Eastern Europe Today and the Role of Art in Times of Change

Max Wasserman Forum 2008Eastern Europe Today and the Role of Art in Times of ChangeKeynote speaker: Boris GroysParticipants: Zdenka Badovinaclara BoubnovaLuchezar BoyadjievSezgin Boynik Ekaterina DegotJoanna ErbelMaciej GdulaVít HavránekJoanna MytkowskaGeorg SchöllhammerIgor StokfiszewskiConcept: The MIT List Visual Arts Center has enlisted the aid of numerous experts on Eastern and Central European art, artists, institutions, and history to organize the 2008 Wasserman Forum. This year’s forum will include a series of screenings and discussions that will examine the social, political, and artistic histories of various parts of the region. Panelists will consider the role of art and culture in coping with the past, in shaping the rapid political economic and social changes of today, and in imagining the future.The event will begin on Friday, November 14 with an evening screening of recent video works from and about Eastern Europe. The Forum continues on Saturday, November 15, with a daylong series of panel discussions. The first panel considers how the history of the region has been defined by its relationship to the West and strategies that are being developed to rectify that situation. The second panel looks at unique distribtion systems that were inventeddue to the lack of arts institutions after the dismantling of communism. The third panel considers ways in which the dynamics created during the first five years after the fall of communism are manifesting themselves today. The fourth panel investigates art interventions in public space in Warsay as a fanifestation of the contested nature of history. The symposium ends with a lecture by the world renowned philosopher, and theoretician Boris Groys.