Curatorial Lectures: Jean-Hubert Martin
Learning from Artists: Visual Thinking as Promoted by Artists
16.01.2019, 19:00
S.M.A.K.
About
Each academic year, S.M.A.K., Ghent University, and Curatorial Studies at KASK & Conservatorium School of Arts co-organise the Curatorial Lectures series presented by renowned curatorial practitioners in relation to a specific theme. Following ‘Working with Artists’ (2017-18), this year's series revolves around ‘Learning from Artists’ (2018-19).
Curatorial Lectures is a lecture series co-organised by S.M.A.K. and the Curatorial Studies postgraduate programme at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent, Belgium.
"As we cannot see the past other than through our present gaze, we tend to look towards history for echoes and confirmations of our choices and tastes. The order of chronological classification is therefore questioned. The analogical way of thinking, which has been repressed for a long time as nonscientific, brings back the sensitive judgment and visual thinking that are at the heart of the creative process. Globalisation forces us to move away from our colonial and Eurocentric history of art to achieve a more open approach to cultural differences."
Biography
Jean-Hubert Martin joined the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris as a curator in 1971, and was part of the team that established the Centre Pompidou in 1977. After serving as director of Kunsthalle Bern in 1982-85, Martin returned to the Pompidou in 1987-90 as director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, and has since overseen institutions including the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie in Paris and the Museum Kunstpalast in Dusseldorf. 'Les Magiciens de la Terre', which he curated in 1989, is widely regarded as a breakthrough in reassessing the center-periphery hierarchy of Modernism. More recent exhibitions curated by Martin include 'Contemporary Morocco', Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2014-15); 'Theater of the World', La Maison Rouge, Paris (2013); 'Against Exclusion', Moscow Biennial (2009); and 'Partage d’Exotismes', Biennale de Lyon (2000). An anthology of his writings, L’Art au Large, was published by Flammarion in 2012.