now is the time: art & theory in the 21st century

This coming season the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, artist initiative W139, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam and art magazine Metropolis M present a new series of lectures entitled Now is the Time: Art & Theory in the 21st Century. Across seven evenings national and international art historians, curators and critics will reflect on urgent social and art specific topics such as 9/11, Globalisation, Romanticism, New Canon, Media, Belief and Design.

The attack on the World Trade Center spelled closure for the 20^th Century. There was no going back; the world had been catapulted into a new millennium. But what developments have taken place in the visual arts since this violent start? And how has art theory interpreted and contextualised these developments?

The programme of Now is the Time consists of a series of lectures and debates dedicated to urgent themes that together describe the total scope and complexity of the arena in which the arts of the new millennium are situated. 

Renowned speakers such as W.J.T. Mitchell, Boris Groys, Terry Eagleton, Kaja Silverman, Julian Stallabrass, Hou Hanru, Ruth Noack and Rick Poynor, will consider topical questions such as: What is the impact of 9/11? How will advancing globalisation affect the art world and the arts? What is the polarizing effect of religion? These themes, defined by social and political developments, are juxtaposed with art related subjects like the search for a new canon, the return of Romanticism, the ideals of design and the status of the artwork in what is referred to as the post-medium condition.

The first lecture will take place on Friday, 3 October at 8 p.m. and will focus on the topic MEDIA. During this evening art historians Kaja Silverman (VS) and Laura Marks (CA) will reflect on issues such as the status of the medium in contemporary art production; how can an artist act critically with this complex cultural field now dominated by multimedia and mass media? And how can this essentially Western discourse be related to the artistic production in non-Western cultures? The lectures will be followed by a debate with experts and the public moderated by Sudeep Dasgupta (NL) Senior Lecturer Media & Culture at the University of Amsterdam.

For the full programme, more information on the topics and speakers and to make reservations, please visit our website: www.nowisthetime.nl.