Hexagram Panels & Conferences

Every exhibition implies a situational difference. It presupposes a transposition, an act of putting something outside of itself in accordance with the Latin “ex-ponere”. This act is to be understood in spatial as much as in temporal terms, moving the exhibited into a new, (still) unfamiliar context which itself is not only constituted by other exhibits but by all the participating elements—people, objects, spaces, discourses. Assuming that such a constellation is dynamically formed all of its participants appear in instable relationships, which have to be constantly redefined. Within them meaning, role, position and status are shaped and modified. The talk focuses on the political structure located here and traces its relation to other political aspects of a presentational situation, such as the topic of a show, the content transported by the exhibited objects, the attitudes and gestures, which motivated them. Beatrice von Bismarck will particularly raise the question of the potential social relevance of the curatorial practice.

Curator and director of the NTU CCA Singapore, Ute Meta Bauer investigates the profession of the curator in Southeast Asia, a region experiencing a time of increased global visibility as well as nation and institution building. In the Philippines and Singapore, a wide range of excellent museums and collections function like similar infrastructures globally. At other locations, the space of the curatorial is where art gets produced in studios, in artist residency programmes - often run by artists for artists - or in smaller organisations, most often also created by artists due to the lack of spaces to show art, to meet and to discuss. The profession of the curator is fairly new, and time and again it is artists that undertake to present their own work and those of their peers. How do artists, curators and art historians engage with the intricacies of a particular place, and how do they respond to the specificities of the local under the expectations of the international? It is crucial to acknowledge the multitude of voices in this complex history of the region. What emerges is a highly diverse art system that shifts away from traditional formats to embrace new or alternative platforms-from symposia to fieldwork-with the aim of emphasizing producing and curating as a process of critical thinking that goes beyond presentations and representations.

The concept of artistic research has sparked a lot of controversy over the last two decades, and it still is a matter of some dispute. Although the term ‘research’ pertaining to art does not provoke anymore, it seems to be still unclear how this term should be understood in relation to science. If we, however, look at the epistemological impact of art, it seems strange that artistic research should be controversial at all: the affiliation between art and sensual knowledge is as old as the very concept of "aesthetics", coined by Alexander Baumgarten in the 18th century. Georg Friedrich Hegel, Theodor W. Adorno, or Martin Heidegger, to name but a few, all assumed a strong interconnection between Art and Truth. Maurice Merleau-Ponty considered Paul Cézanne's painting to be a kind of “research”, and thought that painters were engaged in a kind of “mute ‘thinking’”. The question of the precise relationship between art, knowledge, and truth, however, has not yet been exhaustively explored. Neither has the question of what artistic thinking really is: sometimes the artistic concept of truth remains vague - and sometimes we do not understand how notions such as truth or thinking might be at all applicable to art practices. The lecture tries to answer these questions in a new way, by investigating how and in which sense art in itself carries epistemological meaning, or can serve as a medium for a type of cognition that cannot be expressed otherwise.

Theory Fiction Science Fake is a conference that investigates narrative construction and delivery methods from a wide range of cultural, political and social media forums. Of particular note is the recent blurring of narrative techniques as the modalities of fake news, science-fiction, expanded documentary and theory fiction converge at unexpected points in the cosmology of information we encounter on a daily basis. As narratives are created and woven into the fabric of everyday living, the focus on their production, affect and intention has become increasingly exposed and conversely purposefully secreted into the folds of short attention spans. Presentations from Thierry Bardini, Barbara Layne, Robert Saucier and Toby Heys will open up a range of perspectives that explore the complex nature of this phenomenon within their own works of art. We hope that you can join us over the course of the afternoon.

Dans le cadre de la série des « Conférenciers distingués », Hexagram a a l’honneur de présenter Valentine Verhaeghe, artiste pluridisciplinaire qui a développé une pratique de recherche et de création à la croisée des sciences humaines, de la philosophie et de l’esthétique. Membre du Pôle de recherche Le corps de l’artiste et enseignante à Institut supérieur des beaux-arts de Besançon/Franche-Comté, co-directrice de la revue MOBILE ALBUM INTERNATIONAL (Diffusion Les presses du Réel), elle est en charge depuis 2015, de l’ouverture des archives inédites de Robert Filliou (1926-1987), un artiste français influent lié au mouvement Fluxus.

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER : CORNELIA SOLLFRANKIn her lecture, German artist Cornelia Sollfrank will give an introduction to the concept of the commons, however, putting an emphasis on digital commons. In the center of her investigations is the question of what artists can contribute to digital commons. The lecture will introduce Sollfrank’s ongoing research on art and commons and discuss specific artworks as examples. Each of the works addresses specific questions and embodies experimental and fragmentary solutions to the questions posed by neoliberal enclosures.

TABLE RONDE: L'ART COMME COGNITION INCARNÉECet évènement-rencontre sur l’art, la culture et la cognition propose un espace de réflexion sur les phénomènes cognitifs en relations aux phénomènes artistiques. Du comportement créatif à la réception du travail artistique, que celui-ci soit de nature picturale ou sonore, de la peinture aux nouvelles technologies, nous désirons questionner la nature de l’art, son origine, ses pratiques, ses effets, comme processus cognitifs.

