Monday October 15, 5-7pm, Gallery Augusta

The curator Katerina Gregos‘ lecture opens the Paths Crossing conference Freedom of Speech: Perspectives in Contemporary Art in Europe, organised on 15–16.10.2012 at Gallery Augusta.

Katerina Gregos will address the subject of freedom of speech and human rights through two recent case studies: Speech Matters, the acclaimed exhibition she curated for the Danish Pavilion at the 54^th Venice Biennale in 2011, and Newtopia: The State of Human Rights, her current exhibition in Mechelen and Brussels, Belgium. Both exhibitions address the relationship between freedom, democracy, art and politics. How are the notions of freedom of expression and freedom of speech understood in art practice today? What can art contribute to political debate and human rights issues at a time when civil liberties are increasingly under threat, public space is being eroded, and information and media are increasingly being regulated and homogenised into standardized, self-serving narratives by governments, corporations and the other powers that be. How can artists go beyond the populist rhetoric of the freedom-of-speech debate and the one-dimensional, often polarised and negative representation of human rights discourse in the media? What added value does art provide in this respect? What are its potentialities and limitations?

Comment by Jarkko Tontti, chairman of the Finnish PEN.
The HIAP Talk is curated and will be chaired by curator Marita Muukkonen.

 

Katerina Gregos (born in Athens, based in Brussels) is an art historian, curator and writer. She is currently curator of Newtopia: The State of Human Rights (Mechelen & Brussels) as well as being on the curatorial team for Manifesta 9. In 2011, she curated the internationally acclaimed Speech Matters project, an exhibition on freedom of speech, for the Danish Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. In that same year, she was also co-curator (together with Solvej Ovesen) of the 4th edition of the Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg in Germany. In 2006 and 2007, she was artistic director of Argos, Centre for Art and Media in Brussels and, prior to that, she was founding director of the Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens. Gregos has also curated numerous exhibitions as an independent curator.

 

The event is part of the Paths Crossing coference Freedom of Speech: Perspectives in Contemporary Art in Europe. HIAP is coordinating the Paths Crossing project together with Baltic Art Center, Visby (SE), Fabrikken for Kunst og Design, Copenhagen (DK), Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin (IE) and Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dalsåsen (NO). The project is supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union.