Off to Berlin
Concordia grad students to participate in international art congress
March 13, 2013
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Four Concordia graduate students from the Faculty of Fine Arts are the only North American university delegates heading to the fourth annual Former West Congress in Berlin from March 18 to 24.
Former West is an international research, education, publishing and exhibition project that looks at how the world has changed since the end of the Cold War through the prism of contemporary art and theory.
The Former West Congresses are large public events during which artists, curators, writers and academics get together to discuss the project’s various strands and themes.
The students — Shauna Janssen, Mikhel Proulx, Dana Samuel and Mark Schilling — were selected by Associate Professor Alice Jim in the Department of Art History to represent the university.
“We’re honoured and excited – and so pleased with all the support we’ve received,” says Dana Samuel, a PhD humanities student in her second year.
The students received funding for their trip to Berlin from the Concordia Small Grants Program, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, and the Faculty of Fine Arts.
“The response we received from Concordia was very enthusiastic and heartening,” says Schilling, a third-year humanities PhD student. “It reinforces the university’s commitment to the value of artistic knowledge and research-creation alongside historical models.”
Each morning, the students will participate in the experimental program The Learning Place, led by critic Boris Buden. The week-long educational performance features around 150 students from institutes around the world, who engage on such topics as the commodification of knowledge, critique of creativity, and functioning of education.
In the afternoon and evenings, the Concordia students will join the larger congress for discussions, performances and lectures from artists and academics.
“The line-up of speakers is like art-world rock stars,” Samuel says. “The conference is a big deal, and the opportunity to engage with these thinkers and writers first-hand is rare otherwise."
Two of the other students, Shauna Janssen (Humanities PhD) and Mikhel Proulx (Art History MA) are already in Berlin conducting field work for their program studies. The rest of the contingent, including Associate Professor Alice Jim, will join them on the weekend.
Jim was invited to the Former West Congress by Annette Bhagwati, a professor at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin and an affiliate faculty member at Concordia University.
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