Dans le cadre du colloque "L'art comme cognition incarnée". Alva Noë est écrivain et philosophe vivant à Berkeley et à New York. Il travaille sur la nature de l’esprit et de l’expérience humaine. Il est l’auteur de Action in Perception (MIT Press, 2004); Out of Our Heads (Farrar Straus et Giroux, 2009); Varieties of Presence (Harvard University Press, 2012) et Strange Tools, (2015). Alva a reçu son doctorat de l’Université de Harvard en 1995 et est professeur de philosophie à l’Université de Californie à Berkeley où il est également membre de l’Institut des sciences cognitives et du cerveau et du Centre des nouveaux médias.

“Sovereign Imaginaries : Visualizing the mystical foundation of law’s authority” – Plenary lecture by Richard K. Sherwin, New York Law School

“Glorious matter, engaging the senses” – A panel presentation by artist-researchers in textiles & materiality convened by Kathleen Vaughan, department of art education, Concordia University

“Populating the future imaginary : using digital media to visualize the future of Indigenous communities” – Plenary lecture by Jason Edward Lewis, Concordia University research chair in computational media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary, and Trudeau Fellow

Since the early 1990s’ Arahmaiani has been developing a research-creation process in various contexts, questioning the physical uniqueness and commodification of the art work. Her performances invite the audience to rethink sensoriality and movement through the creation of collective art maneuvers. The different approaches proposed in Arahmaiani’s workshops, classes and community projects, most of which take place in Asia and in Europe, involve the creation of structural spaces for the collectivity in the spirit of citizen-run collective projects.

This event is organised in collaboration with DHC/ART and Hexagram and will offer the opportunity to discuss the practices of the various artists participating in the Affinities event series, a project curated in conjunction with the exhibition Joan Jonas : From Away on view at DHC/ ART from the 28th of April until the 18th of September. While distinct in their own practice and aesthetics each artist shares an affinity with Jonas’ engagement and insistence’ on reading the world(s) against and with the flow of the times.

Human history details our transition from groups of hunter-gatherers to communities centered on organized agriculture and the introduction and nurturing of unprecedented varieties plants and animals. Agriculture allowed early civilizations to foster art, religion and literature replete with myths and legends about special powers of transformation allowing one kind of living material to become another or, of transformations of inanimate into animate materials and vice versa.

What is the perfect meal? We can probably all think of at least one especially memorable dinner. For some, it might be something as simple as a picnic in a meadow or fish & chips by the seaside. For others, it will be that once in a lifetime trip to one of the world’s top Michelin-starred restaurants. Wherever it was, what made it so special wasn’t just the food. In this talk, I will argue that what makes for a great eating experience depends far more on the ‘everything else’ that surrounds the meal than many of us realize: It depends on everything from the mood we are in through to the company we keep, and from the sensory environment in which we eat and imbibe through to the plating, plateware, and cutlery.

This roundtable explores the promises and hype of technological and traditional proteins production and consumption, going beyond the obvious food crisis issues, into analysis of our society and the larger case of the technologization of life and its processes. From optimized eating powder, insects, fermentation to in-vitro meat, this will be an evening of debate and discussion.

Hexagram Network and the Conversations in Contemporary Art Series (Concordia University MFA Studio Arts) are pleased in welcoming internationally known smell artist and “professional in-betweener” Sissel Tolaas.

Episode 4 - Tactical Questions that Matter. || Dooeun Choi (Parsons The New School for Design, New York), Jean Dubois (École des arts visuels et médiatiques, Hexagram-UQAM, Montréal), Patrick H. Harrop (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg), Erin Manning (Concordia University, Montreal), Brian Massumi (Université de Montréal), Katharina Meissner (Public Art Lab, Berlin), Krzysztof Wodiczko (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge).

Episode 3 - Strategic Questions that Matter. || Dooeun Choi (Parsons The New School for Design, New York), Jean Dubois (École des arts visuels et médiatiques, Hexagram-UQAM, Montréal), Patrick H. Harrop (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg), Erin Manning (Concordia University, Montreal), Brian Massumi (Université de Montréal), Katharina Meissner (Public Art Lab, Berlin), Krzysztof Wodiczko (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge).

Episode 2 - Questions We Ask Ourselves When We Are Working || Dooeun Choi (Parsons The New School for Design, New York), Jean Dubois (École des arts visuels et médiatiques, Hexagram-UQAM, Montréal), Patrick H. Harrop (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg), Erin Manning (Concordia University, Montreal), Brian Massumi (Université de Montréal), Katharina Meissner (Public Art Lab, Berlin), Krzysztof Wodiczko (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge).

Episode 1 - From Where Do We Sense, Think, Speak and Do. || Dooeun Choi (Parsons The New School for Design, New York), Jean Dubois (École des arts visuels et médiatiques, Hexagram-UQAM, Montréal), Patrick H. Harrop (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg), Erin Manning (Concordia University, Montreal), Brian Massumi (Université de Montréal), Katharina Meissner (Public Art Lab, Berlin), Krzysztof Wodiczko (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge).

Krzysztof Wodiczko’s conference will address themes from his recent projects, among them war, conflict, trauma, injustice and social displacement through the use of projections and other media based interventions. Wodiczko’s public projections give life to monuments and public buildings using images of expressive physical movement, paired with the voices of marginalized citizens: the homeless, immigrants, survivors of domestic violence, war veterans.

Artist talk presented as part of "When life forms collide" event in collaboration with Phi Center Montréal

Conférence présentée dans le cadre de la Biennale internationale d'art numérique (BIAN) et de la tenue de l'exposition Out of the Blue / Into the Black, proposée par Arcadi, agence culturelle d’Île-de-France, et son festival, Némo, en coréalisation avec la BIAN.