Conversations in Contemporary Art with David Balzer

Thursday, September 25, 2014 - 5:30pm

Concordia University
7141 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest
Montreal, ON
H4B 1R6

Conversations in Contemporary Art is a visiting artist lecture series and graduate-level course sponsored by Concordia's Studio Arts MFA Program. CICA provides a unique opportunity to hear distinguished artists, critics, writers and curators from the Canadian and international community speak about their practices.

On Thursday, Sept. 25, David Balzer will be CICA's featured speaker. He will discuss his new book, Curationism:

Everyone, it seems, is now a curator. In our daily lives, we engage with any number of digital entities that require us to pick and choose, creating playlists and “likes” that are carried over, algorithmically, into future picking and choosing. Boutiques and chain stores alike tout curated aesthetics, for which products, employees and store designs are tailor-made and “experiential.” In the art world, since the 1990s, curators have shaped visions of large institutional shows and international biennials, acting powerfully as arbiters, tastemakers, advisors and ambassadors.

David Balzer’s new book Curationism looks at the origins and nature of this mania for curating, drawing distinct parallels between the art world and popular culture. Where did curating come from? How can it be related to our understanding of the avant-garde, of value-making and of work? Have we reached a “curationist” saturation point, in which contemporary curating’s many paradoxes and paranoias have led its own undoing?

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art events is FREE and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

The lectures will be held in English.

For additional information regarding this event, please visit
http://www.concordia.ca/cuevents/finearts/studio-arts/2014/09/14/convers...