29-30 October, 2010, SKOR, Amsterdam. With Arjen Oosterman (Editor-in-Chief of Volume), a.o. More information here.

The two-day symposium Speculations on the Cultural Organisation of Civility seeks to connect current debates about care and citizenship in contemporary art, philosophy and politics to realities of healthcare organisation in the Netherlands and internationally. With a focus on healthcare as a prime site of global market-driven transformation in governmental policies, this symposium brings together philosophers, artists, curators and politicians to question the role of art and its assumed ameliorative function.

We ask: If art consensualises the increasingly capitalised infrastructures of public care, can it still act as a critical agent? The structure of this symposium stages theories and case studies to come hand in hand, providing a significant and radical overview of the field.

Friday October 29, 2010 noon-9 pm
Programme Day 1
What are we doing there? Politics and Philosophies of Publicness
Official language: English

Saturday October 30, 2010 10 am-6 pm
Programme Day 2
Who Cares? Case studies of art, curating and healthcare.
Official language: English

Prologue (Extended programme)
Leading to the symposium, a series of artistic events and activities will take place in the city. Two invited expert meetings, a film programme and a series of Artist Positions

‘Speculations on the Cultural Organisation of Civility’ is the first in the series of symposia Actors, Agents and Attendants that aims to discuss the role of art and the creative industries in the formation of contemporary civility. Specifically, it will question how the current infrastructural and aesthetic relation between art and our increasingly destabilised civic institutions can aid or abet critical forms of public acting. Along with radical shifts in governance and ideology, the concept of what it means to author acts of art in public has shifted dramatically. This series of symposia extends SKOR’s activities towards a more discursive arena in order to develop new strategies for commissioning art in public space.