Artist-culture and the spirit of capitalism: The Showroom Conference 2006
Saturday 18 March 2006: 10.00-18.00 hrs
Tickets: £30/ £15 (concession)

 

Artist-culture and the spirit of capitalism will be an opportunity for artists, cultural theorists, art writers and curators to explore the territory that artist-culture now occupies in relation to the market and government.

The conference will aim to address the following questions:

• How has artist-culture not only spawned its own cultural economies, but fed operational models back into the wider system? For example, the positioning of the art scene as an "experience economy" that sells the experience rather than the product.
  
• What position do artists and artist-led organisations now take, and what effect will shifts in funding and policy have on the form of artist-culture in the future?

Speakers include:

Thomas Hirschhorn is an internationally renowned Swiss artist. His sculptures and installations combine and make visible political ideology and the traditions of intellectual thought. Hirschhorn exhibits widely in the US and Europe, including the Venice Biennale (1999) and Documenta 11 (2002).

Maria Lind, Director of IASPIS, an artist-in-residence programme based in Stockholm. She is a curator and critic and has been Director of the Munich Kunstverein (2001-5), Curator at Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1997-2001) and Co-curator of Manifesta 2 Europe's nomadic biennale of contemporary art.

Munira Mirza is a writer and broadcaster on arts and multiculturalism. She is editor of Culture Vultures: Is UK arts policy damaging the arts? recently published by the independent think tank, Policy Exchange London.

Paul Hedge, is the Director and co-founder of Hales Gallery, which represents a number of young British based artists including Hew Locke, Bob & Roberta Smith and Tomoko Takahashi. The gallery moved from its original location on Deptford High Street in 2003 to its current location in the Tea Building, Shoreditch.

Suhail Malik is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Visual Arts at Goldsmiths and has written on several contemporary art practices, current political and social determinations and philosophy.

The ticket price of £30 (full price), £15 (concession) includes lunch. For further information and tickets please contact The Showroom or email: bridget.org (please include 'conference' in the subject-line).

The Showroom is financially assisted by Arts Council England, The Moose Foundation for the Arts and the members of The Showroom's Friends Scheme.

Project supported by The Henry Moore Foundation.