Curated by Sadira Rodrigues
"My inte ntion was not to deal with the problem of truth\, but with the problem of t ruth-teller or truth-telling as an activity … Who is able to tell the truth ? What are the moral\, the ethical\, and the spiritual conditions which ent itle someone to present himself as\, and to be considered as\, a truth-tell er? About what topics is it important to tell the truth? … What are the con sequences of telling the truth? … And finally: what is the relation between the activity of truth-telling and the exercise of power\, or should these activities be completely independent and kept separate? Are they separable\ , or do they require one another?"
-Michel Foucault\, Discourse a nd Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia (1983)
In a two-day forum\, local and international speakers will consider the possibilities of “speaking out” in the context of cultural production. Speaking out describ es adopting a position which is perceived to be oppositional to mainstream cultural production and which chooses to reveal the limitations or structur es in the operation of power. Speaking out also implies a consequence to th e act of intervening or critiquing these institutions. The act of speaking out is not only intellectual\, but extends to the value of the speaker as a social individual\, his or her place in society\, the consequences on thei r cultural capital\, and the ramifications of talking about things most peo ple do not want to.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 23
6:30PM / Sadira Rodrigues<
br />7:00PM / Ken Lum
SATURDAY OCTOBER 24
10:00AM / Sven Lütticke
n (virtual)
11:00AM / Ted Purves
12:30 - 1:30PM / Break
1:30
PM / Ashok Mathur
2:00PM / Mohammad Salemy
2:30PM / Abbas Akhavan
3:30 - 5:00PM / Panel: Randy Lee Cutler\, Ken Lum\, Kristina Lee Pode
sva\, Sadira Rodrigues
PARTICIPANTS:
ABBAS AKHAVAN completed his BFA at Concordia University and his MFA at University of British Columbia. His practice includes drawing\, painting\, installation\ , video / performance\, and site-specific ephemeral works. His work has bee n exhibited across Canada and internationally.
RANDY LEE CUTLER is a Vancouver based educator\, curator\, writer\, artist\, and performer orient ated toward social change. She investigates the emergence of new cultural f orms through an exploration of the intersections of gender\, art\, science\ , and technology. She has a PhD in Cultural History from the Royal College of Art\, UK where she examined the subversion of the sciences in the surrea list enterprise. At present her practice lies in the translation of the rup tures between disciplinary models and the exploration of alternative possib ilities for being in and interpreting the world.
SVEN LUTTICKEN is an Amsterdam based writer\, critic\, and historian. He contributes regularly to catalogues and art magazines such as Artforum\, New Left Review\, Afteri mage\, and Texte zur Kunst.
KEN LUM is a Vancouver b ased artist. His work is concerned with issues of identity\, especially as they relate to image production in contemporary urban society. Lum has part icipated in Documenta XI\, Shanghai Biennale\, Sydney Biennale\, Carnegie I nternational\, Sáo Paulo Bienal\, Venice Biennale\, and Johannesburg Bienna le. His writing has been published in Art & Text\, Art Margins\, and Nka: T he Journal of Contemporary African Art and Art &map\; Collections. He is Fo unding Editor of Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. More recen tly\, Lum has been working on a number of public art commissions in Vancouv er\, Vienna\, Toronto\, Stockholm\, Zurich\, and Leiden that involve a lang uage of critical urban politics. Lum was made a Guggenheim Fellow in 1998\, and awarded a Killam Award for Outstanding Research.
ASHOK MATHUR is a writer\, cultural organizer\, and artist-researcher. He currently holds a Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops\, BC. His recent novels include Once Upon an Elepha nt\, a contemporary re-visioning of the Mahabharata's creation story of Gan esh\, and The Short\, Happy Life of Harry Kumar\, a retelling of the Ramaya na through the lenses of current globalized politics and movements. His mos t recent project\, A Little Distillery in Nowgong\, is a multifaceted novel tracing the migration of a Parsi family from pre-independence India throug h postcolonial contexts and travels.
KRISTINA LEE PODESVA is an artist\, writer\, and curator based in Vancouver. She is the fo under of colourschool\, a free school within a school dedicated to the spec ulative and collaborative study of five colours (white\, black\, red\, yell ow\, and brown) and co-founder of Cornershop Projects\, an open framework f or engaging with economic exchange. She is also Co-editor at Fillip.
TED PURVES is a writer and artist based in Oakland. His public projects and curatorial works investigate the practice of art in the world\, particular ly as it addresses issues of localism\, democratic participation\, and inno vative shifts in the position of the audience. Purves recently received a v isual arts grant from the Creative Capital Foundation and a Creative Work F und grant from the Elise and Walter Haas Foundation. His book\, What We Wan t Is Free: Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art\, was published by State U niversity of New York Press in 2005.
MOHAMMAD SALEMY is an artist and curator of the DADABASE Gallery. He is also known for his writing and activism. Born in Iran and a graduate of Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design\, he is currently a MA student at the University of Briti sh Columbia. His work has been included in solo and group exhibitions local ly and nationally
This project is supported by The Canada Council for
the Art's Assistance to Culturally Diverse Curators.
The project will
include a publication co-published by Artspeak and West Coast Line.