Slash: Hybrid Ecologies and Audiences Today

Symposium at Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, in collaboration with the current participants of the Gallerist Programme of de Appel arts centre.

Taking Dutch born, Beijing based curator/dealer/art historian/artist/translator/publisher Hans van Dijk (1946-2002), currently the subject of Witte de With’s exhibition Dai Hanzhi: 5000 Artists, as a point of departure, this symposium will investigate what happens when cultural sector divisions—such as public/private, commercial/non-for-profit, academic/non-academic and so forth—bleed. Although the latest financial crisis has passed, a new generation of cultural producers and institutions has come of age in — and was similarly forged by – this downturn.

Six years on, now is the time to take stock of how these initiatives, particularly those led by artist or writer-led startups, have scaled. To this end, Witte de With hosts a convocation of artists, thinkers, and producers currently engaged in these newer platforms—spanning artistic practice, exhibition and institution making, education, publishing, and others—to discuss how novel, and at times heterodox, modes of address, support, and management have reshaped—for better and for worse—the ways ideas spread. With a keen eye and ear to the past, the day is punctuated by a series of ‘case study’ presentations, which each revisit the design, means, and context of related historical endeavors from several different periods and places.

The program will consist of a series of short lectures by the following guest speakers: Toke Lykkeberg (Freelance Curator & Critic, DEN); LuckyPDF (Artist Collective, UK); Mohammad Salemy (Programmer, The New Centre for Research and Practice, IR); Ben Eastham (Co-Founder & Editor, The White Review, UK) and Sandra Terdjman (Co-Founder, The Council, FR).

The program will also feature case studies by three participants of the Gallerist Programme of de Appel arts centre: Rose Lejeune (Curator, UK); Raphael Linsi (Artist and Curator, SUI) and Anna Buyvid (Curator & Critic, RUS). This section of the program is organized in collaboration with The Gallerist Programme, de Appel arts centre.

Concept & Curation: Defne Ayas (Director, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art) and Adam Kleinman (Editor in Chief, WdW Review)
Organizers: Orit Gat (Managing Editor Witte de With Review), Nathalie Hartjes (Head of Gallerist Programme, de Appel arts centre), Natasha Hoare (Associate Curator, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art)

Design: Kristin Metho

The symposium is partly supported by Mondriaan Fund and AMMODO for the exhibition Dai Hanzhi: 5000 Artists.

The event will be streamed live through the Witte de With website, and can be followed at Twitter via #slash.

To book tickets, please click this link: http://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-slash-hybrid-ecologies-and-audiences-today-14216902137?aff=es2&rank=1