Now Is The Time
Series of Lectures organised by The Stedelijk Museum, The Universitu of Amsterdam, W139, Metropolis M and Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam.
The attack on the World Trade Center spelled closure for the 20th century. There was no going back; the world had been catapulted into a new millennium. But what effect has this violent start and it’s social and political aftermath had on the arts? One could argue that the world we live in has changed drastically because of 9/11 and that as a consequence the arts have also been forced to re-examine their own premises and parameters. However, other social, theoretical and artistic developments have left their marks on the art world as well. What are we to think of the dominant presence of design in our present culture? The ambi–guous effects of globalisation? The apparent need for a new canon? Or the perhaps obsolete position of art in a mass media landscape?
Now is the Time: Art and Theory in the 21st Century is a series of seven lecture evenings dedicated to seven themes that encircle the complex arena in which the arts of the new millennium are situated. Socially engaged themes like 9/11, globalisation and the turn to religion of our contemporary society are juxta–posed with subjects that are more directly related to art, such as the return of Romanticism, the primacy of design and the status of the artwork in what is referred to as ‘the postmedium condition’.
Now is the Time is the sequel to the successful lecture series Right About Now: Art & Theory since the 1990s which was organised in 2006. Like its predecessor, Now is the Time is a unique collaboration between Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, W139, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam and Metropolis M. The pro–ject aims at stimulating the study of the visual arts of the present day and recent history, and promoting dialogue between both art theory and art practice, and art and society at large.