1st FORMER WEST Congress

A detailed program and video recordings of all 1st FORMER WEST Congress contributions are available here.

Between 5 and 7 November 2009, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst hosts the 1st FORMER WEST Congress, which gathers some of the most influential curators, artists, theorists, and thinkers of the past two decades from the field of art. This is the first major public program of the long-term, multifaceted international research, education, publishing, and exhibition project FORMER WEST (2008–2016). The 1st FORMER WEST Congress begins mapping the artistic and theoretical developments surrounding the problematic of the “formerness” of the West, and charts the practices in art through which we can identify and engage with the post-1989 landscape and its impact on cultural production.

Participants: Claire Bishop (art critic, London/New York), Rosi Braidotti (director Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University, Utrecht), Thomas Boutoux (curator, Paris), Cosmin Costinas (curator BAK, Utrecht), Helmuth Draxler (curator, Stuttgart/Vienna), Charles Esche (director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven), Okwui Enwezor (curator, New York/San Francisco), Boris Groys (theorist, New York), Douglas Gordon (artist, Berlin), Paul Gilroy (sociologist, London), Jalal Toufic (artist, Istanbul), Christian Hoeller (editor, Vienna), Stefan Heidenreich (writer, Berlin), Tom Holert(art historian, Berlin/Vienna), Ana Longoni (art historian, Buenos Aires), Pablo Lafuente (managing editor Afterall, London), Sven Lütticken (art critic, Utrecht), Nuria Enguita-Mayo (curator, Valencia), Mihnea Mircan (curator, Bucharest), Sarat Maharaj (art historian, Lund), Marion von Osten (artist, Berlin/Vienna), Piotr Piotrowski (art historian, Poznan/Warsaw), David Riff (art critic, Moscow), Kathrin Rhomberg (curator, Berlin Biennial 6, Berlin), Kerstin Stakemeier (curator, Berlin), Renata Salecl (philosopher, Ljubljana/London), Simon Sheikh (curator, Berlin).

Venue: Ottone, Kromme Nieuwegracht 62, Utrecht.

For more information regarding FORMER WEST, see formerwest.org.

Suggestions from the archive

Public Program

09 September–29 October 2023

To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2023)/Public Program

To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2023) involves a hybrid off- and online sequence of conversations and screenings around discursive and artistic interventions that reimagine the social implications of watching the war through ways that disrupt, subvert, resist the media’s incessant spectacularization of war.

Propositions for Non-Fascist Living

Exhibition

22 September–26 October 2023

To Watch the War: In Solidarity

This impromptu presentation is a part of a long-term series under the same title, related to the image forum To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2023) at BAK, taking place between 9 September and 29 October 2023.

Propositions for Non-Fascist Living

Performative Lecture

26 October 2023

Contemporary History of Ukraine, 11th Rehearsal

Thursday, 26 October 2023, 18.00 hrsPerformative lecture by documentary filmmaker and artist Oksana Kazmina Register tickets here This lecture is the eleventh rehearsal of a virtual walk through transpersonal landscapes of memories across various Ukrainian localities. Based on footage and chats with (intimate) friends, Kazmina navigates between different digital environments—including personal videos, recorded conversations, and Google […]

Propositions for Non-Fascist Living

Screening and Conversation

12 October 2023

Images of Labor: De/Occupation of Watching

Thursday, 12 October 2023, 18.00 hrsScreening and conversation with filmmaker and activist Sashko ProtyahRegister tickets here The experimental film My Favorite Job (2022), by Sahsko Protyah, screened on this occasion, documents the labor and the idle moments of a volunteer group who evacuated residents from the city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops, in spring […]