Office for Contemporary Art Norway

'The State of Things'

at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia

1 June–17 November 2011

Office for Contemporary Art Norway

www.oca.no

The Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), as commissioner of Norway's representation at the 54th Biennale di Venezia, would like to announce 'The State of Things', a series of public lectures that will be held throughout the Biennale period, reflecting upon themes such as diversity, the environment, peace-making, human rights, capital, migration, asylum, Europe, aesthetics and revolution. Each presentation aims to tackle the 'state of things' today, drawing from the speakers' fields of activity and research, and from what they consider the intellectual and political priorities of today.

The programme takes its cue from the Nansen Passport, created by Norwegian diplomat and explorer Fridtjof Nansen at the end of World War I in an attempt to enable refugees move across borders in search of political and intellectual shelter.

Wednesday, 1 June / 17:00
Jacques Rancière – In What Time Do We Live?
Jacques Rancière is a philosopher whose work looks at emancipatory politics and its relationship to aesthetics.
Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Campo Santo Stefano, San Marco 2842, Venice

Thursday, 2 June / 11:00
Leo Bersani – Illegitimacy
Leo Bersani is a theorist specialising in literature, psychoanalysis and the visual arts.
Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Campo Santo Stefano, San Marco 2842, Venice

Friday, 3 June / 10:00
Vandana Shiva – The War Against the Earth
Vandana Shiva is an author, environmental activist and eco-feminist.
Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Campo Santo Stefano, San Marco 2842, Venice

Friday, 3 June / 11:00
Jan Egeland – Ten Lessons from Ten Peace Processes
Jan Egeland has been a mediator, diplomat and activist in numerous peace efforts and humanitarian crises around the world.
Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Campo Santo Stefano, San Marco 2842, Venice

Saturday, 4 June / 11:00
Fawaz A. Gerges – A Perfect Storm: An Arab Revolution in the Making?
Fawaz A. Gerges is a political theorist who specialises in the Middle East.
Aula Magna, Università Iuav di Venezia, Tolentini, Santa Croce 191, Venice

Thursday, 30 June / 17:30
Eyal Weizman – Forensic Aesthetics
Eyal Weizman is an architect and theorist who has worked in and written on space and politics in zones of conflict worldwide.
Aula Tafuri, Palazzo Badoer, Università Iuav di Venezia, Calle della Lacca, San Polo 2468, Venice

Wednesday, 7 September / 18:00
Judith Butler – The Politics of the Street and New Forms of Alliance
Judith Butler is a philosopher who has contributed to the field of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy and ethics.
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Castello 5252, Venice

Thursday, 8 September / 18:00
Franco Berardi – The 'Movimento Studentesco' and Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Misunderstanding
Franco Berardi is a media theorist and activist with a special interest in education.
Laboratorio Occupato Morion, Salizada San Francesco della Vigna, Castello 2951, Venice

Thursday, 20 October / 17:30
Saskia Sassen – When the Acute Challenges of Our Epoch Materialise in Cities
Saskia Sassen is a sociologist whose work focuses on migration and transnationality; she is the author of Territory, Authority, Rights (2006).
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Castello 5252, Venice

Thursday, 17 November / 18:00
T.J. Clark – The Experience of Defeat
T.J. Clark is an art historian who has written about modernism and its politics.
Auditorium Santa Margherita, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Campo Santa Margherita, Dorsoduro 3689, Venice

Norway's representation in Venice in 2011 is commissioned by OCA and organised by its director, Marta Kuzma and its associate curator, Pablo Lafuente, together with Peter Osborne, director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. Norway's representation at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, also includes 'Beyond Death: Viral Discontents and Contemporary Notions about AIDS', a graduate programme by Bjarne Melgaard at the Faculty of Design and Arts, Università Iuav di Venezia.

'The State of Things' has been generously supported by Fritt Ord.

For more information on the project, see link to or contact Marthe Tveitan [marthe.tveitan@oca.no]