Conférences « Fogo Island Dialogues : la culture comme destination »

The Fogo Island Dialogues are a series of international and interdisciplinary conferences that bring together key thinkers, arts professionals, academics, economists, geographers, planners, and architects to discuss issues related to the livelihood and renewal of rural locations.

The Dialogues are an initiative of Fogo Island Arts, a contemporary art institution located on Fogo Island, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The inaugural edition of the Dialogues took place at The Fogo Island Inn (19–21 July) looking at the notion of belonging to a place, bringing together 25 professionals from different disciplines. The second edition of the Dialogues titled Culture as Destination takes place at the MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in Vienna (17–19 November) and considers the realm of the digital as a destination and as a mode of knowledge consumption. In 2014, Fogo Island Dialogues will continue with events held in different locations and hosted by international institutions that bring together keynote speakers from a variety of disciplines, from economics and sustainability to art and architecture.

Each edition of the Dialogues focuses on how art can influence social change, exploring the role that art and artists can play in such initiatives. While the topics addressed by invited speakers are international, the discussion will take as its focus Fogo Island, the current site of an ambitious rural renewal project. The Fogo Island Dialogues will refer to the example of Fogo Island as inspiration or catalyst for the exploration and understanding of other locations. Using the idea of an island as a metaphor for any rural locale, the concept of the island-as-laboratory is tested through dialogue.

Fogo Island Dialogues: Culture as Destination considers the digital as a place that challenges knowledge consumption and complicates the status quo. A particular focus is given to the tensions digital culture creates with the physically rooted world that sees things produced, and objects, people, and places interacted with. Through this framework, Culture as Destination examines the digital as a destination, and by extension, one associated with a notion of the « museum without walls. » To what extent does the digital enable or augment the notion of the « museum without walls? » And then how can this museum act as a destination when it specifically espouses movement, flux, and, ultimately, disavows the destination?

Participants (among others):
Amira Gad (Managing Curator, Witte de With; Rotterdam); Pedro Gadanho (Curator of Contemporary Architecture, MoMA; New York); Nikolaus Hirsh (Rector of Städelschule and director of Portikus; Frankfurt); Maria Lind (Director of the Tensta Konsthall and an independent curator and writer; Stockholm); Gareth Long (artist; London/Vienna); Vanessa Joan Müller (Dramaturg, Kunsthalle Wien); Simon Rees (Curator, MAK; Vienna); Nicolaus Schafhausen (Director, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna and Advisor, Fogo Island Arts/Shorefast Foundation; Fogo Island, Newfoundland); Kitty Scott (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Art Gallery of Ontario; Toronto); Jack Stanley (Director of Programs, Fogo Island, Newfoundland); Marcus Verhagen (art historian and critic; London).

Fogo Island Dialogues is a conference series curated by Amira Gad (Managing Curator, Witte de With; Rotterdam); Gareth Long (artist; London/Vienna); Nicolaus Schafhausen (Director, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna and Advisor, Fogo Island Arts/Shorefast Foundation; Fogo Island, Newfoundland). The second edition of Fogo Island Dialogues: Culture as Destination, taking place at the MAK–Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst (Vienna) is developed in collaboration with Simon Rees (Curator, MAK; Vienna) and Christoph Thun-Hohenstein (Director, MAK; Vienna).

Fogo Island Dialogues: Culture as Destination
17–19 November 2013

MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
Vienna, Austria

Further information:
www.mak.at
www.fogoislandarts.ca