming number of curators, artists, theoreticians, sociologists, and scholars responded, from institutes like Centre Pompidou, MoMA, Guggenheim, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

The sessions will be supplemented with public keynote lectures and discussion panels with prominent speakers such as James Clifford (professor emeritus, history of consciousness, University of California) and Pamela M. Lee (professor art and art history, Stanford University).

KEYNOTES:

Thursday, March 13, 7:30 – 8:30 pm:
Pamela M. Lee

Friday, March 14, 10:30 – 11:30 am:
James Clifford

Saturday, March 15, 10:30 – 11:30 am:
Annie Cohen-Solal and Paul Goodwin

Location: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

DISCUSSION PANELS:

Thursday, March 13, 8:30 – 9:30 pm:
COLLECTING GEOGRAPHIES
Speakers: Ann-Sofi Noring (co-director, Moderna Museet), Tobia Bezzola (director, Museum Folkwang), Jeroen de Kloet (ASCA/ACGS), Wayne Modest (head of research, Tropenmuseum)
Moderator: Margriet Schavemaker
(curator and head of research & publications, Stedelijk Museum)
Location: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Friday, March 14, 8 – 10 pm:
THINKING GLOBALLY: MUSEUMS, ART AND ETHNOGRAPHY AFTER THE GLOBAL TURN
Speakers: Kader Attia, James Clifford, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Pamela M. Lee, Jette Sandahl
Moderator: Leon Wainwright (The Open  University and editor-in-chief Open Arts Journal)
Location: Tropenmuseum Amsterdam

The head curator of Global Collaborations is Jelle Bouwhuis (Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam).

The complete program and updates, including biographies of all lecturers and abstracts of their papers, can be found on the website: http://www.stedelijk.nl/en/calendar/symposia/call

Global Collaborations online Journal

On the website of the Stedelijk Museum, an international team of writers covers the many facets of the Global Collaborations program in detail. The conference also will be highlighted online; a large portion of the program will be described in essays, interviews with the speakers, and reports on the sessions. http://journal.stedelijk.nl/en/category/global-collaborations/

Information after the conference

Lectures of the keynote speakers will be filmed and shared through the website afterwards.
In October 2014, the first edition of Stedelijk Studies, the scientific online magazine of the museum, will be dedicated to this conference.

Practical information:

Locations:
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, several spaces
Tropenmuseum Amsterdam

Admittance:
Entrance ticket + € 2,50 per Public Program
€ 100 for the entire conference (all public lectures, academic sessions, panels, lunches, etc.)
€ 50 for one day

Reservations: via globalconference@stedelijk.nl mentioning name and the event concerned.
(seats are limited)