curating.org

Martin Fritz: Contracts, Conflicts, Censorship 
Constitutional provisions guaranteeing the freedom of art are no guarantees for a trouble-free production process. Indeed – most of the conflicts arising between artists and presenting institutions (or artists and curators for that matter) do not even come close to the narrowly defined notion of censorship as an act of the state. Theoretically at least most of the questions pertaining to the shared work of exhibition-making can be quite freely negotiated and agreed upon by way of private agreements. Each aspiring exhibition merely represents the final station in a process of negotiation that cannot be viewed separately from the interests of all involved parties. The rejection of individual works of art or project proposals may in fact happen much more frequently than assumed by those who, lacking practical experience, believe that artists enjoy absolute freedom after having accepted an invitation. The presentation’s point of departure are the controversies surrounding the exhibition »The Beast and is the Sovereign« at MACBA in 2015.

Avi Feldman: Law, Art and Social Movements 
From Occupy Wall Street in the USA to the demonstrations for social justice in Israel, the talk will explore the actual position (or absence) of legal practitioners in recent social movements. It is agreed by most that the varied movements demonstrated immense opposition to neoliberal political policies; however, how much focus – if at all – was put on the role of the legal system and its influence on political, financial and social institutions? Through a juxtaposition of curatorial projects such as the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art – reacting directly to the occupy movement – and artistic projects such as The New World Summit by Jonas Staal, the discussion will unravel the relation between social movements, art and law.