Glossary of Common Knowledge — final event

Two lectures and presentation of publications

Participants:  Boris Buden, Jesús Carrillo, Zdenka Badovinac, Bojana Piškur, Ida Hiršenfelder, Adela Železnik

The final event of the Glossary of Common Knowledge project will take place on Monday, 14 May 2018, at 5 p.m, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova.

The Glossary of Common Knowledge is a five-year research project run by Moderna galerija (MG+MSUM) within the framework of the broader European project Uses of Art – the Legacy of 1848 and 1989 by the European confederation L’Internationale. The curators of the Glossary of Common Knowledge project are Zdenka Badovinac, Bojana Piškur (MG+MSUM) and Jesús Carrillo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid).

The goal of the project is twofold: to compile a glossary of art terminology that differs substantially from what is found in the existing literature on art, and to do so in collaboration with institutions and individuals, the so-called narrators, from Europe and other parts of the world who proposed terms relating to their own practices and contexts, and subsequently compare them. The terms were discussed and defined at six seminars dealing with six referential fields (historicisation, subjectivisation, geopolitics, constituencies, commons and other institutionality). At the seminars, curators from the institutions of the confederation L’Internationale worked with narrators from other parts of the world. The Glossary of Common Knowledge has been published also in book form. This will be presented on Monday, together with two other publications, published by the L'Internationale; The Long 1980s  and The Constituent Museum.

The lectures will be given by writer and cultural critic Boris Buden at 6 p.m. and the co-curator of the Glossary of Common Knowledge and professor Jesús Carrillo at 7 p.m. Lectures will be in English.

Program of the event:

5 p.m. — 6 p.m.: presentation of the five-year research project Glossary of Common Knowledge  by Zdenka Badovinac, Bojana Piškur and Jesús Carrillo) and the final publication by Ida Hiršenfelder; presentation of the L'Internationale publications The Long 1980s and The Constituent Museum by Adela Železnik.

6 p.m.  Boris Buden, After the Last Translation, lecture

Almost no attention has been paid to the radical transformation of the traditional linguistic praxis brought about by the integration of the post-communist countries of Eastern Europe into the global capitalism. What the post-communist ideology labelled as “transition to democracy” and what in fact meant an ultimate westernization of all aspects of political, economic and cultural life implied also an absolute domination of English language as the new lingua franca and as its consequence the re-vernacularization of national languages. The old translational societies whose national linguistic standards claimed universality in all spheres of human linguistic articulations and guaranteed a translational integration into the old world of “united nations”, “equal cultures” and commensurable languages, has fallen apart. An emerging and increasingly growing vernacular time-space of languages, cultures, economies and (mostly populist) politics is today out of joint with the utopian world of an unstoppable neo-liberal development. We are mostly well aware of the dangers that this separation is bringing – mostly in terms of new fascisms. But it might have also brought about a new emancipatory promise.

7 p.m. Jesús Carrillo, Let's speak!: The Glossary of Common Knowledge at the wane of language (as we know it), lecture

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Boris Buden is a writer and cultural critic based in Berlin. He received his Ph.D. in cultural theory from Humboldt University in Berlin. In the 1990s, he was editor of the magazine Arkzin in Zagreb. His essays and articles cover the topics of philosophy, politics, cultural and art criticism. He has participated in various conferences and art projects in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and USA, including Documenta XI. Buden is the author of Barikade Zagreb (1996/1997), Kaptolski Kolodvor, Belgrade (2001), Der Schacht von Babel, Berlin (2004), Zone des Übergangs, Frankfurt/Main (2009), Findet Europa, Wien (2015), etc.

Jesús Carrillo is a professor of Contemporary Art History at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and has been Head of the Cultural Programmes Department of the Reina Sofía Museum since 2008. He combines the analysis of contemporary culture and cultural institutions with a critical reading of historical narratives of art. He has published: Arte en la Red (Madrid: Cátedra, 2004), Naturaleza e Imperio (Madrid: 12 calles, 2004) and Tecnología e Imperio (Madrid: Nivola, 2003); and has as edited: Modos de hacer: arte crítico, esfera pública y acción directa (Salamanca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Salamanca, 2001), Tendencias del Arte. Arte de Tendencias (Madrid: Cátedra, 2003), Desacuerdos: sobre arte, políticas y esfera pública en el Estado español, Vols 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Barcelona: Macba, 2004-2007), Douglas Crimp: Posiciones críticas (Madrid: Akal, 2005), and Martha Rosler. Imágenes Públicas(Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2008).

Glossary of Common Knowledge is a part of a five year programme The Uses of Art – Legacy of 1848 and 1989 led by L'Internationale confederation of museums. Supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Culture Programme of the European Union.