— Delphine Bedel

Teaching & Lectures: The Hybrid Muse And The So Called Autonomy Of The Arts @ Rietveld Academie

Spring 2007. Lectures Series and Seminar A World of Nearness
Studium Generale / Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam

The Hybrid Muse And The So Called Autonomy Of The Arts

The idea that art should be pure, free and ‘autonomous’ is precious to many artists and art lovers all over the world, but it seems to be especially dear (and sometimes even sacred) to the Dutch art world. Last November we invited theorists to introduce the concept of post coloniality to the Rietveld community. We then learned that Modernism is based upon an outspoken Euro centric perception of the world. Autonomy is often used to defend Modernism as the last bastion of Enlightenment. But in post modern and post colonial times artists are challenged to cement new alliances with the world. Globalisation urges artists to rethink their role and position. Of course it is dangerous to give up every notion of autonomy. It would be much better – as van Abbemuseum director Charles Esche has been passionately pleading at many occasions – to develop an attitude of “engaged autonomy”. In this lecture series we will meet with artists, researchers and curators who are energetically involved in doing so. With their projects they contest conservative hierarchies in the evaluation of the arts. Continuously stretching and crossing the borders of traditional domains of art and history they introduce us to a hybrid muse. The muse of a world of nearness.

Seminars and lectures will be moderated by Delphine Bedel, a visual artist and free-lance curator based in Amsterdam. She is currently teaching at the Rietveld Academie. Among her recent curatorial projects are the exhibition and Video Lounge ‘Shared History /Decolonising the Image’ (with S. Berrebi) in Amsterdam.