Liechtenstein’s appearance at the 58th Venice Biennale
May 11, 2019, 11am
We cordially invite you to Liechtenstein’s appearance at the 58th Venice Biennale at Museo Correr, San Marco. The well-established Liechtenstein Brunch will be followed by a high-level symposium with contributions from:
Sabine Himmelsbach, House of Electronic Arts Basel
Sybille Krämer, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany
Geert Lovink, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam
Antonia Majaca, Graz University of Technology
Lev Manovich, City University of New York
Antoinette Rouvroy, University of Namur, Belgium
Georg Schöllhammer, curator, Editor in Chief springerin, Vienna
Bernard Stiegler, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Ben Vickers, Serpentine Galleries, London
Vladimir Jerić Vlidi, networkfailure.net, Belgrade
Performance by Martina Morger and Wassili Widmer
Liechtenstein Pavilion by visarte.liechtenstein
Symposium
Art in Dataspace
Inside the Data Room. A Digitology of the Art Space
Digitalization increasingly encroaches on reality and has a more profound impact on art spaces. Whatever the outcome of the current debate between the defenders of the analogue and the apologists of the digital, the fact remains: machines and algorithms are not only taking over the distribution of images and objects, but increasingly their very form. The old games of object and space, artwork and viewer, presence and absence in the exhibition space—even the very act of seeing—are now faced with new challenges.
Some claim that nothing truly special or extraordinary is happening, and that this is the (almost) expected continuation of the various ways in which humanity previously progressed. But these voices are in growing discord with how the majority now feels: the scope, depth and speed of current transformations produce the sense of witnessing a decisive turning point. The reactions vary from enthusiasm to depression, from panic to paralysis; such polarization is (once again) being particularly visible in the art world.
What does digitalization mean for the work of artists and curators? How does it affect the exhibition space, the form of exhibits and performativity of the audience?
If digitized, algorithmic thinking is based upon establishing averages, pursuing the goals of optimization and efficiency—but what does that mean for art? What happens to art thinking, to artistic ability to convey and distribute different forms of knowledge? Will the emergence of computing-driven real-time culture leave any room for criticism and reflection? How can we counter the technological regimes of the digital with a practice that is productive? What new understanding of the museum as a place of active reflection and participation do we need—if any—to address these transformations?
Please join us for a brunch on Saturday, May 11, the opening day of the Venice Biennale.
Liechtenstein Brunch
11am–12:30pm
Symposium
12:30pm–5pm
Museo Correr
San Marco, 30124 Venice
Entrance: St. Mark’s Square, Napoleonic Wing, Monumental Staircase
Programme
Brunch
11am
Welcoming remarks
12:15pm
Janine Köpfli, Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein
Friedemann Malsch, Director, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
Performance
12:30pm
Digital Natives
Martina Morger and Wassili Widmer
Art in Times of Algorithmic Governance
1pm
Lev Manovich and Ben Vickers in conversation
Host: Sabine Himmelsbach
The Incomputable Space—Another Future for the Museum
2pm
A trialogue between Geert Lovink, Antonia Majaca and Vladimir Jerić Vlidi, with an intervention by Antoinette Rouvroy.
Code and Gaze: Visuality in the Digital Agora
3:30pm
Remarks by Sybille Krämer and Bernard Stiegler
Questions by Georg Schöllhammer
Closing remarks and farewell
4:30pm
Please RSVP, seating is limited: info [at] kunstmuseum.li
Commissioned by Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein
Project Management Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
Curated by Georg Schöllhammer
In collaboration with visarte.liechtenstein, www.visarte.li
Supported by Kulturstiftung Liechtenstein
Special thanks to Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia
