The concept of the avant-garde is arguably the most important and influential one in the history of modern art, but it is a notion often left unexamined. We are prompted to ask - which avant-garde? In the context of the recent popularity of a return to the issues of modernism within contemporary art and criticism, this conference proposes a critical re-engagement with the theory, histories and politics of the avant-garde. The conference is intended to make original connections between a range of moments in the history of the artistic avant-garde, and to explore its relevance for contemporary cultural and social issues. It will focus, in particular, on the endurance of avant-garde approaches across the twentieth-century and their contemporary resonances.

Keynote speakers:Franco Berardi, Sylvere Lotringer, Gerald Raunig.

Program:

09.00 Registration.

09.30 Sylvere Lotringer – Keynote Speech.

10.15 Gavin Grindon - On Strike Against Society: Aesthetic and Political Autonomy in the Project of the Radical Avant-Garde.

11.00 David Cottington – Historicising the ‘Historic Avant-Garde.’

11.45 Break for lunch

12.30 Gerald Raunig – Keynote Speech.

13.15 Anja Kanngieser - “Revolution is Not ‘Showing’ Life to People, But Making Them Live”: The Aesthetic Political Gestures of Berlin Dada and the Situationist International.

14.00 Gillian Whiteley - Provocative Praxis: Activism and the Political Avant-Garde.

14.45 Break for tea and coffee

15.00 Franco Berardi – Keynote Speech.

15.45 Lina Stergiou - Beyond the Myth of Creative Genius: Architecture and Activism.

16.30 Stevphen Shukaitis - The Artistic Dérivative, or Splitting Dead Hares.

17.30 Ends.