[artinfo] The irRESPONSIBILITY of the Artist

[Art&Education]

International colloquium:
"The irRESPONSIBILITY of the Artist"

Wednesday, April 27-Thursday, April 28, 2016 

Beaux-Arts de Paris
Palais des Beaux-Arts
13 quai Malaquais
Paris

<http://www.beauxartsparis.com>www.beauxartsparis.com

More than ever before, the question of the 
artist's responsibility-personal, social, 
political-is a key issue. Hardly a week goes by 
in the art world without a scandal, an act of 
vandalism, a matter of censorship or 
self-censorship making the front page of the 
newspapers. At a time when the polemic 
concentrates on preserving freedom and its 
fundamentals, the freedom of expression and 
freedom of creation, artists are often taken as a 
target and singled out, not only when they 
intervene in the public space but also for what 
they show in the so-called "dedicated" space of 
the museum.

It is quite naturally the duty of Beaux-Arts de 
Paris today to invite artists and intellectuals 
of all origins and all horizons to reflect 
together on the multiple implications of the 
notion of responsibility in art. A colloquium 
deliberately titled "The irRESPONSIBILITY of the 
artist" (the title assumes that creators can 
claim an exceptional status, but also that this 
status can be debated...) will assemble 
personalities from across the world to discuss 
before a broad public the considerable stakes of 
art in a society that, in a certain way, never 
ceases to defy it. This debate will be open, 
evidently inclusive in its format-one does not 
expect the speech of artists, who share the 
ability to invent particular answers to 
unprecedented questions, to be academic. 

Responsibility is a contingent notion, subject to 
historical evolution and cultural dynamics. 
Certainly, the artist can create islets of 
resistance, but he can also see himself used by 
power, all powers. His place in a globalised 
space where conflict is multiplying, where a 
dominant market sometimes confuses sense and 
market value, should perhaps be redefined. Must 
one invent a new paradigm for the artist? It is 
one of the hundred complex questions that will be 
treated during a colloquium that doesn't pretend 
to exhaust its subject, but to daringly and 
rigorously renew a reflection, the urgency of 
which everyone is aware. 


With: Olivier Christin, Luc Tuymans, Agnès 
Thurnauer, Pascal Convert, Gerhard Merz, Peter 
Lewis and Lisa Lefeuvre, Jalal Toufic, Alexandre 
Kazerouni, Joann Sfar, Fabienne Brugère, Xu Bing, 
Olivier Blanckart, Claire Fontaine, Erik Bulatov, 
Igor Sokologorsky and Iouri Albert, Alberto 
Sorbelli, Adel Abdessemed and Hélène Cixous


<http://www.beauxartsparis.com>Programme and registration

Beaux-Arts de Paris is a member of Paris Sciences 
et Lettres (PSL) Research University.