Art History

Acts of Political Uncertainty: Towards a Daily Practice of Resistance

When : Tuesday, September 8th, 2015, starting at 6:00pm, open to the public
Where: Lázló Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building, Bard College

Jeanne van Heeswijk’s lecture will demonstrate how active forms of citizenship can engage constituencies and communities in critical public issues. Van Heeswijk will describe how the complexities of our cities can be employed as the performative basis for the production of new forms of sociability, collective ownership, and self-organization.

The Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism is made possible through a five year-grant from the Keith Haring Foundation.  The Keith Haring Fellowship is a cross-disciplinary, annual, visiting Fellowship for a scholar, activist, or artist to teach and conduct research at both the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Human Rights Project at Bard College. The Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism was established to allow a distinguished leader in the field to investigate the role of art as a catalyst for social change, linking the two programs and presenting original research in an annual lecture.

Jeanne van Heeswijk is a visual artist who facilitates the creation of dynamic and diversified public spaces in order to “radicalize the local.”  Van Heeswijk embeds herself as an active citizen in communities, often working for years at a time. These long-scale projects, which have occurred in many different countries, transcend the traditional boundaries of art in duration, space, and media, and questions art’s autonomy by combining performative actions, meetings, discussions, seminars, and other forms of organizing and pedagogy. Inspired by a particular current event, cultural context or intractable social problem, she dynamically involves neighbors and community members in the planning and realization of a given project. As an “urban curator”, van Heeswijk’s work often unravels invisible legislation, governmental codes, and social institutions, in order to enable communities to take control over their own futures. Noted projects include Hotel New York P.S. 1 in New York (September 1998 to August 1999); De Strip (The Strip) in Westwijk, Vlaardingen (May 2002 – May 2004); Het Blauwe Huis (The Blue House) in Amsterdam (May          2005 – December 2009); and 2Up 2Down/Homebaked in Liverpool (November 2011 – present); Freehouse, Radicalizing the Local in Rotterdam (September 2008- present).

Her work has also been featured in numerous books and publications worldwide, as well as internationally renowned biennials such as those of Liverpool, Busan, Taipei, Shanghai, and Venice. She has received a host of accolades and awards for her work including most recently the 2012 Curry Stone Prize for Social Design Pioneers, and in 2011, the Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change.

For more information on The Keith Haring Foundation  – www.haring.com
For more information on the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College – www.bard.edu/ccs
For more information on the Human Rights Project at Bard College – http://hrp.bard.edu