The Global Challenge of Art Museums I

In a globalized world, today's cultural practice presents a challenge in many places. which also increasingly generates local conflicts. The postcolonial era confronts art museums with a change in art practice that had previously emerged only at biennials. In the meantime, this development has reached public museums including institutions focusing on contemporary art. Beyond the West, they are faced with the problem that in cultures, in which contemporary art has not yet solidly taken root, these museums nationalize. Whereas for artists, migration issues are at the forefront, for museums, the issue relevant for art's future is that of location. At the ZKM conference, anthropologists, curators, and theorists will search together for solutions that reach beyond the radius of the art market and the normal Western exhibition scene. In doing so, attention will be dedicated to political issues that seem neutralized in common discourse. Many museums throughout the world are dependent on a new audience, which must first develop a concept of art. Art's future in the twenty-first century will be decided in places that are not yet a part of universal awareness. Cooperation between representatives of various cultures and different competences is thereby that much more important to prepare this new cartography of cultures.
 

Program

5:00 p.m.
Peter Weibel - Introduction
5:30
Ladislav Kesner: Art Museums as a Site of Art History Today?
6:30
Podium with participants
8:00
Hans Belting - Closing statement

Participants

Claude Ardouin, London
Karin Adrian von Roques, Bonn
Waltraud Bayer, Graz
Hans Belting, Karlsruhe/Vienna
John Clark, Sydney
Ekaterina Degot, Moscow
Shelly Errington, Santa Cruz
Julia Fabényi Budapest
Ginta Gerharde-Upeniece, Riga
Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Quebec
Ladislav Kesner, Prague
Lin Chi-Ming, Taipei
Beral Madra, Istanbul
John Onians, Norwich
Wonil Rhee Seoul
Peter Weibel, Karlsruhe