[Nettime-nl] 3 November: Cultural Activism Today, The Art of Over-Identification (Modified by Geert Lovink)

["BAVO" <info@bavo.biz>]

Debate and booklaunch: Cultural Activism Today, The Art of 
Over-Identification
Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Rotterdam
3 November 2007, 15:00
 
On the 3th of November, a debate will take place at Witte de With, 
Rotterdam, on BAVO’s recent book, published by episode publishers, 
Cultural Activism Today, The Art of Over-Identification and the 
possibility and desirability of alternatives to critical and utopian 
artistic strategies.
 
Participants are: Maria Hlavajova, Jeroen Boomgaard, Jonas Staal and 
Wim Nijenhuis.
 
www.episode-publishers.nl/art/activism.htm
www.bavo.biz
 
What would happen if art stops with relentlessly criticizing the 
existing state of affairs, or with passionately producing alternative 
visions and utopias for today’s late capitalist society? What if art 
would, on the contrary, fully identify with and affirm the prevailing 
norms, values, practices, etc., even adding some oil to the fire? The 
latter would, in other words, demand of artists to no longer 
automatically assume the role of the ‘good guys’, the eternal 
idealists, dreamers, etc., who always try to make the best out of the 
current situation, pushing the system to be something other and better 
than it is. It would, inversely, ask of them to stop protecting society 
from what it wants and turn it into the worst version of itself, so as 
to confront it with its own unsustainability and undesirability.
 
This is the central tenet of the book Cultural Activism Today. the Art 
of Over-Identification, edited by the theoretical collective BAVO and 
published by episode publishers. The volume is a provocative 
intervention in current debates within the field of art about 
strategies of resistance, paradoxically summoning artists to stop 
resisting. In general, it wants to question the effectiveness of 
critical and utopian artistic strategies in offering resistance to the 
current state of affairs, instead pleading for an art of 
over-identification. The book contains essays by Boris Groys, Alexei 
Monroe, Dieter Lesage and Benda Hofmeyr and refers to works of artists 
such as Santiago Sierra, Christoph Schlingensief, Jens Haaning, Irwin, 
Laibach, Martijn Engelbregt, AVL and others.
 
Programme:
15:00 Welcome and introductory statement – BAVO
15:25 Statements by the panel – Maria Hlavajova, Jeroen Boomgaard, 
Jonas Staal and Wim Nijenhuis
15:45 Discussion
16:30 Closing comments
 
After the debate there is a drink as well as the screening of Paul 
Poet’s documentary Ausländer Raus. Schlingensief’s container 
(Monitorpop Entertainment) on Christoph Schlingensief 2000 action 
‘Bitte liebt Österreich’.
 
Location: Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Witte de 
Withstraat 50, Rotterdam
Language: English
Participation is free
 
- Maria Hlavajova is director of the Utrecht Centre for Contemporary 
Art (BAK) and co-curator of the Dutch programme for the 52nd Venice 
Biennale (www.bak-utrecht.nl).
- Jeroen Boomgaard is an art historian at the University of Amsterdam 
and founder of the ‘Lectoraat kunst in de publieke ruimte’ 
(www.lkpr.nl).
- Jonas Staal is an artist working on political issues through 
interventions in the public sphere, most recently with his ‘De Geert 
Wilders werken’ (www.jonasstaal.nl).
- Wim Nijenhuis is a theoretician mainly working in the field of 
urbanism, art and media; he recently participated in a public art 
project in Vlaardingen (www.home.hccnet.nl/j.w.nijenhuis).
 
Book:
Cultural Activism Today, The Art of Over-Identification
BAVO (editors)
Graphic design: Niels Schrader, Amsterdam
Paperback | English| 120 pages| 12 x 20 cm | ISBN 978-90-5973-061-8 | € 
21.50
For more information: www.episode-publishers.nl

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