Recent critical discourse has generated a proliferation of terms to designate contemporary practice: “the pedagogical turn,” “the discursive turn,” “the social turn,” “the participatory turn,” and “the performative turn,” to name a few. Whether these “turns” have successfully addressed urgencies at the core of the supposed transformation or are mere stylistic tropes that reductively periodize ongoing methodologies, institutions have endeavored, in earnest, to accommodate each one. This panel will explore this imperfect embrace, or what could also be understood as the “objectification” of the discursive practice, exploring how institutions of varying size and scale seat such work or allow themselves to be temporarily occupied by it. Speakers whose work centers around the discursive event and its reoccurring forms will come together to share the context they work within, including the particularities of the organizations they engage with, and consider new strategies for accommodating “turns” in practice.

Panelists: Tania Bruguera, Immigrant Movement International and Partido Revolucionario Cubano, Queens, New York; Annie Fletcher, Curator, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Omer Krieger, Artistic Director, Under the Mountain: Festival of New Public Art, Jerusalem; Michelle Marxuach, Cofounder and Codirector, Beta-Local, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Alexander Provan, Editor, Triple Canopy, New York. Moderated byTaraneh Fazeli, Education Associate, New Museum.

A livestream of the conference will be available here.

MUSEUM AS HUB CONFERENCE

On April 12 and 13, the Museum as Hub will host its Annual Conference. Marking the sixth anniversary of the Hub initiative, this conference aims, in part, to consider strategies for the next phase of the project, while also reflecting more broadly on the rapidly shifting global context it inhabits. The conference will dedicate itself to a number of questions pertaining to the notion of “institutions” as such, exploring ways and means by which art organizations assume shape via programming, alliances with other institutions, and dedication to specific content or context. Developed with Museum as Hub partners, this two-day conference held in the New Museum Theater convenes an international group of curators, artists, and scholars to examine themes including: the concept of regionalism; the “question of feelings” in relation to curatorial practice; and the imperfect institutionalization of the “discursive object” within the museum.

As both a physical site and a growing network, the Museum as Hub facilitates artistic and intellectual exchange through forms of exhibition, residency, public programming, editorial and digital projects, and other projects. Museum as Hub activities are inspired, in part, by a group of international partner institutions who collaborate to produce shared research and programming. Current Hub partners are art space pool in Seoul, Beirut in Cairo, de_sitio in Mexico City, Inhotim in Brumadinho, Brazil, Miami Art Museum, Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.