Art Basel Miami Announces 2014 Talks Programme Featuring Feminist Lynda Benglis

This year’s 2014 Art Basel Miami Beach will feature artists, museum directors, collectors, and curators, Art Basel’s series of talks in Miami Beach will offer intimate dialogues between prominent members of the international art world. Participants this year will include Marina Abramović, Nicholas Baume, Lynda Benglis, Klaus Biesenbach, Claire Bishop, Simon de Pury, Liu Ding, Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, Ryan Gander, Mario García Torres, Massimiliano Gioni, Nicolás Goldberg, Chrissie Iles, Joseph Kosuth, Pablo León de la Barra, Ryan McNamara, Pedro Reyes, Martha Rosler, Julian Schnabel, Kevin Systrom, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Amalia Ulman, Shen Wei and Martha Wilson.

Lynda Benglis’ innovative and vivid sculptures have been challenging the art establishment for half a century, will inaugurate this year’s Conversations series. Her work is about expression of space, color, texture and substance – materials that have been widely explored in her remarkable career. But Lyndas’ art also thematizes sex, power and gender, as infamously stated with her advertisement in the ‘Artforum’ November issue of 1974, which startled the 1970s artworld and provoked unpredictable responses. Today, 40 years later, how far have we (not) progressed?
Conversations, Art Basel’s talks series that highlights important issues by bringing together influential art world personalities, will open on Thursday, December 4, with the Premiere Artist Talk, which this year will feature legendary American artist Lynda Benglis. Looking at new funding models of the visual arts, Friday’s Conversation will pair Dennis Scholl, Collector and Vice President, Knight Foundation, with Stephanie Pereira, International Partnership Lead at Kickstarter, plus the gallerist Jérôme Poggi from Paris. The panel discussion will be moderated by András Szántó. Conversations will also present the latest edition of Hans Ulrich Obrist’s ongoing series looking at artistic practice, entitled ‘The Artist as Curator’, with the artists Joseph Kosuth, Liu Ding, Martha Rosler, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Martha Wilson.

Salon, the open platform for shorter presentations during the afternoon, will feature artist talks, panel discussions, lectures with curators, museum directors, and artists. Performance will be a key consideration, with an artist talk with Ryan McNamara and Claire Bishop; a panel discussion with several performance artists featured in Public and Nicholas Baume; an artist talk with Chinese artist and choreographer Shen Wei; and Marina Abramović on a panel entitled ‘Materials for Immateriality’, moderated by Sam Keller, Director of Fondation Beyeler.

The potential of digital platforms – both as an artistic medium and as a market place – will be discussed in several panels across the week. On Friday, December 5, Chrissie Iles, curator at the Whitney Museum, New York will lead a talk with David Gryn, curator of Art Basel’s Film sector and artists Tabor Robak and Rachel Rose, looking at artists as digital revolutionaries. Salon will also feature a discussion focused on ‘Instagram as an Artistic Medium’ with Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator-at-Large at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Simon de Pury, Auctioneer, Art Dealer, New York/London; Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, London; Kevin Systrom, CEO and co-founder of Instagram and artist Amalia Ulman. Linking to Art Basel’s Crowdfunding Initiative, which was launched this September, select participating non-profit organizations will discuss their experiences. Panelists will include representatives from Locust Projects, Miami; SculptureCenter, New York; Delfina Foundation, London; as well as representatives of the Art Basel Crowdfunding Jury and Kickstarter.

Art Basel Miami 2014 Talks Programme takes place daily from Thursday, December 4, to Sunday, December 7, 10am to 11.30am. Talks from the Conversations program are free to the public. Salon runs every afternoon from Thursday, December 4, to Sunday, December 7. Art Basel entry tickets include admission to Salon talks.

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