Talk
Academy Lectures: Mieke Bal
Mieke Bal is a cultural theorist, critic, occasional curator and video artist. Bal works on feminism, migratory culture, psychoanalysis, and the critique of capitalism. She has curated the exhibition “Emma & Edvard: Love in the Time of Loneliness” at Munch Museum, open until April 17.
Close-Up: Curating as a Magnifying Glass
In relation to the exhibition “Emma & Edvard: Love in the Time of Loneliness” that I have curated for the Munch Museum, I will distill one of the many aspects of curating as a cultural act: focusing the viewer’s attention. The possibility of look durationally – longer than is usual – can do this. This can be stimulated for example by providing seating and establishing groupings while at the same time, giving each work ample space. As a result, the visitor’s response can become so intense, detailed, and surface-oriented as much as meaning-seeking, that the act of looking results in seeing ‘with a magnifying glass’. In this lecture, I will give a few examples from the exhibition of places and works placed there, where such durational looking leads to a vision of the art works that is substantially different from the ‘first sight’ that is too often the only sight.
About Mieke Bal
Mieke Bal is a cultural theorist, critic, occasional curator and video artist. She works on feminism, migratory culture, psychoanalysis, and the critique of capitalism. Her video project, Madame B, with Michelle Williams Gamaker, is widely exhibited, in 2017 in Museum Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova in Turku, and combined with paintings by Munch in the Munch Museum in Oslo (with a book). Her most recent film, Reasonable Doubt, on René Descartes and Queen Kristina, premiered in Kraków, Poland, on 23 April 2016.
Academy Lectures features key speakers and positions in contemporary art and culture. It was initiated and first organized by professor Susanne M Winterling. Emphasizing dialogue, the Academy of Fine Art reaches to a public inside and outside the Academy.
Upcoming: 18/5 Fred Dewey
