/ecm Conference and Reception Event

/ecm Conference and Reception

On the occasion of the 20 year anniversary of the /ecm Master Program in Exhibition Theory and Practice at the University of Applied Arts Vienna

How can the critique of the museum have consequences in the museum?
Institutions for a different future

The museum is dead. Long live the museum. This, or something similar, could be the brief summary of numerous conferences, debates, and publications in the field of curating and museum studies over the past 20 years. The critique of the museum has been widely discussed. We have heard a lot about crisis and departure, we have heard about “tired museums” and the “end of the museum”, only to debate in that same breath untapped possibilities for thinking about the museum in new and different ways–as a space of assembly and as a contact zone, as a place of criticism, polyphony, and negotiation.

Something seems to be on the move, and so it is not surprising that talk of the “museum of the future” is booming. Claims of diversification, digitalization, and democratization have become ubiquitous, while at the same time institutions are more than ever focused on privatization, economization, competition, and precarization. How can we as critical curators and museologists think and act within these contradictions? And how can critical theory become critical practice?

Program

9.30–10am
Arrival and registration

10am–1pm
Welcome and opening by Gerald Bast (Dean, University of Applied Arts Vienna)
How can critical theory become critical practice?, introduction by Nora Sternfeld (Professor, HFBK Hamburg, co-director /ecm)
moderated by Beatrice Jaschke (Museum advisor, purpurkultur, Vienna, co-director /ecm)

Panel 1
Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock (Curator, researcher, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin)
Charles Esche (Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven)
moderated by Monika Sommer (Director, House of Austrian History, Vienna, co-director /ecm)

Panel 2
Maria Hlavajova (Director, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht)
Andreja Hribernik (Director, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška – KGLU, Designated director Kunsthaus Graz)
moderated by Luisa Ziaja (Curator, Belvedere Vienna, co-director /ecm)

Panel 3
Matthias Beitl (Director, Volkskundemuseum Vienna)
Duygu Örs (Education and Outreach, Berlin Biennale and KW Institute for Contemporary Art)
moderated by Renate Höllwart (Art educator, trafo.K, Vienna, co-director /ecm)

1–2pm
Lunch Break

2–4.30pm
Workshops in six different groups led by
Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock (accompanied by Nora Sternfeld)
Matthias Beitl (accompanied by Christine Haupt-Stummer)
Charles Esche (accompanied by Monika Sommer)
Maria Hlavajova (accompanied by Beatrice Jaschke)
Andreja Hribernik (accompanied by Luisa Ziaja)
Duygu Örs (accompanied by Renate Höllwart)

5–6.30pm
Concluding Assembly
moderated by Martina Griesser-Stermscheg (Head of the Research Institute, Vienna Museum of Science and Technology, co-director /ecm), Christine Haupt-Stummer (Part of curatorial collective section.a, Vienna, co-director /ecm) and Nora Sternfeld

Graphic recording by Aldo Giannotti (Artist, Vienna) and Carlos Toledo (Artist, graphic designer, Vienna)

7–9pm
Reception / Empfang: 20 Jahre /ecm

Begrüßende Worte von Barbara Putz-Plecko (Vize-Rektorin, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien)
Zusammen Handeln. Über einige Konjunkturen der Ausstellungstheorie und -praxis, Joachim Baur (Professor, TU Dortmund und Kurator, Die Exponauten, Berlin)
Vorstellung 20 Jahre /ecm und Master Thesis Onlinearchiv, Renate Höllwart (/ecm-Leitungsteam)
moderiert von Beatrice Jaschke (/ecm-Leitungsteam)

Ausklang mit Buffet und Musik

Please register for the Conference and/or the Reception until April 25, 2022: ecm_anmeldung@uni-ak.ac.at

Important: if you register for the Conference please also mention the preference for the workshop that you would like to take part in.