Conversations in Contemporary Art series: Authenticity and Terror

Thursday, March 2, 2017

• 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
• Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Beverley Webster Rolph Hall, 185 Ste-Catherine St. W., Montreal

When ISIS destroys cultural monuments, such as Syria's Baal Shaamin Temple of Palmyra, it is a form of terror executed in the name of fundamentalist authenticity.

Join art critic David Joselit, distinguished professor of Art History at City University of New York Graduate Center for an insightful lecture on dueling cultural policies and ideologies: spectacular iconoclasm on the one hand, and the universalist museum of the West on the other, whose values of multiculturalism mask its own history of forcibly removing cultural properties from their sites of origin.

While iconoclasm is considered regressive and anti-modern, the universal museum is ideologically tied to the very foundations of modernity. This lecture will argue that we must expand our understanding of the modern in order to encompass both of these perspectives. Only then can we begin to develop an adequate cultural response to one of the most consequential conflicts of our time.

A reception for Concordia alumni and students will follow in the Rotonde.

• Complimentary admission
• Advance registration required