The panel is gathering a group of artists that took part in Kairos Time in conversation with a group of curators based in Rotterdam, all born in the late 70s and early 80s. Natasha Hoare (Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art associate curator), Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk (TENT curatorial fellow 2015), as well as most of last year’s participating artists: Liz Allan, Maarten Bel, Sabrina Chou, Ann Maria Healy, Hannah James, Graham Kelly, Perri MacKenzie, Machteld Rullens, Roos Wijma and Micha Zweifel will join Matteo Lucchetti (Visible project curator), Kairos Time curator and editor of the catalog.
What does it mean to be part of a generation of artists or curators? Can such a broad category be helpful in defining a series of influences, trends and discourses in the contemporary artistic practice? How much opportunism does it take to be an artist or a curator today, in times of cuts to the budgets for culture, the professionalisation of the artistic professions and the expansion of the art market on a global scale? In A Grammar of the Multitude (2004), the Italian philosopher Paolo Virno analyses post-Fordist conditions of labor and describes opportunists as “those who confront a flow of ever-interchangeable possibilities, making themselves available to the greater number of these, yielding to the nearest one, and then quickly swerving from one to another.” By depriving the term of its negative connotation Virno invents an extremely up to date rhetoric around the contemporary worker, which recalls the traits of openness, flexibility, and the unbiased attitude that are often associated with the figures of the artist and the curator.
Starting from these questions, and privileging the practices of the Kairos Time artists, the panel will revolve around the perspectives of a generation that is emerging on the art scene in these years, creating a space for sharing experiences, discussing expectations and exorcising common frustrations related to the development of a professional life.
On the occasion of the panel it will be possible to purchase the Kairos Time book (ISBN: 978-90-813325-3-8). The publication is by Eurogroupe (Laure Giletti & Gregory Dapra) and featuring texts and contributions by Liz Allan, Maarten Bel, Liesbeth Bik, Sabrina Chou, Philip Ewe, Pascal Gielen, Christian Hansen, Ann Maria Healy, Hannah James, Graham Kelly, Bernd Krauß, Matteo Lucchetti, Perri MacKenzie, Vivian Sky Rehberg, Lisa Robertson, Machteld Rullens, Steve Rushton, Jan Verwoert, Roos Wijma, Katarina Zdjelar, and Micha Zweifel.