21-22 January, 2021: Toppling Things. The Visuality, Space and Affect of Monument Removal
21-22 January, 2021: Toppling Things. The Visuality, Space and Affect of Monument Removal
Protesters attempt to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square, near the White House, on June 22, 2020. Credit: Drew Angerer Getty Images
Toppling Things.
The Visuality, Space and Affect of Monument Removal
Programme
DEPARTAMENT D'HUMANITATS, UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA,
Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
THURSDAY – 21 JANUARY 2021
10:30 Welcome and introduction to the conference theme by
Tomas MACSOTAY and Nausikaä El-MECKY (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)
10:45 Session 1: The Charge of History
Karo MORET MIRANDA (Australian National University) – Is a reckoning with History possible?
Isabel VALVERDE (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) – TBC
12:15-13:30 Lunch break
13:30 Session 2 : Repetitions, Substitutions
Ursula STRÖBELE (ZIK, München) – Toppling monuments – media strategies of artistic interventions
Tomas MACSOTAY (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) – Taking a Knee: Permanence, Ritual and the Respect Insurrection
15:45 Short Break
16:00 Session 3 : Working the Monument in Art and Activism
Romy RONDELTAP (The Baileo Foundation, Netherlands) – Down with JP Coen
Adam BROOMBERG (HFBK Hamburg) & Rafaël LEMMENS-CHAPDELAINE & Guy DELANCEY (tbc) – Hacking Monuments: Digital Monument Modification and the Pitfalls of Augmented Reality
Ada PINKSTON (Monument Lab, Townson University) – Empty Pedestals or The Aesthetics of Truth
18:30 Short Break
18:45 Krzysztof WODICZKO – Artist’s presentation, departing from events of 2020
19:30 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION – Relaying the Monument
FRIDAY – 22 JANUARY 2021
13:30 Session 4 : Erasures, Absences
Erin THOMPSON (CUNY) – Reading the Writing on the Statue: Why Signage Doesn’t Neutralize Controversial Monuments
Nausikaä El-MECKY (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) – The agency of the void: when a monument falls, absence alchemises into powerful presence
15:00 Short Break
15:15 Session 5
Ernst van ALPHEN (LEIDEN University) – TBC
Ann CVETKOVICH (Carleton University in Ottawa) – Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice and Queer and Indigenous Museum Exhibition
16:45 Short break
17:00 Conversation on Black Lives Matter 1, followed by Q&A
Stacy BOLDRICK (University of Leicester, UK) interviews Tami SAWYER
17:55 Conversation on Black Lives Matter 2, followed by Q&A
Richard CLAY (Newcastle University, UK) interviews Keith MAGEE (UCL, London, Newcastle University, UK)
19:00 Concluding Remarks : Shape of the Publication
The conference will be held on 21 and 22 January 2021 via Zoom.
Convenors: Tomas MACSOTAY and Nausikaä El-MECKY (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)
SIGN UP HERE FOR THE CONFERENCE (listeners only, speakers do not need to sign up) https://forms.gle/5pHftYvEnjuDxshX9
This event was made possible by the Spanish research project Prehistories of the Installation: from ecclesiastical baroque to modern interiors. PGC2018-098348-A-100 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE).
