Les Immatériaux: Towards the Virtual with Jean-François Lyotard (27-28 March, London)

I will talk about our research project “30 Years after Les Immatériaux” at the conference organized by Professor Sarah Wilson of The Courtauld Institute of Art.

LES IMMATÉRIAUX: TOWARDS THE VIRTUAL WITH JEAN-FRANÇOIS LYOTARD

17.30 – 19.00, Friday 27 March 2015 (with registration from 17.00)
09.30 – 17.15, Saturday 28 March 2015 (with registration from 09.00)

Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

Exhibition poster green swirl
Exhibition poster

Speaker(s): Gabriela Ascha (independent curator), Christine Buci-Glucksmann (independent curator), Tamar Clarke-Brown (independent curator), Ashlee Connery (independent curator), Thierry Dufrêne (INHA, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris), Constant Dullaart (artist), Rolf Gelhlaar (composer), Hans-Jurgent Hafner (Kunstverein Dusseldorf), Yuk Hui (Leuphana University, Lüneburg), Antony Hudek, (Director, Raven Row).

Ticket/entry details: £26 (£16 students, Courtauld staff/students and concessions)  BOOK ONLINE

For further information, emailResearchForum@courtauld.ac.uk

Organised by: Professor Sarah Wilson (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

This event was made possible by the generous support of the Institut Français.
‘Les Immatériaux’ curated principally by  philosopher Jean-François Lyotard at the Centre Georges Pompidou, held its private views on 27-28 March 1985. We celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, following conferences in Dusseldorf (2014 Dusseldorf Quadriennale), Lüneburg and in conjunction with a conference Paris.

A  pioneering combination of  technological experiment, ‘Les Immatériaux’ involved the first ‘personal’ computers, art works, a pick-up literary sound-track following the installation and electronic music.  Great philosophers and artists were involved with the ‘writing experiment’. The two-volume catalogue, a record of curatorial meetings and other reflections, was also experimental.

Les Immatériaux follows Lyotard’s publication of 1979, La condition postmoderne, and its translation into English as The Postmodern Condition in 1984.  A celebration of what Lyotard called ‘technoscience’, ‘Les Immatériaux’ was the  very antithesis of the ‘primitivist’, earth-bound aesthetic of ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ the much vaunted  show which followed in 1989, the year when the  long Cold War ended, and an anticipation of the global art world today.  Our conference will unite veteran artists, philosophers and curators of ‘Les Immatériaux’ from the Centre Pompidou with scholars and artists of today.

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