Before the Object. Material Histories, Infrastructures, and Ecologies
What happens before matter becomes art – what happens before the object? This workshop at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, 21-23 November 2024 is dedicated to exploring not artworks, but the »stuff« artworks are made of and the ecological implications of their procurement, processing and transport, aiming at uncovering what Laura Turner Igoe has called »the ecological unconcious of art matter«.
The workshop is organized by Ursula Ströbele (HBK Braunschweig) and Kaja Ninnis (HU Berlin / Matters of Activity). If you are interested in participating, please register with the organizers at ursula.stroebele [at] hbk-bs.de and kaja.ninnis [at] hu-berlin.de
Program
Thursday, 21 November 2024
6.00 pm Keynote Lecture: Oil: Artistic Approaches to a Divisive Material
Monika Wagner (University of Hamburg)
Friday, 22 November 2024
9.00 am Welcome & Introduction
Ursula Ströbele, Kaja Ninnis
PANEL I
9.30 am Animals Products: Material Intermediaries in 1972
Andrew Patrizio (University of Edinburgh)
10.15 am I Am Not Ahead of the Game'. Phyllida Barlow and the Dilemmas of Making”
Ann-Sophie Lehmann (University of Groningen)
11 am Coffee Break
11.30 am Deep Down and Dirty: Getting Intimate with Peat
Manon Awst (Artist, Wales)
Respondence by Rahel Kesselring (HU Berlin / Matters of Activity)
12.45 pm Lunch Break
PANEL II
2.15 pm Greed Can Move Mountains: The Iron Will of Modern Design Culture
Kjetil Fallan (University of Oslo)
3.00 pm Before and After Gold: Unearthing the Consequences of Extraction
Peter Oakley (Royal College of Art, London)
Respondence by Christian Berger (University of Arts Siegen)
4.15 pm Coffee Break
PANEL III
4.30 pm A Material Girl – Eva Hesse’s Solo Exhibition “Chain Polymere” at the Fischbach Gallery in 1968
Annette Tietenberg (HBK Braunschweig)
5.15 pm Afterobjects. Scatological Aesthetics and Recycling Art
Yorick Berta (University of Arts Linz)
Respondence by Hauke Ohls (University of Bonn)
Saturday, 23 November 2024
9 am Open Meeting of the Art | Material | Ecology Working Group & Wrap-up
11 am Ancient Stones and old Buildings – a Geological Walk Through Braunschweig
1.30 pm End of Workshop